Ask HN: What is the secret to getting a product owner job as an engineer? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What is the secret to getting a product owner job as an engineer?

#31

Post by trilinearnz » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 11:45 PM UTC

lacker wrote: post #6

The simplest way is to make the transition within the company you're already working at. I have seen many software engineers convert into PMs successfully and that's usually the way they do it. It works best when you are working on some product and slowly take over more of the PM-type responsibilities, proving you can do it. With an SRE/DevOps background, it's going to be a little harder to do that.

Interesting advice. I have attempted to do so in my position, motivated by a desire for career change, but eventually find I lack the wherewithal to give adequate attention to both the PO-related and technically-related responsibilities simultaneously.

Perhaps a factor is the level of complexity of the project in question, influencing the practicality of such a dual focus.

Re: Ask HN: What is the secret to getting a product owner job as an engineer?

#32

Post by jackgolding » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 6:08 AM UTC

Not really an answer to your question but this resource might help https://www.reforge.com/blog/crossing-the-canyon-product-man... - reforge courses are great (especially for networking in the US) so that might be an option for a credential.

I think you would be "upsold" to engineering because its where they believe they'll get the most value out of you.

Re: Ask HN: What is the secret to getting a product owner job as an engineer?

#33

Post by jackgolding » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 6:09 AM UTC

loofatoofa wrote: post #2

architecture is a similar move in terms of day-to-day, but there's a larger likelihood of success for an engineer to transition.

was thinking this too!

Re: Ask HN: What is the secret to getting a product owner job as an engineer?

#34

Post by readonthegoapp » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 8:06 AM UTC

The secret is threefold

1. Do or say you did the work

2. Actually know what the work is -- be able to speak comfortably about the lingo processes etc artifacts ceremonies what does a daily standup actually look like how do you run your entire process which days are for which ceremonies do you always run all ceremonies which tools do you use how do you deal w an engineer not getting stuff done etc etc

3. Apply to roles with 'technical' in the name, because that is your leverage and they out that title there because the position has failed in the hands of a non technical product owner

Side note

Product owner easier to get than product Mgr for a bunch of reasons

Much more plentiful these days

The projects are internal so the whole external customer interviewing skillset goes away, all the market analysis, etc

You have to be willing to say you're a great communicator of course and depending on the job you LOVE agile and scrum and all that they stand for

You have to feel out your interviewer on that stuff

Re: Ask HN: What is the secret to getting a product owner job as an engineer?

#35

Post by Jugurtha » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 9:34 AM UTC

There are two ways of doing it. Get the title then do the job, or do the job then get the title.

To be a "product owner", own the product.

The link[0] is a reply to someone who wanted "more interesting work". It starts with links to support the pointers given at the bottom of that post.

- [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26654251

Re: Ask HN: What is the secret to getting a product owner job as an engineer?

#36

Post by siquick » Thu, Apr 08, 2021, 11:27 PM UTC

ddelt wrote: post #26

siquick wrote: post #21

This is worth a read from a former Airbnb PM https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-get-into-product-m...

Very on-point reference article - thank you!

If you have any interest in Product Management then I highly recommend the paid subscription to the newsletter and then Slack group that comes with it.