I am currently in the process of hiring a product manager for my team at Cloudflare. One of the neat things about Cloudflare is that internal candidates are encouraged to reach out to hiring managers to chat with them about the role. That means that I’ve had several really great conversations with colleagues over the past couple of weeks, many of them with folks who are in other parts of the org like BI, customer support, finance, engineering, etc. The question they have is, “how do I move into product management?”

It’s a great question, and after I’ve given the same answer a few times, I decided to just go ahead and write it down in our internal wiki as well. Below is a lightly edited version of the advice I shared, in case that’s helpful to anyone else who is trying to move into the PM role at their company:

• If you’re brand new to the job I have a couple of book recommendations to get a general sense of what good product management looks like. I recommend starting with Inspired by Marty Cagan, and Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perri. You’ll hear these two books mentioned a lot in our field, and they are classics for good reasons. After that, read everything you can get your hands on (but stay away from LinkedIn Influencers, that’s mostly ChatGPT content these days). For more book/newsletter recommendations, I have a running list here.
• Then—and this is the most important advice I have—do the job before you have the title. Every role can be expanded into some area of product management. Think deeply about the product(s) you support, what customers need, how it contributes to the business, what could be better, what you think the long-term strategy should be. Start exercising the PM muscle so that when the right role comes along internally, you’re ready for it.
• Publish your thinking. Every company has an internal wiki, many with personal spaces. Use it. If you have an idea for a product, or an analysis that’s interesting, or some thoughts on future strategy, write it down, publish it, and share it with the PM who works on that product. This is the best way to practice for the job—clear, succinct communication is a crucial skill, so this exercises that muscle as well.

If you learn the craft, practice the craft, and show publicly that you can do the craft, you’ll be well on your way to moving into product management at your company. When a good job rolls around you’ll be able to point towards the work you’ve done to give hiring managers a sense of your product skills.

And lastly, this is a great job. You will love it!

I recently did a first draft of my manager README and I end it with some books and newsletters that have shaped my thinking, and continue to do so. I thought it might be useful to a broader audience so I’m sharing it here as well. These are the books I keep right next to my desk, and the newsletters I open every time they arrive in my inbox.

Books that have shaped my thinking

• Good Authority: How to Become the Leader Your Team Is Waiting for by Jonathan Raymond
• The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier
• Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow by Matthew Skelton, Manuel Pais, and Ruth Malan
• The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business by Erin Meyer
• Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products by Marty Cagan and Chris Jones
• Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value by Melissa Perri
• Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts by Annie Duke
• No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model by Richard Schwartz

A few newsletters I really like

I am skipping some obvious ones (like Lenny and Platformer) that everyone already subscribes to.

• Department of Product by Rich Holmes (latest product releases and industry news)
• Elena’s Growth Scoop by Elena Verna (product-led growth, product-led sales, and career growth)
• MKT1 Newsletter by Emily Kramer (B2B marketing advice and guides)
• Attention Deficit Marketing Disorder by Mariya Delano (a newsletter about the emotions behind marketing work)
• The Leading Sapiens Weekly by Sheril Mathew (product and technical leadership)
• Culture Study by Anne Helen Petersen (fascinating essays about broad topics related to the culture around us)
• Dense Discovery by Kai Brach (design, tech, sustainability, urbanism, and more)
• Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends by Caitlin Dewey (the best and most interesting internet reading of the week)
• Five things on Friday by James Whatley (more wonderful things to read)
• Transfer Orbit by Andrew Liptak (my favorite newsletter about science fiction, writing, and the future)
• Read More Books by Jeremy Anderberg (book reviews, author interviews, bookish news and lists, and more)
• Garbage Day by Ryan Broderick (the only way I try to stay up to date with internet culture)

Mike Fisher reminds us how important it is for leaders to be excellent listeners in Listen or Speak. This part particularly resonated because it’s a misconception about me that I’ve had to deal with my entire career:

Just because we speak softly doesn’t mean we act with hesitancy or indecisiveness. We can be a strong leader, setting the example, and making the tough decisions all the while communicating in a manner that keeps the conversation going and open to other people’s inputs.

I believe strongly in acting people-first as a leader, and I’ve found that when I’ve gone through interviews and/or job changes in the past there is a very common worldview that equates kindness with indecisiveness. It always takes a little while for people to realize that just because I believe we make better and more successful products when we treat each other well and truly listen to everyone’s input, it doesn’t mean I don’t know how to make decisions.

I haven’t quite been able to put my finger on why this misconception exists in the corporate world, but my current hypothesis is that collaboration gets confused with consensus, and there is a fear that “speaking softly” will result in a consensus culture where decisions take forever to be made. With that part—the dangers of consensus cultures—I do agree with. Consensus cultures often produce watered down, unexciting products. Products where endless rounds of give-and-take have worn down the original idea to a shadow of what it once was. Consensus cultures also wear down the teams working on the product, because no one really gets what they want, they just get some of it.

So I always try to make the point that I prefer collaboration over consensus. In collaboration cultures people understand that even though everyone gets a voice, not everyone gets to decide. People are able to voice their opinions and argue (kindly!) for how they believe things should be done. But it certainly doesn’t mean that everyone has to agree with every decision. That seems to help—so if you find yourself in a similar situation, give that framing a try!

Since this is something I have felt in my own career, it’s also something I try to be cognizant of in my dealings with those around me. Just because someone doesn’t dominate the conversation (see the “babble hypothesis”, which states that those who talk the most tend to emerge as group leaders), or refuses to engage in combative conversations, it doesn’t mean that their viewpoints and opinions are weak or invalid. In fact, the opposite is likely true.