product management, it is essential to understand the difference between

outcome and output. The outcome is a product's result or impact on its

intended users, while the output is the product or feature itself

When I refer to “product” in the context of HR, I am referring to the products

used/ services provided to employees.

Please be prepared to discuss your resume and background, along with the following prompt for
discussion with Cecile:
Imagine that the People Technology and Services function is going through a journey to transform from
technical expertise to a product manager/owner role. As the Sr. Mgr Talent Systems, you have been asked
to discuss your strategy for transforming the team and developing a technology roadmap for Talent,
Performance, Learning and Recruiting. Review the outline of your approach and the type of information
you will include for a discussion with the HR and IT leadership team.

Strategies to move to PM

Assess your strengths and gaps

2
Learn the fundamentals of product management
3
Gain practical experience
4
Build your portfolio and network
5
Prepare for interviews and negotiations
6
Here’s what else to consider
Nurturing the Product Lifecycle

Reasons for Transitioning

There are several reasons why project managers may consider transitioning to product management:

1. The desire for more strategic and long-term impact on a company's product offerings.
2. The opportunity to work more closely with customers and drive innovation.
3. Greater potential for career growth and increased earning potential.
4. roject managers focus on executing projects, while product managers are responsible for the
entire product lifecycle.
5. Product managers have a more customer-centric approach, whereas project managers prioritize
project deliverables.
6. Product managers often have more influence on strategic decisions, while project managers focus
on tactical execution.

Constant transformation is now the norm. Unwavering customer focus has become an absolute must.
Competing effectively requires organizations to draw on data and technology to continuously innovate
and enhance customer experiences. And this dynamic environment calls for an entirely new kind of tech
transformation management

challenges

Recognize that transitioning from project management to product management may not be easy. Be
prepared for potential setbacks, and stay persistent in your pursuit of this career change.

1. Assess your strengths and gaps

The first step is to assess your current skills and identify your strengths and gaps. Technical professionals
usually have strong analytical, problem-solving, and technical skills, which are valuable for product
management. However, they might need to improve their skills in areas such as customer empathy,
business acumen, stakeholder management, and presentation. You can use online tools, such as skill
assessment tests, self-evaluation surveys, or feedback from peers and mentors, to get a clear picture of
your skill level and areas for improvement.
1. Figure out customer’s requirement

2. Develop a requisite business model

3. Skilling Strategy
4. Product roadmap creation
5. Timely support service

Human Resource Through

The Lens of Product
Management
Somrita Sen
·
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Published in

Business Thoughts

·
4 min read
·
Sep 29, 2022
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1
The human resources department in most organizations is an often
misunderstood yet integral part of the core business. Ask any employee
about what they actually think their HR department does and the most
common answers would undoubtedly be recruitment and employee
engagement. And you know what? That is not necessarily a bad thing.

HR management entails a bevy of critical functions, ranging from

conflict management and benefits administration to complex
performance management and talent development. All these processes
have a direct impact on the company’s bottom line.

However, a good HR team is mostly discreet and seamless. If they have

all the right processes in place then the employees should only be
feeling the positive impacts of HR operations. A good HR personnel
must be able to tie everything together without causing visible ripples.

And in that aspect, the HR function has so many parallels with product
management.

HR as Product Management

In my recent deep dive into product management principles and

practices, I couldn’t help but notice the analogies between PM and HR.
In my years as an HR business partner, I seem to have essentially
worked as a product manager. This intrigued me into some
introspection and eventually epiphanies about how the two
functionalities are quite similar.
The best HR people do think like product managers. If HR is the
product, then all the processes, policies, benchmarks, services, and the
overall company culture are the features. The employees are
undoubtedly the users. And the employee engagement and happiness
indices represent whether you have loyal customers (read employees)
who can be potential brand advocates.

But apart from the above, here are 5 pertinent ways in which one could
compare HR to product management.

1. The One Unifying Factor

The primary role of the product manager is to function as the ultimate

go-to person. They are the one who holds all the strings together and
ensures that things come together harmoniously in the end. The role of
the HR business partner is no different from this.

In almost all organizations HR is the person the employees go to if they

have any issues. Be it something as innocuous as applying for their
leaves through the HRMIS portal or a serious matter like grievance.
Good HR personnel knows that they play a crucial part in ensuring that
things run smoothly in their organization.

2. Customer Satisfaction is Paramount

The ultimate goal of any product strategy is to ensure maximum

customer satisfaction through the product. Similarly, the HR org is also
immensely focused on attaining maximum customer satisfaction while
implementing their processes. Here, of course, the employees are the
customers.

In my experience, almost all the HR processes and principles are

designed keeping the employees in mind. While these processes serve
various purposes, the eventual impact that HRs look for is employee
satisfaction. This is mostly because a happy employee is usually an
indicator of a healthy organization.

3. c

In the world of product management, the emphasis usually lies on the

outcomes rather than the outputs. These are quantified and measured
through OKRs and metrics. But product management is not the only
place that does this.

The HR organizations also judge its impact through OKRs and metrics.
These are designed to measure the extent to which the HR processes
solve the employees’ problems. Most HR problems are quantifiable
and metrics can be designed for the same.

4. Onboarding And Retention

Two of the most pertinent objectives of product management are to

onboard new customers and then retain them. These are also the two
foremost goals of the HR organization.
A deliberate and thoughtful onboarding process helps HRs to integrate
the new joiners seamlessly into the company. This onboarding process
actually starts before the day of the joining and continues for weeks or
even months after the employee joins.

Similarly, retention strategies are formulated carefully, keeping in

mind the specific needs of the organizations. Many a time HRs

5. Overall Business Impact

Both the PM and HR functions operate with the ultimate goal of

optimizing their business impact. In the case of PM, this is manifested
through the improvement of metrics like customer onboarding,
retention, CTR, product adoption, etc. All these finally contribute to
the top line growth.

The HR team also puts emphasis on overall business impact through

its policies and processes. In their case, this can happen through things
like manpower rationalization, productivity analysis, automating
processes, etc. These eventually lead to efficiencies that impact both
the top line and bottom line of the company

Transition to Product Management from

Technical roles
Product Managers are conductors and connectors that tie customer problems to ideas,
people, process, roadmap to deliver customers something of value. They own the
product and strive towards creating something that's exciting, that differentiates them
against the pack clearly.

A technical person is responsible for their areas, deliverables around the product, there
are many dimensions to it. For a Technical Marketing Engineer(TME) it is sales
enablement, product guides/videos, demos, customer engagement - pre and post sales,
presentations in different forums, providing continuous feedback on product/technical
direction etc. Its very demanding. You need to be a subject matter expert on your area.

A key difference is, while a product manager owns overall responsibility of a product, a
Technical Marketing Engineer is an expert in certain areas or all depending on your level
and drive those to success. If you are a Developer or QA your areas will be different but
idea is the same.

When transitioning from a technical role, it is easy to think that the other side is rosy,
wrong!!. Here are a few things that helped me transition.

1. First thing is you need to be ready for it. What I mean by this is following.

 Think about what do you want to do 5 or 10 years from now and how you want to grow.
 Are you a big picture person or hands on to understand all the details before big picture?
As a PM, you need to understand the problem you are solving for the customer and not
how you solve it. Yes, you need to pay attention to usability, serviceability but why are
you solving it is the bigger question. Start looking at things from outside in.
 Follow your passion. Is solving customer problem your passion? Do you like to be
technical and provide a solution or want to help solve the problem?
 Do you collaborate well with everyone and drive consensus(not just discussions)? This is
an important skill to have since you will be working with a wide variety of people.
 Are you ready to listen, analyze, synthesize? A lot of us from technical background, own
one or multiple product areas and like to be an expert. We love to present, being listened
to and considered as expert. We derive satisfaction from that. Being a product manager is
opposite to it. You are not an expert but you need to drive a product strategy/roadmap, be
a glue to the team and enable the team to deliver functionality that is of value to
customers.
 Do you know how to delegate? You will have no authority as a product manager, so
delegating is something you have to learn to scale.
 Can you focus on most important things and rationalize your no’s, without saying “Sorry
that is a no”? This is a hard skill especially if stakes are high, but more you are exposed
more you will learn. I have known people who are excellent PM’s and you don't know
when they said no, but that was their answer. They focus on things that are key to product
 success and can say no without antagonizing people. As a PM, you have to learn to say
No’s.
 You have to know when to say “Yes”. This is a very important skill because people need
to know that you are committed to the product, growth, that you stand for something.
 You need alignment to larger business goals and your companies mission statement. To
articulate the purpose of your idea, you need alignment to show how your feature will
improve overall value of your product and your companies strategy and philosophy. As a
technical person, you don't pay a lot of attention to this and as you grow up in a technical
role you will start thinking about this, but as a PM you need to do this all the time.

2. Interview your colleagues, peers, seniors and express your interest and get tons of
feedback from them. I might have discussed with atleast 10 people to understand pros
and cons, my friend who is a Senior PM mentioned he discussed with 25.

 Be ready with an answer for a repeated question "Why do you want to be a PM", this is to
test your motivation, resolve, thought and goals. Don't worry about detractors.

3. Prove that you are ready. Knowing you are ready is not enough, you need to prove it.

 There are so many product management courses available. Enroll in one and understand
what it takes to be a PM. It will teach you product sense and how to think like a product
manager. You will be appreciative of that. Again, it is not mandatory but something that
could orient and focus on areas you may not be aware of. Again another Product Leader
from Google who is a good friend recommended this.
 If you have a strong technical background, you can be a Technical Product Manager. If
you want to focus on the business side an MBA would definitely help. I have also seen
non-MBA folks do great in business.
 Knowing your customer, competition and market is key for building a product strategy,
roadmap etc. Read a lot and understand motivations behind why people do what they do.
Again an advice given by an old friend who is a Product Leader in Cisco.
 Do it before you dive. Volunteer in a certain project, a task that a PM would undertake.
e.g: You can write a Product Requirement Document. This takes time and requires a lot
of thought. You can also lead a program and learn from that. It gives you appreciation of
what is there on the other side.
 If you have a resume, this is the time to look at it and rewrite it. You need to highlight the
outcomes of your project and its benefits not how you executed it. A lot of us do this
mistake. Make it short, crisp and clear. Get help in reviewing the resume.

4. Announce your readiness.

 Speak to your peers, managers, well wishers, friends, reach out to the community.
 Put yourself out there. You may fail in the interviews initially. This is based on your
readiness. There are websites that help you prepare for the interview. A colleague/coach
told me that she was facing so many failures that she had to take 1:1 coaching to see that
she had to change a small thing that made her successful.
  Technical experts provide best way of solving problem. I was told by people you can be a
great architect. Yes while that is satisfying that does not align itself to your longer term
goals. So know yourself and see how you need to transition.
 Practice a lot(more than what you think you do, so that you can answer questions when
someone wakes up from sleep. One of the TED talk presenters mentioned they practiced
for more than 100 times) for these interviews, more you practice the better you become.
Never get bogged by failures.

It is easier to switch jobs internally where people know you, you have earned your
respect and trust. That does not mean you should look for newer opportunities, do so
by all means, it depends on entry point when you switch roles.

There is always an opportunity waiting for you. Remember this during your failures.
Someone told me this and I am passing this on to you. It sounds pretty obvious but you
need to feel it to continue.

Have patience. A lot of things don't happen because of different reasons, sometime you
may not know the reasons. Dont get frustrated. Chug along and keep trying.

So, are you ready to jump? Good luck with it. If I can do it, you can too…