Anyone on here a product manager?

[sondra_finchley]

In my never-ending search for some sort of defined career, or at least an end point that meshes all my interests together, I stumbled across product management. Is anyone on here working as such in some sort of capacity? Just wondering what the job is like- good/bad and education/experience needed!

[AznHisoka]

Product management is a vague term. It's just like being a manager. Product Development is where the spicy stuff is at, it's what the rock stars do.. Product managers just get in their way =)

[crystal_dance]

Product management is a vague term. It's just like being a manager. Product Development is where the spicy stuff is at, it's what the rock stars do.. Product managers just get in their way =)

I dunno about that. I have 2 friends who are product managers/ product marketing managers at google and MSFT and their jobs are far more glamorous than the developers.

For example, my friend at google manages product marketing strategy for google maps. Google sends him all over the world to work with clients to understand their advertising requirements. He collects and analyzes these requirements, comes up with a market penetration strategy and then chooses an appropriate ad agency to implement that strategy. Beats coding!

Sondra - I used to do product marketing/management for a start up. Product management is a pretty interesting field and it's pretty competitive breaking in. However given your work ex, I think it's a good fit for you. PM is usually a combination of systems analysis, project management and marketing research. For example, you'll be required to create documentation called Product Requirements Documentation. This document outlines the scope of a product, estimated time line for completion, budget, market demand for product, competitor analysis (you know about this section), current technology infrastructure available and limitations.

Over time you'll have to revise the document as you liaise between different groups such as IT, marketing, sales,operations and user groups. It's definitely a very people centric, analytical job and you'll be spending a large portion of your time interviewing people so you need very good note taking and interviewing skills. It isn't a very quantitative job or a very technical job though a basic understanding of technology will help when assessing tech infratructure.

As far as education requirements go, usually an analytical degree + MBA helps though I knew someone who went into it with a bachelors in marketing. Usually an MBA from a good school is the easiest way to get into it.