Crafting Your Own PM Career Journey by Microsoft Product Leader, Anshuman Gaur
What exactly is a product manager?
Most of us started out as engineers, designers, or business stakeholders.
The beginning of the PM career starts with one of the vertices.
And the perfect PM sits somewhere close to the center.
You start your journey from one vertex to te center.
The key is to play to your strengths while building on experience in other areas to achieve the perfect match in the center.
So if you started as an engineer...
Areas of strength
Defining the solution space
Problem solving
Analytical thinking
Areas of opportunity/growth
Design thinking
Business metrics
Customer communication
Or if you started as a designer...
Areas of strength
Design thinking
Visual & interaction design
Customer focus
Areas of opportunity/growth
Technical know how
Business metrics
Execution
Or if you started as a business program manager...
Areas of strength
Business metrics
Execution
Customer communication
Areas of opportunity/growth
Technical know how
Design thinking
Growing as a PM...
Be a cheerleader for your product & the team!
Network, network, network!
To wrap up...
- Identify your strength and growth areas for a successful career filled with learning and growth
- Find your passion - Both in work and outside. It helps on both good and rough days.
- Give back to the PM community - It`s amazing to mentor and hire (if possible) people with a passion for product management and see them grow.
AND
Do not forget to enjoy the ride!
Anshuman Gaur, Microsoft Product Leader