Question: What should I study to get in to product management?
I am currently considering a job change into graphic design, but was introduced to the idea of product managing from a website. What does one study to get into product management? How different is it from marketing? Any information you could give me will be greatly appreciated!
Answer from Jeff Lash of How To Be A Good Product Manager: As far as what people study, it really depends. Look at job listings to see what the requirements are. Marketing is most common, but in technology companies or with technology products, some sort of technical background is common as well. Experience is usually more important than education, though, as product management isn’t really taught in most university programs.
- Wikipedia has a good overview of product management and how it relates to marketing
- Careers In Marketing has a list of Best Resources on Product Management Careers
- Monster’s Career Advice has a good guide to Product Management
- There are also a number of good product management resources on my site, How To Be A Good Product Manager
Product Management is treated slightly differently in each company, and what a product manager for, say, a consumer packaged goods company does might be totally different than a PM for a software company. Ultimately it depends on your interests, experience, and skills.
1 other answer so far ↓
Derek Britton // Feb 27, 2008 at 8:17 am
You may be recommended or invited to consider 3rd party suppliers for professional training in this field.
Some who provide such services include:
Pragmatic Marketing - http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/
Tarigo - http://www.productmanagementtraining.com/
Sequent - http://www.sequentlearning.com/
280 Group - http://www.280group.com/productmanagementtraining.htm
There are probably many, many more and by listing those above I do not want to imply that there is any comparative rating, merely that these are the top of the list if you google it…
Having worked in the functional arena for some time now, I am delighted to have had the opportunity to undertaken professional training at the outset; its a real advantage.
What do you think?