How to transition from Project Manager to Product Manager
In their 2019 trends survey, the Product Management Festival found the range of different roles that product managers were in BEFORE they started in product management. The transition from Project Manager to Product Manager was the most frequently followed career path. I’m one of the ones who had been a project manager in a previous life, and there are numerous skills that are directly transferrable.
What skills do project managers bring to product management?
There are two main reasons that there are considerable numbers of project managers who make the transition into product management:
Proximity to product roles
Shared skills
When it comes to shared skills across roles, the following are perhaps most relevant:
Organized
Process driven
Logical
Structured
Good with documentation
Experienced with stakeholder engagement
Can handle prioritization
Good communicator and team player
Good at managing scope creep
What skills gaps might a project manager have?
Of course, being in a different type of role doesn’t expose you to the full range of skills that are required when you’re in an alternative position, and the following are the most typical skills gaps for project managers:
Finding creative solutions to problems
Focusing on the customer and not the delivery
Delegation of delivery to others
Thinking strategically rather than operationally
Being research and data-driven
Being able to drop plans and respond to new inputs
Making decisions and not just managing them
How to fill a skills gap
When it comes to findings ways to fill skills gaps, there are a few areas in which project managers can work to gather the necessary expertise, including:
Taking on a support role — which will allow closer proximity to the user and the needs of the business
Work alongside a product manager — which will expose them to decision-making and more strategic thinking
Start looking at existing projects with a more data-driven approach — which will start improving analytical skills and focusing on data-driven decision making
For many of these steps, the important thing is to speak to others in the business and find opportunities to help them and gain the experience needed to fill the gap.
Talk to the existing product management team and, of course, your line manager, to find the moments to pick up new skills that will count towards your future product role.