What's it like transitioning from SWE to PM?

At first I liked it a lot. I could be confident that the product we were building was worthwhile (unlike in engineering where I just had to take the PM's word for it).

But after a while I started to flounder. I couldn't figure out what we should build next and didn't know what to do. I had no training whatsoever. I tried to study PM methodologies but there are a million competing ones, a bit like self-help books. I don't really know how one becomes a good PM.

(Edit) To clarify I am no longer in this role. After that experience I've been working on creating my own startup, which is like SWE and PM combined, minus the salary.;-)

I work in big tech and made this transition. At first it was hard because I have very deep "I" shaped knowledge. I could make significant improvements to the product based on that expertise, but it doesn't last long for the demands of the job. I had to instead re-learn becoming more of a generalist with "T" shaped knowledge. Soft skills, communication, strategy, etc are all things you have to start becoming aware of.

I have seen many senior/staff/principal level people try making the switch and sadly it doesn't translate well because of this. Product work is significantly different than engineering work. Some PM 1-2 are actually more effective than late in career transitions that I've seen over my career.

If you think of work in three categories: Experts, Operators, Politicians. You are going to have to play each of these roles as a PM. Previously you could get away with doing just one as a SWE.

Although I love technical writing, the demands of the job do not allow one to do as much IC work like writing docs. The biggest surprise that will humble you is that nobody knows what they are doing including leadership teams on all levels. PMs have to lead with no role power and that is a challenge in itself if you don't have manager allies to do what's right for the product.

My path was IC to Lead Engineer to PM. The Lead Engineer role really help me to get an idea what the next step would be. I liked it and made the transition about 7 years ago.

Staying in the same engineering domain when I transitioned into PM helps keep my technical curiosity engaged. I can do with less red tape and office politics, but it comes with the job, so it is unavoidable.

Hope this data point help you out.

> What was the biggest surprise?

PM's make significantly less & are significantly less in demand

I made the transition from engineering to product management.

The transition, like many, had its ups and downs, but I mostly like what I do.

The Pros

You interact with a broader range of people. When I worked as an engineer in large companies, there were very few opportunities to interact with marketers, sales people, customers(the most important). Being able to work with people in those roles gives me a holistic view of a how a business operates.

You get to shape the product. You do research on competitors, deep dives with UX, calls with customers and figure out what's missing and what needs to be built, and when to build it. You have more of a voice in proposing what needs to be implemented because you have more context.

You get to write! I love writing. Many people are bad at it. Part of why I became a PM was because, as an engineer, I was often either not given specs or I was given poorly written specs. Being a PM allows me to write and communicate to a level of detail I want. It's a different style of writing than engineering or back end specifications, so there's a learning curve to it but I enjoy it.

The Cons

Politics. This is a big factor , especially at large companies (and a big part of the reason I'm at a startup now). In large companies, you have dependencies on other teams if you want to ship. That means priority decisions are based on how close someone is to another PM, how strong their allies are, etc etc. It also means higher ups can override your product decisions in order to make themselves look good. If you're transitioning to product, make really sure you know the type of culture at the company. If it's against your style of working or leadership, leave.

You don't build anything. Being a PM is a lot of soft power. Can you write a proposal to convince someone else to build something? Can you relinquish control when a developer says "This is hard to implement!" and your engineering side disagrees? Are you comfortable building something without actually contributing a line of code? This continues to be the hardest part for me.

Communication. I don't mean writing. I mean keeping everyone (all the stakeholders for your project) aligned. As an engineer, my manager and the product folks knew where I was at in terms of implementation. As a product manager, all the devs on my team need to know what to do, my manager needs to know. Sales needs to be kept in the loop so they know how to phrase their sales calls. Marketing needs materials that they can send to consumers. Customer success managers need updates that they can tell clients when to expect that feature you promised. It's an exponential increase in the amount of communication you need to do. (My advice is writing documentation and making sure everyone knows where to look for updates. Otherwise it's slack hell).

Meetings. If you're not careful, you'll have a full calendar. Try to avoid this - product managers need time to think too :)

My email is in my profile. If you have any questions, reach out. I'm happy to talk through it.