From a specialist to a product manager

From a specialist role to a product manager

25/1/2023

I recently interacted with a professional who moved from specialist / technical work to product / proposition work, and she asked for some high-level advice.

This is what I said...

The business problem(s) you're trying to solve are key, including how you'll measure whether you're making a difference / taking steps towards solving them.
Relationship and people aspects are crucial, including collaborating with many different functions (like engineering, operations, sales etc). While important, numbers and modelling are much less important in product / change roles than in pricing or other technical roles; and, hence, product roles allow you to build so many more skills.
Breadth of understanding is very helpful i.e. more generalist than specialist, provided you can call on various specialists as needed. To succeed, you'll need to manage/coordinate across a range of disciplines.

Do you agree? What else would you add?

7 Comments

Jen

1/2/2023 13:58:38

I would add being aware that your technical skill set might feel like it's missing some of what you need in the new role but it also means you'll think differently about the challenges to some of your new colleagues and that diversity of approach can be a real bonus. In my actuarial career I worked in a couple of highly successful multi-disciplinary project teams and it was fascinating how often, say, the questions I asked about marketing or the sales team asked about pricing brought a different perspective that each of our traditional specialist knowledge maybe hadn't considered.

[This is a repost of a comment on the LinkedIn shares of this article]

Kerry

1/2/2023 14:00:48

I agree with Jen - a diverse team on a project will throw up a range of opinions and questions, including the naive question 'perhaps...?'

[This is a repost of a comment on the LinkedIn shares of this article]

Bradley

1/2/2023 14:01:14

Thinking differently - love this addition. Thank you Jen!

Alex

1/2/2023 14:05:15

This post caught my eye as I made a very similar move myself.

I agree with all three of your points, particularly about being able to work across different functions to get things done, unlike in some technical roles where you can progress things yourself and then just pass that on to be reviewed.

Only thing I would add would be the importance of the ability to prioritise by value-add. Unlike in some technical work where the next piece for your attention is whatever the client has paid for, in Product I’ve found there are often a million different things you could progress next, and dozens of people telling you which one they think is most important. It’s a very useful skill to be able to look at all those things, understand which adds long term value to the business and prioritise your time-spent accordingly.

[This is a repost of a comment on the LinkedIn shares of this article]

1/2/2023 14:09:45

Thanks Alex for adding your experiences too - prioritising by long term value-add is a great suggestion i.e. ensuring we're solving the appropriate 'problems' (and not merely the loudest or most popular ones).

Greg

1/2/2023 14:07:47

Within the 'People' section, it's worth remember that each stakeholder has a different vested interest in your work.
Sales wants the product to be cheap and generous.
Risk Management wants the design to be conservative.
Capital Management doesn't want there to be any guarantees.
Pricing wants something too.

And even Manager A within [a department] wants something a little different to Manager B.

Be clear on who the 'People' are and what they [each] want.

[This is a lightly edited repost of a comment on the LinkedIn shares of this article]

1/2/2023 14:08:56

100% Greg - balancing all of the desires is fundamental, including the needs of external stakeholders too (like customers, regulators, auditors, our professions...) Almost like a multifaceted negotiation!

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From a specialist role to a product manager

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