How to Transition from Operations Management to Product Management

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Within 8 weeks of my time at Product Gym, I averaged 10 to 15 interviews a week and managed to land three Product Manager offers.

What was your Background Prior to Product Management?

Fresh out of college, I worked at a pharmaceutical logistics company. Soon after, I ended up in Singapore at an investment bank. I did a little bit of product management there, but I was very much in an operations role. I did touch and build software there, but it wasn’t my full occupation and profession there. I actually took a product management bootcamp elsewhere and felt like there were some interesting details there. But ultimately, I felt like I had to get the job on my own.

What were your Biggest Job Hunting Challenges Before Product Gym?

I think that the biggest challenge was understanding the interview process. For me, I’ve already been doing product management, but I learned that the interviewing process was extremely broken. There’s a lot of recruiters and they get pounded with resumes – we don’t really know what goes into their mindset, what they are thinking of, how we (as candidates) move in the candidate pool, and what are the questions that hiring managers and managers might ask? I can definitely say that Product Gym great perspective on the general process of hiring, but also helped with answering a lot of those product management questions in the interview context versus in the workplace.

What did you Find Most Helpful About Product Gym During your Search?

Other than the context of the overall hiring process, the number one thing I learned was setting and understanding assumptions. I feel that a lot of people, especially if they already come from product management and are getting interviews, feel like they already know what those assumptions are. It’s very important during the interview process to actually articulate them to the hiring manger, so they know that the candidate knows about those assumptions.

Once I was on the job, it was very helpful during my first couple of days because I jumped in trying to validate those assumptions and taking that same, similar mindset. I think I was able to understand the product a little bit better before I started bothering everyone in the organization about what am I going to do, what’s the product like, what is the history, and etc. I actually took a step back, very much like in the interview process, to try and define those assumptions, what was already going on, so that I would be a little bit more successful.

 

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