Have a somewhat unconventional route to becoming a PM.
Project Manager -> Product Marketing -> Product Management
Personally, demonstrable skills that I look for in PMs:
1) Ability to quickly execute on the short term but always keep an eye on the long term
2) Great communication skills with all sides of the business (sales, support, eng, cust. success)
3) A backbone - don't always take "no" as a first answer, try to solve the problems in different ways, think outside of the box
4) Creative - aptitude towards building pretty yet functional products
5) Critical problem solving
6) Humble but confident
7) Fairly deep understanding of the industry you're in
The one thing that has become very clear to me over the course of my career its that there is no one way to becoming a PM and no "course" for it. There is a need for technical PMs, for non-technical PMs, for MBAs, for rapid execution, for strategic execution, etc.
The role and the requirements highly depend on the stage of the company, the vertical the company is in, the complexity of the system, and so much more. I do think that a good general advice is to focus on these 3 areas if you want to move into being a PM:
1) Understanding the business model
2) Understanding how to communicate across departments
3) Understanding a decent amount on the technical side
Personally, demonstrable skills that I look for in PMs:
1) Ability to quickly execute on the short term but always keep an eye on the long term
2) Great communication skills with all sides of the business (sales, support, eng, cust. success)
3) A backbone - don't always take "no" as a first answer, try to solve the problems in different ways, think outside of the box
4) Creative - aptitude towards building pretty yet functional products
5) Critical problem solving
6) Humble but confident
7) Fairly deep understanding of the industry you're in
The one thing that has become very clear to me over the course of my career its that there is no one way to becoming a PM and no "course" for it. There is a need for technical PMs, for non-technical PMs, for MBAs, for rapid execution, for strategic execution, etc.
The role and the requirements highly depend on the stage of the company, the vertical the company is in, the complexity of the system, and so much more. I do think that a good general advice is to focus on these 3 areas if you want to move into being a PM:
1) Understanding the business model
2) Understanding how to communicate across departments
3) Understanding a decent amount on the technical side