How to Transition from Software Engineering to Product Management

Why did you Decide to Transition to Product Management?

The sheer diversity of disciplines that require you to be a product manager was really fascinating and interesting to me. I could be savvy about business, be an expert on technology and database architecture, or be creative with UX designers and graphic designers. Being able to build something was something that really attracted me to being a product manager.

What did you do to Convert your Three Month Contract into a Full-Time Position?

You come in with a strong work ethic, burning desire to learn and to bring some clarity. What really helped a lot was taking notes. As a product manager, you’re in a lot of meetings with different experts. For example, you could be in a meeting with a supply chain expert, finance and other developers, so you quickly have to become experts in all of those disciplines really fast. Taking notes in every single one of those meetings, summarizing them and letting my managers know that I took all those notes and understood what they meant probably helped a lot.

How Aggressive did you Make it known that you Wanted a Full-Time Position at your Company?

Walking into the contract offer, even I didn’t know whether I really wanted to be a part of the organization beyond my contract. Not that it was up to me, but I took my time learning about the people that I get to work with, the unique challenges that my organization is facing and trying to solve, and the different kinds of people in different departments that I get to interact with everyday. Having experienced all of these things, I realized that the work that I get to do at the organization is very meaningful. It’s very challenging, but very meaningful. I made it very clear through my weekly meetings with my manager that I’m very passionate and motivated by the problems that we are trying to solve.