How to Become A Product Manager With No Product Experience
9 November 2024As product innovations continue to fuel the success of some of the world’s fastest-growing companies, product management is an increasingly popular career choice for those looking to make a splash in the technology space.
With 7% of Harvard Business School graduates landing a job in Product and the popularity of product-focused university courses reaching an all-time high, competition between candidates is fierce. That said, if this is a road you’d like to go down, you’ll be happy to hear that there are a number of alternative pathways that can help you get your foot in the door without any product-specific experience.
What’s more, the world’s increased reliance on digital products following the pandemic means the demand for smart and driven individuals who have a natural flair for product management is on the rise and big tech companies will pay you handsomely if you can prove that you’ve got what it takes. While we don’t want to encourage showboating, saying “I work in Product” is pretty cool and will give you major street cred at your next dinner party…
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at how to get into product management with no experience as we take a deep dive into the character traits of a successful Product Manager and use real-life examples to shine a light on the unique career pathways of some of the industry’s finest minds.
Personality Traits of A Successful Product Manager
Before we explore how to get into product management, let’s start by taking some time to see whether a career in Product is right for you.
Although product management is very competitive, if you’ve been blessed with a certain set of personality traits and you’re not afraid to work hard to get to where you want to be, choosing a career in product management could take you on an exciting and prosperous journey.
So, what are the telltale signs of a product management extraordinaire in the making?
To become a product manager, you need to be … visionary.
The ability to think outside the box and approach long-standing challenges from an alternative perspective is an absolutely integral part of product management. As is the case with almost any job that involves some element of design and creativity, one-dimensional thinking won’t get you very far. The best Product Managers will exercise critical thinking to develop unique solutions that improve people’s lives in a way that others couldn’t have imagined.
For example, if we look at the early days of Google (formerly BackRub), the fresh-faced tech firm was by no means the first to launch a search engine. Before BackRub hit our screens in 1996, the internet was home to Archie 1990, Lycos and Infoseek in 1994, and Excite in 1995. Despite all of these companies sharing a mutual interest in organising the internet, only one would evolve into a multi-billion-dollar empire that gave us Google Maps, Gmail, Chrome and even cute cat videos .
The key differentiator between BackRub and its rival search engines was the company’s obsession with sorting the world’s information by relevance. This breakthrough idea continues to form the backbone of Google’s flywheel business model and lays the foundations for an entire ecosystem of breakthrough product innovations that push technical barriers. Like Google, successful Product Managers are those who aren’t afraid to question the way things are done and exercise visionary thinking to pave the way.
To become a product manager, you need to be … empathetic.
Ultimately, product management is all about building products that improve people’s lives. Therefore, the ability to understand how people feel about a certain situation and how a product innovation could help change these emotions is fundamental.
Take Airbnb, for example. When the company was starting out, the real challenge wasn’t a matter of creating a platform that connects holidaymakers with homeowners, but rather to create a platform that provides a sense of safety, financial empowerment, flexibility and human connection for all involved.
While Airbnb was also innovative from a technical perspective, the Product Managers responsible for its wildfire success were experts in marrying an understanding of technology with an understanding of people. If we look at the challenge of convincing hosts to welcome strangers into their homes (and vice versa), Airbnb’s Product Managers needed to understand how this might make a host feel and develop products that would address these emotional needs .
Empathy is also an important trait for a leader. If you’re managing teams of people, you need to understand what makes them tick and be able to ‘walk a mile in their shoes’ to understand how you can enrich their lives.
To get a better idea of why having a strong sense of empathy and a natural ability to build human connections are important traits for Product Managers, check out this short video from the VP of Product at accuRx, Benji Portwin. He explains how those who enjoy interacting with other people and leave a lasting impression when they enter the room at a house party are likely to have a natural flair for product management.
To become a product manager, you need to be … strategic.
Product innovations play an important role in the long-term strategic trajectory of a business. As we’ve seen with Apple’s ‘iPhone moment’, Amazon’s Prime service, Facebook’s rebrand to ‘Meta’ and Google’s acquisition of the smart home brand, Nest — all technology businesses rely on product innovations to remain competitive and cutting-edge.
Having both the imagination and foresight to identify how a product innovation could help an organisation move towards a long-term goal is an extremely valuable trait for product management.
If we take the example of Facebook’s evolution (a business that has shifted from a social media website to a ‘metaverse’), it’s easy to look back in retrospect at how product innovations like Messenger, Marketplace, Instagram and Oculus played a role in getting the company from point A to point Z.
However, as we all know, hindsight is a wonderful thing. If we take the reverse approach and put ourselves in Zuckerberg’s shoes all those years ago, many of us would have thought he was mad for making the decisions he made. His foresight to predict how certain innovations would contribute to the long-term strategic success of Facebook is extremely rare and extremely powerful. Product Managers who can combine innovation with strategic direction have the potential to shape the future and stay one step ahead of the competition.
To become a product manager, you need to be … a problem-solver.
The best Product Managers are born problem-solvers. If you’re someone who enjoys critical thinking and won’t rest until you’ve overcome a challenge, Product could be for you.
While many people see problems as barriers, a Product Manager’s job is to view a problem as an opportunity to do something that others can’t. As the tech entrepreneur and YouTube sensation Casey Neistat put it in this four-minute video: “do what you can’t”.
To become a product manager, you need to be …a strong communicator.
Managing a group of people and unifying them to work towards a common goal requires strong communication skills. Explaining your vision to key decision-makers is an absolutely vital skill for Product Managers if they are to earn the support of senior managers and receive funding for their ideas.
What’s more, communication skills also play an integral role in the process of developing products that end-users understand how to use. There’s no point in creating an amazing product if it’s too complicated or abstract for your target audience.
If we take Steve Jobs for example (one of the greatest Product minds of all time), he famously announced that his high-tech products would not come with an instruction manual. While at the time, everything from a simple electric kettle to a bedside alarm clock would come with a hefty instruction manual to walk you through their not-so-intricate workings, Jobs was confident that Apple could communicate the functionality of its products such that users could take an iPhone or iPad out of its box and begin using it intuitively.
Owing to the team-orientated nature of the product development process, the best leaders will be confident speakers who can effectively orchestrate group presentations to ensure everyone is working towards the same goal. Standup meetings where Product Owners check in on the progress of ongoing projects and retrospective meetings where they reflect on the delivery of completed projects all require a Product Manager who can effectively ‘rally the troops’ and communicate clear team objectives.
It is this ability to communicate, both to internal team members and to end-users, that separates great Product Managers from good Product Managers.
To become a product manager, you need to be … confident.
If you’re someone who crumbles under pressure, maybe product management isn’t for you. The day-to-day responsibilities of a Product Manager involve making confident and decisive decisions that might not necessarily be the most popular option among your colleagues.
In almost any product development process, there will be people who challenge your decisions and question your direction. While this friction is absolutely vital to ensure you’re asking the right questions and thinking critically about your decisions, leading with confidence and believing in your vision is even more important. Product Managers who back down at the first sign of resistance or shy away from fighting their corner of the ring won’t last long.
The fact is, people won’t always believe in your vision so it is your job to instil confidence in your team and earn the confidence of senior decision-makers to convince them that your vision for progress aligns with their strategic objectives.
Remember — the best leaders lead through influence, not authority. The way you communicate with people and bond with them on a human level is critical to getting the best out of the people around you.
To become a product manager, you need to be … detail-oriented.
As I’m sure everyone reading this will agree, using bug-filled apps or broken websites is infuriating. Whether you’re trying to order a new pair of jeans or book a hotel, small technical issues or lazy mistakes in a product can result in an extremely unsatisfactory user experience that leaves you pulling your hair out.
With this in mind, the best Product Managers are sticklers for detail. Nothing (be it a spelling mistake or a line of dodgy code) gets past them.
If a Product Manager continually releases a product that’s filled with errors and delivers a sub-par user experience, their dreams of climbing the product management ranks and working at a top company will be short-lived. The best Product Managers aren’t afraid to pick up their red marker pen and push their team to deliver watertight products that promote customer advocacy and customer loyalty.
Finding individuals who can marry creativity with precise attention to detail is rare. If you possess both of these skills, product management could be your calling.
Pathways into Product
If you think you tick the above boxes and have what it takes to make it as a Product Manager, it’s time to start thinking about what routes you could take into this exciting corner of the tech world.
While many career trajectories have prescribed pathways that require you to jump through a series of hoops and provide a step-by-step guide to get from point A to point B, Product is unique in that there are a number of different ways to get your foot in the door.
Unlike disciplines like DevOps, accounting or data analysis that require a very specific set of technical skills, a career in Product presents opportunities for individuals with a wide spectrum of talents and interests to excel. Namely, Product Managers often find their way into Product through a chain of events and decisions, as opposed to setting out on a streamlined mission to become a Product Manager from the outset.
So, what are the different routes into product management for people who don’t have product-specific skills? To find out, we took to LinkedIn to ask our network of Product Managers about their Product stories and to reveal how these industry leaders got to where they are today.
Everyone who replied had an entirely unique story and a rollercoaster of twists and turns that helped them build a career that was perfectly tailored to their individual skills. Using real-life examples from our LinkedIn respondents, here are a selection of some of the best ways to get into product management without product-specific experience.
Internal Transfer At Your Existing Employer
An internal transfer is the most common route into Product. Lots of people who end up in product-related roles, don’t realise they are interested in Product until they’ve had first-hand experiences of working in a business, seeing how everything works, understanding what makes them tick, and working with colleagues across a number of different teams.
However, once they’ve got a taste for Product and compared it to the kind of work they’re doing in their existing role, employees pivoting into Product is an increasingly popular trend among tech companies.
Specifically, there are two main disciplines where internal transfers into Product are particularly common:
Customer Success
Ultimately, good product management is all about understanding the customer. As Steve Jobs once said: “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology – not the other way around.”
With this in mind, pivoting from Customer Success to Product is a fairly natural step in many instances as employees are able to channel their deep knowledge of customers (accumulated through their work in Customer Success) into valuable insights that can be used to develop highly-desirable and high-usable product innovations.
If you’re able to demonstrate how your existing knowledge could be applied more effectively in a different capacity, good employers will recognise this potential and consider you for fast-track routes into the Product team if/when an opportunity presents itself.
Real-Life Example: Internal Transfer via Customer Success
Jennifer Rose , Product Director at accuRx
Sales
Similarly to Customer Success, Sales is another popular internal transfer pathway and, arguably, the easiest route into Product.
With sales teams spending their days convincing customers about why they should part with their hard-earned cash to buy a product, it’s only natural that salespeople understand the emotional drivers behind purchasing decisions. Again, the ability to channel this customer knowledge into a more product-specific role can provide a smooth transition from Sales into Product.
The important thing is to be aware of how your existing skills could be complementary to a Product team and to be vocal to your employer about your career ambitions when you identify a potential opportunity on the horizon.
Real-Life Example: Internal Transfer via Sales
Benji Portwin , VP Product at accuRx
Want to hear more about Benji’s Product story and get your hands on insider tips for aspiring Product Managers? Check out this podcast where he shares his secrets to success in the Product world.
Direct Application Into a Junior Product Management Role
A common approach for MBA students or recent business school grads who want to make a beeline for Product is to enrol on a junior product management programme. Namely, Rotational Product management (RPM) programmes are a popular choice for those who want to fast-track their route into Product.
Despite being extremely competitive, pathways like Facebook’s RPM Programme , Google’s Associate Product Manager (APM) Programme or Amazon’s Business Internships for Students Scheme are the perfect springboards for ambitious grads looking to dive into the deep end.
To learn more about direct application routes into Big Tech firms from a non-technical background, you might enjoy this free guide.
Real-Life Example: Direct Application via RPM Programme
David Zuo , Product Manager at Zynga
Real-Life Example of Direct Application via RPM Programme
Dianthe van Velzen , Product Manager at Facebook
If you want to hear more about interesting Product journeys and take an even deeper dive into the various career pathways for aspiring Product Managers, check out this video from Colors of Chloe . In just 15-minutes, Chloe explains how she and her friends “swindled” their way into highly-competitive product management roles at the likes of Google, Twitch, EA, and TikTok.
The Startup Hustle Approach
While it’s certainly not the easiest way to get into Product, some of the world’s most successful Product Managers hustled their way into a senior Product position by grafting in intense startup environments.
Whether it’s starting your own business from scratch or finding an ‘in’ with founders in the nascent stages of a business’ growth, demonstrating your ability to work across multiple domains, solve problems, manage people and understand your audience will set you up for success. Better still, if you can contribute to the growth of the business so that it gets to a size where a formal product management position is required, you’ll be at the top of the list when it comes to hiring for that role.
Alternatively, if you play a major part in a startup that is subsequently acquired by a larger organisation, you will be well-placed to transition into a formal product management role — opening the floodgates to a plethora of career opportunities.
Real-Life Example: Hustle via Early-Stage Startup Internship
Stuart Pittman , Product manager at accuRx
Real-Life Example: Hustle via Building a Startup
Milo Spencer-Harper , Product Manager at Facebook
Real-Life Example: Hustle via a Failed Startup
Oliver McQuitty , Head of Product at HURR
The Four Steps to becoming a product manager
There are four steps that we encourage anyone wanting to break into Product Management to take.
Step 1: Build your “Double Diamond Muscle”
The first step is what we call building your “Double Diamond Muscle”. A key part of the product process is going through the double diamond of diverging and converging through the “problem space” and then diverging and converging through the “solution space”.
This is about cycling through the stages of customer discovery and competitor analysis, which will enable you to gather data to define the problem, before building a low-risk MVP and gathering data to refine the solution.
Every great product business does this. Think Spotify, Netflix, TikTok.
And just like concentrating on building a particular muscle group in the gym, you need to do this for Product, so that “defining and refining” becomes second nature to you.
Building your “Double Diamond Muscle” can be an app, a very basic product sketch or even a service, such as a new society or speaker series at business school or university.
Being able to talk about your “Double Diamond muscle” will give any interviewing Product Leader confidence that they can “trust you with their product” and crucially a mindset that will help boost on-the-job competence.
Step 2: Do Product Teardowns in your Domain
Next up, pick a niche that interests you and do product teardowns for that niche.
A product teardown is a systematic analysis of a product to understand its dynamics, features, and design. It involves breaking down a specific product into its components and identifying the key factors that contribute to its success in the market and how it differs from other products in the space.
You can then build your personal brand around this niche and your ability to teardown products, which will arm you with great things to talk about in any interview. Bonus points would be displaying these teardowns visually, either on LinkedIn articles or a personal website or both.
Built With Mars provides a really nice visual template for these - see his teardowns on banks for inspiration.
Step 3: Apply to Rotational Product Manager (RPM) Programs
If you do steps 1 and 2, you’ll be in a good position to apply to Rotational Product Manager Programs.
There are several of these across the tech industry (see list below) and some of them (Google and Uber) require a computer science degree, but some of them accept applications from all academic backgrounds.
Google Associate Product Manager Program
Meta (Facebook) Rotational Product Manager Program
Uber Associate Product Manager
LinkedIn Associate Product Manager Program
Atlassian Associate Product Manager Program
Intuit Rotational Product Management Program
Salesforce Associate Product Manager Program
Instacart Associate Product Manager Program
Capital One Associate Product Manager Program
Zynga New Grad Rotational Product Management Program
Yahoo Associate Product Manager Program
Asana Associate Product Manager (AsanaUP) Program
Note: that these are some of the most competitive graduate programs out there so don’t feel despondent if you are not successful. You can always do the Product Management Two-Step (see the next section).
In your Cover Letter, make sure you’re humble (you’re not “perfect for the role”), make sure you demonstrate interest and curiosity in the space (doing product teardowns help - see previous section) and you match your experience to what the Job Description is looking for.
Step 4: Do the Product Management Two-Step
The easiest way into Product is to find a product-led company and start work there in a job function in which you already have experience.
Then over time, make sure you work closely with the Product team on product-related projects.
There are many paths that are well-trodden from different functions into Product:
Sales → Product
Customer Success is a great launchpad as CS professionals get an intimate knowledge of the customer and will work with product teams on defining new features. We talk more about this with our interview with Padraic from Hubspot.
Marketing → Product
Marketing, particularly being a Product Marketing Manager is a great launchpad into Product as you’ll work closely with Product in writing launch materials and really develop your skills in distilling the product’s value.
Data analytics → Product
Working in a data analytics role will make you very important to Product teams, who will want to know how users are interacting with their product. You’ll also be well versed in things like A/B tests and experimentation programs, so will know how to improve a product over time. We talk more about this in our conversation with Joanna, who’s worked in product analytics at companies like Spotify and Apple.
Project Delivery → Product
Being able to grab a project by the horns and deliver it on time and to budget provides a very strong set of skills to any product management role, particularly given product teams are constantly juggling multiple projects and orchestrating sessions such as agile ceremonies.
Further Product Management Career Advice
Varun Bakshi, Product Manager at Amazon
What is your current role?
Product Manager at Amazon
What do you do in your role?
Amazon has a complex transportation network, which consistently experiences optimisation driven changes. The impact of these changes need to assessed based on different KPIs which is where my product comes into play. Solving for a complex space involves strategic and tactical nuance, which is what my day-to-day within network design as a PM entails.
What are the best things about your role?
Very challenging & complex space, scale of impact is big and work with smart folks.
How did you become a Product Manager?
Stumbled upon it by chance. Was working in marketing when my former company decided to spin up a new tech firm, and I became the de facto PM. Had no idea what it entailed but learnt on the fly and really enjoyed it because every day was a new challenge.
What are your tips for the application process?
Be very rigorous and thorough in your preparation. You also have to understand what product looks & feels like at the organisation. The interview process is a reflection of that very expectation. Be curious, and always lean on support when you can - people are awesome & are always willing to help!
What knowledge and skills are relevant for the role?
I think structure and organization, in your thinking and writing, is paramount. Say more by saying less. Prioritisation is critical - being able to cut through noise & ambiguity. Ability to dive into details and have a 30,000 feet view on problems is also important.
Alex Henderson, Fintech Product Manager
What is your current role?
Fintech Product Manager
What do you do in your role?
I lead multiple product development squads at a Fintech startup which matches high net worth investors to ethical investment opportunities. My role is all about choosing how to improve the investor experience and increase our assets under management with our finite resources.
What are the best things about your role?
Working with talented, passionate colleagues, solving complex problems, and watching my work change the app in real time.
How did you become a Product Manager?
I started by learning as much as I could about Product, including talking to people who worked in these types of roles. Then, I skilled up in areas where I could improve my profile. Lastly, I learned how to frame my career narrative and leverage my contacts to give me an inside track in a competitive job market.
What are your tips for the application process?
Think about what companies want to see in a role, then do your best to position yourself as the answer. Most importantly, make and leverage personal connections! Applying with a reference or introduction is 100x more effective than cold applications.
What knowledge and skills are relevant for the role?
Data analysis, communication, and metacognition (being able to explain how and why you arrived at a decision).
Palak Awasthi, Product Analyst at Wise
What is your current role?
Product Analyst at Wise
What do you do in your role?
I work in a B2B team where I support various functions, from implementation to product, to assess the success and compatibility of our offerings for new partners on the Wise platform. This includes establishing KPIs to measure the success of teams and products, ensuring we gain a comprehensive view of our product’s impact and alignment with partner needs.
What are the best things about your role?
As part of the B2B team focused on understanding the use cases for Wise’s products with various partners, I have the opportunity to collaborate closely with multiple product teams. This role allows me to see how different products and teams operate and complement one another, which I find incredibly rewarding.
How did you become a Product Manager?
Working closely with co-founders across multiple startups, from mobility tech to CRM, gave me a firsthand understanding of what it takes to make a product successful in these fields. Over time, I discovered my passion for roles that bridge business and technology. Product management, in particular, allows me to stay connected to both aspects—enabling me to work independently and collaboratively with cross-functional teams to develop and drive a product’s success.
What are your tips for the application process?
I recommend reaching out to peers working on different products, as they can provide valuable insights for transitioning into product management. Gaining an understanding of what it means to be a PM within a specific company will help clarify exactly how to prepare for the role. Every product and industry requires unique skills, so understanding these nuances will equip you better for the transition.
What knowledge and skills are relevant for the role?
On the technical side, it’s valuable to have some understanding of how the product is built and the foundational aspects of its development—this varies by industry and the technical demands of the product. However, the most important skill is the ability to work effectively across different teams and understand your own working style. While technical skills are beneficial, the key is to approach challenges calmly, focus on understanding the problem at hand, and collaborate with the team to drive towards success, taking ownership of both achievements and setbacks.
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