Student Question: I want to do more innovative work, so I’m thinking of transitioning into product management.
My background: I graduated last year with a bachelor’s degree and am currently working in operations at a new retail company. The brand has strong market presence, but there’s little real room to exercise operational strategy. Business was great during the recent National Day Golden Week holiday, but that had nothing to do with my work as an operator. One year in, and I have no meaningful results to show.
I also have no contact with the product department — and our company’s product team is based in a completely different province.
In terms of skills: I don’t know how to code, and my English only made it to CET-4. Job listings for product managers require prototyping, writing PRDs, and other product tools — none of which I know how to do. I applied to several companies hiring product managers today and received no replies.
What do you think I should do to prepare for this transition? Should I sign up for an online product manager training course?
Master Chi’s Response:
First things first — product managers don’t do innovative work. Their job is simply to design product models.
The market demand for product roles today is significantly lower than it used to be.
My recommendation: go work in operations at a pure internet product company first. Once you’re genuinely good at operations, moving into product is nothing more than punching through a thin sheet of paper.
Product managers across different industries handle vastly different work. Social products, payment products, and O2O products each require completely different skill sets — and cross-industry job hopping between them is difficult. Your first priority is to get into an industry that actually interests you. Your growth depends on your accumulated knowledge of that industry. The product vs. operations distinction is secondary to that.
Are training courses worth it? I won’t say they’re completely useless — but I can tell you with full confidence: I have never once met an outstanding product manager whose abilities were built in a training class.