Would strongly recommend anything by Marty Cagan, including http://svpg.com and https://svpg.com/inspired-how-to-create-products-customers-l...
Avoid certifications at all cost
Ask HN: Move to product management at 35?
21–30 of 133 posts
Re: Ask HN: Move to product management at 35?
#22Why, specifically, do you want to move into Product Management? To answer one of your questions: Age doesn't matter.
I think it's pretty obvious. After you've been coding for almost 2 decades across multiple industries, coding becomes predictable and tedious. By that point, you've become an expert in many sub-fields within computer science; you probably even started to forget some of the old technologies/methodologies that you used to be an expert at. You come to understand that software development methodologies are just fleeting…
Really well put and there are about a dozen lessons that could be extrapolated from this comment in terms of management, career planning, and software development practices and industry maturity.
Re: Ask HN: Move to product management at 35?
#23Why, specifically, do you want to move into Product Management? To answer one of your questions: Age doesn't matter.
I think it's pretty obvious. After you've been coding for almost 2 decades across multiple industries, coding becomes predictable and tedious. By that point, you've become an expert in many sub-fields within computer science; you probably even started to forget some of the old technologies/methodologies that you used to be an expert at. You come to understand that software development methodologies are just fleeting…
> After you've been coding for almost 2 decades across multiple industries, coding becomes predictable and tedious.
Move out of your comfort zone and take on some projects outside of your established expertise.
> Unlike many other fields, the returns that you make from investing in yourself as a software developer/engineer don't compound; they start to depreciate as soon as you stop trying to keep up.
This is only true if you invest in frameworks/libraries/languages/etc. If you invest in understanding problems faced within industries and how to solve them with software, that's not something that depreciates.
Just so that doesn't sound like something abstract, take for example an e-commerce marketplace. Knowing that you need to create two objects, one for the order and another as an invoice for each seller within that order, isn't knowledge that will depreciate with time.
On top of that, there is general knowledge of algorithms and a thousand other things that are sufficiently generalized that they can be applied at any time.
Virtually every project that I take on is in a new space and I learn constantly, keeping things interesting. For reference, since we're talking about age, I'm 37.
Re: Ask HN: Move to product management at 35?
#24Why, specifically, do you want to move into Product Management? To answer one of your questions: Age doesn't matter.
I think it's pretty obvious. After you've been coding for almost 2 decades across multiple industries, coding becomes predictable and tedious. By that point, you've become an expert in many sub-fields within computer science; you probably even started to forget some of the old technologies/methodologies that you used to be an expert at. You come to understand that software development methodologies are just fleeting…
>>After you've been coding for almost 2 decades across multiple industries, coding becomes predictable and tedious.
Well yeah, if you are still “coding” after two decades you will probably find it tedious.
You can move into “engineering” and “architecting” however, which involve entirely different challenges, both in type and scale.
Re: Ask HN: Move to product management at 35?
#25My $0.02, having been a PM for many years: Read Cracking the PM Interview [1] (for an overview of the job, not the actual interview tips) and The Lean Startup [2] (for general philosophy). 35 is a great age for a PM, especially since PM's often start elsewhere -- maturity is a plus here. I'd say there are 3 main ways into it -- as an engineer, who starts to do PM-type stuff on a team where there's no PM. As a designe…
This is all great info. One additional note. The best way to become a PM is to just start doing the job.
Even if you're on a team with a PM already, offer to write a few of the specs. Or if there's no room to do that, then create a side project where you go through the product development process and show your work. Create sort of a portfolio that demonstrates your abilities.
Re: Ask HN: Move to product management at 35?
#26One thing to think about - are you looking to transition in your current company or in a new company?
I'm a PM at Google. One thing that works here is having eng do 20% PM projects or do a PM rotation for a few months to get a taste for the life before committing fully. I don't know how it works at your company but you could look into taking on some PM responsibilities before making the move.
A certification may explain more about the role and give you background knowledge, but it wouldn't help in skill development IMO. The best way to learn PM'ing is to do it. And if you're interviewing for a PM role, it's much better to talk about actual work than certifications.
Lastly, age is not an issue and it's probably better if you have more industry experience before moving to a PM role.
Of course, these are my opinions and not that of Google, etc.
Re: Ask HN: Move to product management at 35?
#27My $0.02, having been a PM for many years: Read Cracking the PM Interview [1] (for an overview of the job, not the actual interview tips) and The Lean Startup [2] (for general philosophy). 35 is a great age for a PM, especially since PM's often start elsewhere -- maturity is a plus here. I'd say there are 3 main ways into it -- as an engineer, who starts to do PM-type stuff on a team where there's no PM. As a designe…
[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Move to product management at 35?
#28Following. I’m still figuring out if product management is the only path for a sw engineer. I’m 37.
Re: Ask HN: Move to product management at 35?
#29My $0.02, having been a PM for many years: Read Cracking the PM Interview [1] (for an overview of the job, not the actual interview tips) and The Lean Startup [2] (for general philosophy). 35 is a great age for a PM, especially since PM's often start elsewhere -- maturity is a plus here. I'd say there are 3 main ways into it -- as an engineer, who starts to do PM-type stuff on a team where there's no PM. As a designe…
> Also, if you want to be a PM then you'd better enjoy meetings, slides, people, and communicating & convincing all day long, day-in day-out I transitioned from dev to architect. This statement is so true, even more so for PMs.
I’ve always understood that one of the most important pieces of the PM role is to act as a sort of negotiator between design/development and all other stakeholders. Customers and everybody else in the business all want their own things, and all have their own priorities. The good PMs that I’ve known have kept those people happy, managed their expectations well, and mostly shielded design/development from their demands and politics.
Re: Ask HN: Move to product management at 35?
#30I’d advise that by 40 most would have a hard time getting a dev. job.