What advice would you give to a product marketer looking to transition to product management, or vice versa?

It’s a good idea to try internal transfer if you want to transition from PMM to PM, or vice versa. Learning the craft of a new discipline is not easy. You are more likely to set yourself up for success if you minimize other variables like new company, new product, new team. Anchor on your strength. There are many transferable skills between the two disciplines, e.g., customer discovery, data analytics, communication and influencing skills. Leverage your strength in the new role and you will find ...Read More

This is a great question. I've transitioned from PM to PMM and back again, so I can give you my perspective on both. The biggest challenges for anyone moving into PM, whether that be from PMM or other roles, are the following: deeply understanding the domain; leading by influence; and being comfortable with high levels of ambiguity. (And, of course, the ability to make good judgment calls on top of all that.) For PMMs specifically, particularly those without a technical background, the first are ...Read More

I love this question since I recently made the PMM to PM transition! Focus on transferrable skills. Three of the most important PM skills include: communication, leading through influence, and problem solving. PMMs looking to transfer into a PM role should ensure they are strong in all three. Leverage institutional knowledge. It's much easier to transition from PMM to PM in your current company than applying to a new position in a different company. In your existing PMM role you are likely to kn ...Read More

I actually wrote about this on my blog - "Practical Advice for Breaking into Product Management" - but I'll be more specific about going from PMM to PM in this answer.The PMM-to-PM transition is one of the more natural lateral moves you can make, but it doesn't happen automatically; you have to engineer it. The biggest thing is getting extreme familiarity with the product, which means really knowing: How to demo it cold How to deploy or configure it The user journeys and target customers Use cas ...Read More