Thinking of moving into product management? Here's why I love it.

Going into 2019, many people set goals or intentions for the new year. It's a time to reflect and determine if what we do everyday is what we are meant to do or whether we need a change. I have been a product manager for more than 10 years. Reflecting on it, I realize it is the best job for me.

I grew up with a father who worked for IBM and a mother who was an enterpreneur. My dad brought home the latest tech gadgets feeding my curiosity and my mom worked incredibly hard demonstrating that anything is possible if you set your mind to it. I loved reading and learning from an early age and I've always been very social. Curiosity, hard work, determination and being social are great traits for a product manager. However, I wasn't sure what I was going to become until much later in life. Product management wasn't a thing when I did my undergrad and I don't think I would have latched on to it at the time as I didn't know myself well enough until my late 20's.

I got into product management naturally and with a bit of luck. My employer (Globalive) needed someone to align teams, drive execution and manage product launches. This role was just the perfect extension of my natural abilities and skills. Later on, I enhanced my education with an MBA and took product management and marketing courses to continue to learn and grow. Over and above education, my personality and soft-skills supported this new career move.

Let's say that I am a bit of a busy-body. I enjoy getting to know everyone, working with teams and learning through personal exchanges. I am also business-oriented, detail-oriented with a drive to make things happen. I need to know the business goals and how the business makes money so I can align and understand what the right levers are to move things forward. The detail-oriented part is what makes me dig into problems to get to the undelying issues and the drive makes me stay on course and not give up when things get tough. With maturity, I've come to enjoy coaching, mentoring and developing teams.

Becoming a product manager has been a blessing for me. What other job allows someone to be involved in a bit of everything from ideation to design to execution and launch? What other job naturally enables you to work cross-functionally on a regular basis? I could have been a project manager I suppose, and some aspects of project management are closely related to product management such as stakeholder management, managing communication, reporting, etc. However, just being a project manager is not enough for me. There is nothing more rewarding to me than developing the vision for a product or service, understanding the target market, becoming very close to customers, prioritizing work and aligning the organization to what needs to be done and why. The later requires ongoing clear communication, coaching and mentoring which are facets of the job I thrive on.

I love my job and hope to continue as a product manager for as long as possible. I think it is the best job in the world!