My journey from Engineering Manager to a Product Manager: some myths and some wisdom!

 

When I first became an engineering manager, I was overwhelmed and excited with this thought of doing more –scale up. I felt that sense of power because I am THE manager and everything is now can be controlled by me. As the days passed, I realized this role comes much more hidden responsibilities, and to be true there are two different roles in this one position which is Manager of portfolio and leader of people. As a manager one need to be both visionary – thinking and planning for long term strategy but at the same time have to spend time on present - the actuals doing what matters most for the customer and stakeholders. As a leader, it’s all about connecting to their team members, making them The best: developing capability and empowering them to deliver the finest which in-and-around helping the business with successful projects executions; making best performing TEAM.

Every role change comes with new learnings, however I felt change from a product engineer to an engineering manager came with steep learning curve, exposure to multiple projects, initiatives, planning and people. Although, the working base remains same being an engineer or manager with the 6 most important actions

                    Read – Listen – Observe – Learn – Experiment - Reflect  

However, the outcome varies and comes with different perspective. My words of wisdom to any fellow member going through this change:

• You taking the role of engineering leader is not just a change for you, its change for your complete team also. In-case you want to bring new process or module experiment it first.

• You don’t have to manage people, you have to enable them, guide them and help them. Managing people with their work, some call it micro-manage; while doing so you forget they very reason every team member is in the position they presently at! It’s because of their Skills, talent and capability. 

          And if you spend all your energy in managing their work, what will happen to yours J

• Patience, vision and trust are some additional keys need always to be permanently keyed in engineering leader keychain.

• Keep adjusting the plans, could be a non-linear ! As this is engineering, plans not always followed as initially planned, most often it comes with surprises

After spending sometime in this role I decided to change my gears and luckily I got the opportunity to be a Product Manager. The zest of knowing more and most of it, was the reason I desired to switch - I want to experience the complete product design cycle. Engineering equipped me learning HOW to make this happen, and I wanted to know WHY this product and WHAT exactly is needed in this product. 

Something remain common like the base of 6 actions, and uncertainty of what all will come in your day today and your to-do lists will take a side. However, this role is much different than engineering manager.

It’s being almost 2.5 years I am in this role, and surprisingly if someone ask me to define the job it’s still difficult for me to explain them in a sentence. As role & responsibility of a PM (product manager), they are responsible to drill down to understanding the WHY i.e. market, its needs and converting it to the WHAT i.e. the product features, specification and also guide WHEN i.e. right time to bring the product in market. 

But it doesn’t end here. Product manager is the one centrally connected to all cross-function team. One should be reflecting on what is the role you are now – else any and every problem could be your problem!

Switch from engineer mode to Manager mode – this judgement becomes most important. Whether this is best use of your time to brainstorm and find the root cause or it’s better to leverage the experts in engineering, quality, manufacturing, etc. and let them do their core.

My wisdom words to any fellow member getting into a product manager role:

• Being a PM is not about your engineering skills it’s about first the customer and second about Product - how fast and best you can enable the solution.

• PM is like an entrepreneur in the company. They are never told what to do – however the only expectation from them is to discover and define what is needed to be done in the product and for the product.

PM owns the complete product lifecycle, starting from when and what to start, how to grow and when is the right time to retire the product.

Creative visionary is must here, because creating the possibilities of making the vision into reality is what required.

• PM influences all functions related to product – engineering, manufacturing, application, marketing and sales so one of the most valuable skill for a PM is influence without authority.

• Accomplishment / output here is much more nebulous, quantifying daily progress checks is difficult.

Sometimes weeks goes in researching and estimating the market, talking to customer      understanding their needs and reduce all to the product specification sheet. Some days would be training of product explaining same stuff to multiple audience groups.

You won’t realize days would simply fly off, keeping you busy all day. And in the end when to see outcome realized you may still have to wait for a long time. It needs Patience

• Product knowledge is important – but you really don’t need to be product expert.

May be only I faced this, as I come from engineering background. I had spent hours, reading and taking trainings wanted to become a product expert to become a good PM! Well, its impractical to get that expertise in few days/weeks/months…

It’s good that PM should know everything about their product, however this will come gradually. Its ok to say no, you don’t know and connect to respect team and learn.

• Communication and being organized are other two must have keys for this role! As PM need to interact with a lot of people and deal with tones of information.   

      Any transition requires us to change the mind-set, bring the different perspective! When started as a fresher and become a product engineer it is a journey in-self. However, one thing which keep me moving is curiosity.

My curiosity is THE driver for me which energizes me and helped me to accelerate my learning. It’s not only learning from own experience, but learning from your peers, seniors, juniors wherever possible, multiply the knowledge. It’s curiosity only which makes me accepts new challenges and I think when I am not getting challenged this hunger make me go and search for opportunities where I get more challenged.

If ambiguous situation doesn’t frighten you, and you enjoy surfing with your own GPS system, enjoy the most in discovering the WHY and WHAT, then you may like to be a product manager. I am sure you will love it!