Milestone 2: Get hands on experience

Stay tuned for more details to be added to this section :)

As I mentioned in the previous section, the most important thing you can do to get a job in product is to get hands-on experience. This is where nearly everyone runs into a "chicken and egg" problem. You need product experience to get the job, but how do you get experience when you don't have a job?

There are three ways to get around this "chicken and egg" problem:

A. Make a Lateral Move within Your Existing Company

If you already have a job at a company, reach out to someone on the product team and say you're interested in product and want to help take some work off their plate. Then start helping them write user stories, doing research, running meetings, etc. This works best, if you are already working with the product team - let's say you're in an engineering, design, QA or other role - but you could also try it otherwise.

If you do a good job, eventually when a formal role on the team opens up, you can ask to be considered for the position. Or at the very least, you will have some experience to put on your resume.

B. Build Your Own Product

You can come up with an idea of your own, do the research and actually build it and get real customers. This is a great way to show initiative and also to learn the fundamentals of the job. Even if you don't know how to design or code, it's a great way to practice and there are a number of no code tools out there that you can use.

- For prototyping, try Balsamiq, Miro

- For design, try Figma or Canva

- For building an actual app using a no-code builder, try

Bubble.io⁠

FlutterFlow⁠

Who knows, maybe your product takes off and you decide not to get a job at all!

C. Take on a Side Project with Another Product Manager or Company

In your free time, offer to help out a product manager at another company or volunteer your time. You will most likely need to do this for free in the beginning. The best way to do this is to reach out to product managers, either in your network or outside of it and offer to help them. Try attending a product event or meetup and get to know people in the product community.

Or you can also use LinkedIn to message product managers that are in your area of interest. Here's an example message:

Keep in mind that people are busy and sometimes they may not have time to respond. Do NOT spam people, only reach out to those who are working in areas that you are genuinely interested in. And you will have a much higher response if you first make a personal connection through an event (or virtual event) rather than just a cold outreach.

If you're still have trouble, you can

schedule some 1:1 time⁠

for additional help.

⁠

Up Next:

Milestone 3: Connect with Other PMs⁠

⁠

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