Why Did You Become a Product Manager?
Most product managers didn’t originally plan on it. (“Mommy, I want to be a product manager when I grow up!”) 
Since we’re a team that lives and breathes (and writes about and promotes) product management, we’d love to hear your story about how you got here.
We’ll look for trends and qualitative results to publish back to the community.
Please tell us your story below by creating a comment.
- Rich Mironov
October 16th, 2008 at 16 Oct 2008
Absolutely right that this is the sort of job you don’t plan on becoming. I started out in consulting and built up expertise in a particular product. After a few years a vacancy arose for a product manager in that product. It seemed like a natural next step to take to apply for the position and I was lucky enough to get it. Some of of the motivators to apply for the position included wanting to have some input and control over the future of the product that I was so familiar with. I’ve since moved to work with other products but find the core product management skills extremely transferable.
October 16th, 2008 at 16 Oct 2008
I was in sales and we merged with another company. So now I had same territory as another rep. The sales territory was split in two and I got the “bad half”. I was preparing for my exit from the company when the VP of Marketing asked if I would join his team as a product manager!
October 16th, 2008 at 16 Oct 2008
Good point – in my case, I was into software development and was highly involved in business analysis for a startup in online payments. One day my CEO offered me a post of product manager – I accepted (for various reasons) without actually knowing what it meant… never looked back since
October 30th, 2008 at 30 Oct 2008
I put together a training session on a new product for my local sales team and our revenue skyrocketed. The VP of Sales asked me to training the sales teams in all of the other offices. Along the way, The VP of product management called me and asked “who are you?” I told him what I was doing and he said, “But that’s the product manager’s job!” And being a smart ass, I said, “Then he probably should do it.” The VP agreed and so he fired the existing product manager and hired me instead.
Then I had the job called product manager, whatever that is.
So I started helping sales people and the marketing team, thinking that’s what product management was about. Then I learned about the Pragmatic Marketing Framework (http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/pragmatic-marketing-framework) and realized that the job isn’t tactical but strategic.
For more on this view, see www.pragmaticmarketing.com/srpm
November 3rd, 2008 at 03 Nov 2008
Product Management is the “tip of the spear”. Is there any better place to be?
November 23rd, 2008 at 23 Nov 2008
After 10 years of being a sole proprietor, I entered the corporate world as a tech support engineer. Enjoying the intense multi-disciplinary exposure, got an MBA and immediately took a position as a PMM, then another as a PM and never looked back. I have since launched another sole proprietorship that I expect to be my retirement gig. I really like the “tip of the spear”, and I think it’s great training for being an effective executive.
December 8th, 2008 at 08 Dec 2008
I was a Sales Manager in one company, when I was offered Product Manager role in another competition company by a person who knew me and my profile. Since, it was exciting and offered a role layers above from where I was operating then, I took the opportunity to become a Product Manager.
March 13th, 2009 at 13 Mar 2009
I was managing a documentation and training department for a high tech company while getting my MBA. Once I had the degree, I was all set to find a management role somewhere. I really liked my company and looking at in-house opportunities came upon the product management department. Suddenly it clicked. Product managers are really CEOs for their products/product lines. It seemed like a particularly appropriate use of the skills I learned getting the MBA. I haven’t looked back since.