120 days ago I started my first full-time job as a product manager, and I couldn’t be more grateful for having been given the opportunity straight out of school.

Journey into Product

It’s often said, there’s no straight path in life from point A to point B. Charting a course into product management poses an even greater challenge. It’s ambiguous in nature and vague in job description because of the unique role product departments play in companies. With my undergraduate degree in business, I was faced with the daunting prospect of entering the industry with a lack of “technical skill”.

If you google “how do I break into product” be prepared to sift through a wide variety of “how to guides” and “answers to questions on Quora”. Everybody has their own perspective and experiences.

Simply put, Product is an art.

It’s equal parts creativity and logic. The science behind the art of building or launching a new product can be compared to what chemistry does for cooking. Everyone can follow a recipe and cook a meal, but those that combine their experience, creativity and skillset cook masterpieces.

Self-Directed

I think one of the parts that separates product management from any other job is how self-directed one has to be. Being a product owner requires a huge thirst for knowledge — a need to know everything. Translating that knowledge then into usable business and engineering insights is what keeps me preoccupied. It’s why product managers largely have backgrounds in engineering or computer science. They have a proven track record of absorbing, analyzing and translating a huge amount of information.

Importance of Vision

As a product manager, I do not have authority over people. I have authority over the product. I have a say as to what it will look like, what problem it will solve for users and finally why the effort it takes to build it matters. We have the tough job of trying to “rally the troops” without any right to issue commands. Everyday is like directing the movie “Inception”. I have found that people care about what I have to say, if I am well versed in two things;

Aware of the challenges that others face (dev, marketing, sales, etc.) (this includes day-to-day stand-up conversations)
Why the feature or task I’m proposing is worth building out

Having the Answers

It’s very easy to forget that as a PM I’m expected to have more answers than questions. Being fairly new in my career, I have often looked to my peers or managers to answer questions like:

“What’s next?”
“What are my deadlines?”
“What steps should I take?”

I no longer have that luxury. The answers have to come from what the present market looks like. This means having a complete understanding of the competitors, the roadmap of the industry I’m in (which happens to be broadcast and entertainment) and being proactive on prioritizing my time. Time management is critical because of how ruthless PM’s have to be with prioritization. (you can read more here)

Patiently dealing with Ambiguity

Being in tech means being constantly surrounded by unknowns. Everyday, there is something new on the horizon. It is an industry in constant flux. Being a PM demands patience, because it’s so easy to get caught up in a dizzying array of headlines. Releasing a product takes time, building something that lasts takes even longer. There is a lot of belief in iterating fast and getting software & product released that’s not perfect, but first impressions matter.

Compared to other roles (UX, UI, Analyst etc) I am forced to think about the long term implications of my choices which conversely means I don’t see the short term results right away.

Loving the journey

Gary Vee says it best; “Love the journey”. His intended audience are the aspiring entrepreneurs today, but I find it to be highly applicable in product as well. The fun in building something is really in how it was built vs. what the final product comes out to be. It demands resilience, patience, and clarity of thought. All of which, are traits developed over time.

So far, I’m really enjoying the role because of how much I’ve learned in such a short amount of time. It’s a fascinating time to be in product management.