Ask HN: What's it like transitioning from SWE to PM?

The transition, like many, had its ups and downs, but I mostly like what I do.

The Pros

You interact with a broader range of people. When I worked as an engineer in large companies, there were very few opportunities to interact with marketers, sales people, customers(the most important). Being able to work with people in those roles gives me a holistic view of a how a business operates.

You get to shape the product. You do research on competitors, deep dives with UX, calls with customers and figure out what's missing and what needs to be built, and when to build it. You have more of a voice in proposing what needs to be implemented because you have more context.

You get to write! I love writing. Many people are bad at it. Part of why I became a PM was because, as an engineer, I was often either not given specs or I was given poorly written specs. Being a PM allows me to write and communicate to a level of detail I want. It's a different style of writing than engineering or back end specifications, so there's a learning curve to it but I enjoy it.

The Cons

Politics. This is a big factor , especially at large companies (and a big part of the reason I'm at a startup now). In large companies, you have dependencies on other teams if you want to ship. That means priority decisions are based on how close someone is to another PM, how strong their allies are, etc etc. It also means higher ups can override your product decisions in order to make themselves look good. If you're transitioning to product, make really sure you know the type of culture at the company. If it's against your style of working or leadership, leave.

You don't build anything. Being a PM is a lot of soft power. Can you write a proposal to convince someone else to build something? Can you relinquish control when a developer says "This is hard to implement!" and your engineering side disagrees? Are you comfortable building something without actually contributing a line of code? This continues to be the hardest part for me.

Communication. I don't mean writing. I mean keeping everyone (all the stakeholders for your project) aligned. As an engineer, my manager and the product folks knew where I was at in terms of implementation. As a product manager, all the devs on my team need to know what to do, my manager needs to know. Sales needs to be kept in the loop so they know how to phrase their sales calls. Marketing needs materials that they can send to consumers. Customer success managers need updates that they can tell clients when to expect that feature you promised. It's an exponential increase in the amount of communication you need to do. (My advice is writing documentation and making sure everyone knows where to look for updates. Otherwise it's slack hell).

Meetings. If you're not careful, you'll have a full calendar. Try to avoid this - product managers need time to think too :)

My email is in my profile. If you have any questions, reach out. I'm happy to talk through it.