Today, in the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, Jeff and Red welcome our panel of experts on product management to talk about becoming a product manager coming from a different background. The shift in interest from your educational background or career to becoming a customer-oriented problem solver opens a path to become a great PM. Listen in and join them as they share their minds, experiences, and expertise on what helps aspiring PMs to  successfully join this competitive ecosystem.  
 
Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.
 
What to Listen For:
00:00 Intro
01:20 PMs from non-traditional background bring in new thinking and perspectives
06:15 Learning product management from best practices from a global perspective
10:47 True or false: “If you don’t know how to code you can’t be a good PM.” 
12:55 Coding may not matter in most environments, it could in smaller startups
16:03 Is being a scrum master a traditional path to becoming a PM?
18:35 Scrum masters tend to work inside of development chops
21:56 UX designers should have an artistic expertise
23:50 Try low resolution experimentation, don’t be afraid to try something that looks horrible
26:00 An example of low-res that works
31:26 The Product Management Life Cycle model
33:20 Educate yourself if you want to break into product management
34:37 Understand what’s required for the job and what do you have in terms of skills
36:54 The language we use differs in different ecosystems
39:19 Find out how does a product life cycle work
40:09 To connect with companies and industries, tap on the networking side
44:10 Managing physical, digital, and software products
47:16 Customer care and problem solving opens a path to product management
48:43 Stay curious and always ask questions
50:11 The person who understand the customers the most matters
51:16 Build site projects, invest in networking, and volunteering opportunities