I am seeking to change my career path from a Call Center IT Manager to a Product Management Position for a software company. I have 7 years of experience in Call Center settings ranging from Workforce Management (WFM), Business Intelligence Reporting, Telephony Platforms, CRM and Quality Management Systems.
My goal is to utilize my experience with the various technologies and software packages to acquire a product management position in relevant areas of the software industry.
While I do not have any "Product Manager” positions on my CV, I have done many similar functions in my various roles.
What can I do to show that I am not inexperienced in the field and to increase my chances?
David
This is always a problem.
This is always a problem. What about pitching in the cover letter what parts of your experience are relevant to product management? Maybe review the sandhill.com article about product management and then pitch how good product management requires various stregnths that you've proven you possess. I wouldn't state in the cover letter that you don't a Product Management line item in your background. I'd just sell yourself in the cover letter.
Product Management is Funny
BLUF: This may not be as hard as a problem as you may believe.
Product Management is a relatively new position and in many ways is still evolving. I draw an analagy to System Analyst roughly 15 years ago. There was no industry standard definition of what a system analyst was and varied greatly from company to company. Furthermore, even when definitions existed, the day to day realities of what they did, did not match the job description. PM is very much the same way and we have a great divergence in what PM's do within our company (although they are doing a great job of trying to change that).
The good news about this lack of maturity in the role is that there aren't a plethora of Product Managers hanging around. In my organization, there is 1 director of pm and 3 Product Managers and NONE of them were a product manager before this job. My colleague who manages a different product line has the exact same scenario.
A few tips:
1. Be active in the user communities for the products that you use (i.e. User groups, Community forums). If your insigts about the product (strengths and weakness), Knwoledge about where the related industry is heading and where the product should go, etc. is on target, you will get noticed by the product team if they have their ear to teh ground.
2. While similar to #1, get on a product advisory board. These are groups of "Super Users" that have greater access and influence to the SW company than other users and is a great way to network with them. Again, your insights if on will be noticed. SW companies often look to their user base for domain/pm knowledge and is a way of bringing the customer experience into the planning process.
If you would like to start a private dialog with more of the specifics, please send me a private message.
Cheers,
Sean