Many people have made a successful transition from an engineering career to a product management one. These two paths have a lot in common. They’re both focused on meeting customer needs and building great products. The two roles must work together to ensure the right solution is built. But of course there are differences. Product managers focus more on the “why” and the “what” while engineers focus on the “how.” Product managers uncover unmet customer needs and create a vision to address them, while engineering actually builds out that vision.

Ensuring you have the right skills to make the leap is important, and there are a variety of resources to get you there. The transition can take anywhere from a few months to years, depending on the individual situation. And while there is plenty of demand, competition is also steep. If it’s a fit, product management can give you an amazing set of skills and be a hugely rewarding career. But it’s not for everyone.

We requested seasoned product managers, all former engineers, to discuss their own experiences with the transition and how to move towards a product management career. These are the questions we asked:

  • What are the commonalities and differences between engineering and product management work? 
  • How do you determine which is a better match for your professional goals? 
  • Why did you decide to switch from engineering to product management? Can you describe your path and how it led to this decision?
  • What were your first steps in making this transition?
  • How long did the transition take, from the moment you decided to switch to the moment you got the product management job?
  • What were the easiest and the hardest parts of making the switch?
  • Which skills from engineering did you find useful in your product management job?
  • What new important skills did you gain after transition?
  • What helped you to move more smoothly through this transition? Any blogs, courses, books, useful tools, and/or something else?
  • What advice do you have for someone who has started to think about moving from engineering to product management?
  • What are the pros and cons of transitioning from engineering to product management?
  • What are the things you had to “unlearn” from your previous job in order to become a better product manager?

Many thanks to these experts for their phenomenal advice:

Keep reading to learn all about the transition, how to get started, and if a product management career is right for you.

→ Test your product management and data skills with this free Growth Skills Assessment Test.

→ Learn data-driven product management in Simulator by GoPractice.

→ Learn growth and realize the maximum potential of your product in Product Growth Simulator.

→ Learn to apply generative AI to create products and automate processes in Generative AI for Product Managers – Mini Simulator.

→ Learn AI/ML through practice by completing four projects around the most common AI problems in AI/ML Simulator for Product Managers.

What are the commonalities and differences between engineering and product management work? 

Product managers and engineers have a similar goal in that they both want to produce a great product to meet their customers’ needs. There is deep collaboration between the two and of course both roles are part of the overall product team. Both roles need to have customer empathy, understand that they win as a team, and work with as peers. Keep in mind that today’s product management is heavily integrated into the development lifecycle. 

The difference is that each discipline plays a distinct role in how customer problems are solved. Product management defines product requirements while engineering fulfills them. Product managers focus on the “why” and “what” and engineers focus on the “how.” In addition,product managers ensure that product goals are aligned with the broader organizational strategy and also define how to measure success of the product. Engineering takes all of this information and uses complex technology to build solutions.

Abhimanyu Basu (Senior Product Manager at PayPal)

The common part between product and engineering is that both are trying to solve a customer problem together. It is an equal partnership. Customer empathy is not product management’s speciality alone. As engineers, you need to solve problems with a lot of empathy for customers to make your solution really fly high. Ultimately, we win together and we fail together as a team.

David Griggs (Senior Product Manager at The Walt Disney Company)

On the surface the roles are quite different, arguably two sides of a coin. Product managers identify user problems, propose solutions, and prioritize them on a roadmap. Critically, most product management teams need to use their influence to get things done. Engineering teams are responsible for the technical solution to the requirements coming out of product management. However, modern product management is integrated into the development lifecycle. Successful product managers learn how to work within the engineering team as a peer. 

​​Divyachapan S. Padur (Principal Product Manager at Microsoft)

Engineering is about the “how” while product management is about the “what” and “why.” We all aspire to solve people’s problems and that’s the common thread. Product building is a sequence of many actions. The difference is in where each discipline has the most impact and responsibility. Product management is earlier in the process of identifying the right problems, then engineering takes over the execution.

Stephanie Walter (Product Management Consultant, ex-IBM)

Product managers define product objectives aligned with an organization’s overall strategy and how to measure the success of these objectives, while getting agreement from stakeholders across the company. They also identify customer needs and create a vision to fulfill them. Engineers build this vision and turn it into reality. Both focus on delivering the best possible solutions to customers.

How do you determine which is a better match for your professional goals? 

Figuring out which one is a better match for your professional goals lies in determining what your interests and skills are. You have to know your career goals and what makes you happy. Engineering requires solving difficult technical problems. There is more time spent on independent work and gratification comes from figuring out intricate technical challenges.

Product management requires strategic thinking, customer knowledge, and working with a wide variety of roles. You will have much more interaction with customers and stakeholders, so you should enjoy collaboration. Fulfillment in this role comes from knowing that you’ve provided your customers a delightful experience and have helped the business to grow.

Ruchir Astavans (Leader of Product at ByteDance)

It boils down to what kind of gratification drives you the most. Is it solving hard technical challenges, or seeing users get value and delight or a business taking off? If you discovered somehow that simply changing the color of our product to orange will get us 10x engagement, how will that make you feel deep down? If you’d be elated, you might make a good product manager.