Product folks
I’ve noticed quite many people on this app are in the product team. Could you guys give an overview of the day to day work in such a profile and can a person from non STEM background break into product?
Most likely your day to day will include a lot of meetings and collaboration with various teams- Engineering, design, analytics, marketing, legal, ops, business etc depending on the kinda product and seniority you're at.
You'll have your own tasks like writing feature requirements, analysing data, reviewing designs, making surveys depending on which phase of the software development cycle your features are in.
Thanks for the input.
What do you think about the people who are in PM but are from non STEM background? Can they thrive in the role or certain Engineering/Tech background is required?
They need to build skillsets like UX, understand architectures, business/strat & analytics.
I've helped lawyers & bankers to get into PM but never seen any of them crack into a top start-up or top pay but they're earning much more than their non STEM friends.
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I have personally seen non-STEM folks being great PMs. IMO, you can be a better PM if you know your customers, and that is not taught in STEM subjects as well.
Isn’t product knowing the nitty gritties of the offering and implementing changes in it along the way? Or is it more of a consulting approach where the problems are identified, solutions are devised and then the engineering/tech team implements the suggested changes?
I won't say that product is consulting job because you, as a PM, have to work super close with engineering and design teams to make sure that the problem is well understood, and then only the solutions can be formulated.
Knowing nitty gritty is essential for a PM, else you might miss the details.
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Personally most of the consultant who turned pm I have seen doing quite bad. They are all talk and zero substance
You just described tbe Consulting Industry. All talk and zero substance.
Once you get a foot in the door, coming from a non STEM background, the approach that would serve you best is to ignore background entirely. Now, what I mean is don't let STEM vs Non STEM matter to you in any way.
If you can put your customer ahead and think in a very first principles way about the business, you will definitely make it work.
For the break in part, always highlight how you bring a different skill set/approach as non STEM, tbh, companies like having different voices inform their decision making
That makes sense, at the end of the day customer is the king and if we put their preferences at the core of the operations, eventually it’ll work. Thanks for this!
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