r/ProductMgmt

Guys,I work as a senior consultant at EY and my natural transition should be towards product management and I always wanted to do it,
Also as you know that Al is Buzz word today and which has led to rise in Al Product Manager, hence 1 am really interested to make that transition and has created the roadmap but unable to follow it due to work and stuff and also its unstructured learning.
Do you guys think that I should buy some Al Product management course and if yes then which one-Edureka, Airtribe, Outskill, Product space, Maven but all of them are expensive and I don't see r value for money that much.

I graduated in 2025 with a CS/Data Science degree and have been working full-time as a Data Engineer for the past year here in Chicago.

I’m actively prepping to pivot into Product Management, but I’m seeing a weird gap:

New-grad APM roles often filter strictly for current students/immediate grads.

Standard PM roles often ask for 3+ years of prior PM title experience.

To bridge this gap, I’ve put together a product portfolio with case studies that translate backend technical pipelines into business impact and user outcomes.

For Chicago recruiters, hiring managers, or PMs open to connecting:
If you're hiring for entry-level/associate product roles (hybrid or on-site in Chicago), shoot me a DM - I’d be happy to share my portfolio and resume directly!

For PMs who made a similar early jump: what was the single most convincing way you proved product thinking before having the official title?

Drop a comment or send a DM. I would love to hear your thoughts!

I will be joining a retail company as a data product Owner where I will be responsible for data platforms on big query and BI. I have worked previously as a product owner on the data science side and NLP side. However I did not even touch data warehousing or data platforms at that point. So this will be very new for me. Need some pointers - should I start learning data engineering now so that I can work better with my engineers. Also should this be the right track for me going forward.

Hello friends,

I am SWE with 4+ years of experience, 2 of them being at a FAANG company. I am currently unemployed and I am starting to look for jobs. I really want to break into PM and I do not know what the best way to go about it is:

1. Get another SWE role at a tech company and try to do an internal transfer

2. Get an MBA and apply for PM internships or PM roles post MBA

3. Cold apply to early PM roles and hope to get one. Maybe get a PM certificate or two to strengthen my case.

Please help thanks!

Hey!
I’m a guy in my early 20s who recently graduated his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. Right now I work as a project manager in a small company but I have literally no work to do. I always wanted to become a Product Manager, but I need to create a good portfolio on a real life projects, for now the only real life product manager task I did for a company is that I made a global IT company change it’s website structure (it was during an interview process for a job I didn’t get so it’s whatever). Any tips?

I’ve been at my new job as a product owner for almost a month now. While it’s been extremely exciting, it’s been humbling as well. Prior to this, my last PM experience was almost three years ago due to the hiring shifts that have impacted the industry.

I am probably being extremely hard on myself right now, but I was wondering if anyone has a similar experience. I think my biggest weakness right now is explaining or talking through things. I had a meeting a few days ago where my manager asked me to lead the discussion for a ticket, and I went so fast that they had to step in and add additional context 😂 Granted, it was my first time talking through anything here, but that’s how nervous I was.

In contrast, my PM operational skills are still there, but those can always be strengthened as well.

Any tips or advice?

Two years ago, I started working on a side project to create the next messaging app. My business partner and I wanted to to build what comes after iMessage. We took the usual route of applying to Y Combinator, we got waitlisted, and then we gave up.

Next, we tried to build a product to help alcohol distributors connect with their audiences more. We tried to use tools like Apollo to do email marketing to potential users, but we just couldn't get any traction. We built something that no one wanted.

Next, we thought we might think smaller and go consumer. We built a number of productivity apps. We went through the cycle of launching on Reddit. We got some users, but not much traction and no conversions.

6 months ago, we started building an Interface, the future of computing. What might an operating system look like if it was integrated with AI? What if that software solved all the pain points that Mac OS has (window tiling issues, distractions)? After six months of development, we still haven't launched it. We've got nothing to show for it. We bit off more than we could chew.

Recently, we've built Blueberry, an app to help you clear your iMessage inbox. It came after a pain point of me not responding to my messages and feeling disconnected from friends. Again, and we got some traction, but what's next?

You can see we've kind of come full circle. We started out by building an iMessage app, and now we're back to building an iMessage app again, all with $0 in revenue and no users to show for it and 2 years have passed.

But something feels different this time. People are giving us positive feedback, and they are asking for features, and telling us what they like and don't like.

I came here to ask you this: How do I go from a sweaty entrepreneur to someone making money? Do you have any feedback for me? What am I missing?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Thank you!