What are tips you would give to someone looking to break into product or uplevel their PM career?

These are two different questions with two different answers.

How to break into product:

I always tell people to try to transfer into PM within the company they are currently working. When changing something about your career, it is easier to change industries and geographies instead of functions - but typically you can only get two out of those three. So if you want to change functions - I recommend not changing much else. Why? People who already know you are solid at some of the following core PM skills, such as problem solving, working with customers, decision making / prioritization, writing and communicating coherently, and developing and executing strategy, are more likely to pull you into PM. If you are looking for a new industry, I often tell people to get hired in their current function in that industry and try to break into product once they've established themselves for 9-12 months.

How to uplevel your PM career:

This is all about skillbuilding and depends on what level you are in. If you are a junior to mid-level individual contributor (IC), I suggest learning how to write as well as you can. Good documents sell ideas, get funding, and often spark good questions that lead to coherent product strategies. You can also take PM skillbuilding courses are bootcamps. I completed Reforge during the pandemic for fun to learn more about B2C/PLG product management, which is not necessarily my background. I'm heavily B2B/enterprise tech in practice. If you're a manager, taking executive communication classes and/or executive coaching are two of the most important things you can learn. Executive communication is not just communicating with executives - it's also how to communicate to your team, how to build culture, how to set priorities clearly and how to communicate with empathy and transparently. Executive coaching can help you work through conflict that can arise as a manager, as well as work on yourself to be a better leader.