Making the Leap: Breaking into IT Product Management from a non-IT background

A Product Manager in tech doesn’t need to have in-depth technical know-how but instead must have strong leadership skills, attention to detail, and the ability to manage a diverse set of individuals to achieve a shared goal.

This session, we are joined by Nexia Balmoria of BaseUp, Elle Abalos of Kamada, and Gian Carlo Villaluz of Kalibrr to talk about their experience as Product Managers who initially didn’t have technical background and how they broke into the industry.

How did you end up as a Product Manager?

Nexia: I joined BaseUp pretty early, right after graduation. A friend was looking for a Sales Associate and so I thought it was a good opportunity for me to take as my first job.

After doing Sales for some time, I realized I wasn’t getting the results that I wanted so I did some research and one of the articles I read said that “you need to know your product” and I thought that I knew our product pretty well but I realized that I didn’t know how our customers perceived it. I didn’t know how to sell it “their” way and so I started calling our customers asking them what they loved and didn’t love about our product and that’s how I found myself in Product Management as I presented my findings from talking to our customers.

Elle: I started working right after graduation as well. I started at FullyBooked and then Western Union and then entered Ayala Land’s Management Training Program. When I entered Ayala Land, I did Project Management for them which was essentially almost the same as Product Management except that it was in a different industry.

After I left Ayala, I moved to a solar company where I did business development which had a similar job description as a Product Manager and after that, I moved to Habitat for Humanity where I did resource development. I then moved back to Ayala Land in a different department but that was when I relapsed — I have an autoimmune disease that literally left me paralyzed for a month and after treatment, I knew I needed to find another industry which would allow me to sit in front of the desk all day.

I applied to FTW Foundation’s Data Science program and got accepted which is where I found Pam who is the President and Founder of Umpisa. I met her as a potential employer and after the program, I joined Umpisa and that’s how I got into tech product management.

How was your first day as a Product Manager?

Nexi: I started out reporting bugs and reporting them. It wasn’t anything super serious at the time because, honestly, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.

Elle: When I joined Umpisa, I started out as a Product Manager and Kamada was still in the works — at its bare bones form. I introduced some improvements and tried to fix the UI with the team to the product and eventually in the process of developing Kamada v2, we decided to eventually spin off Kamada as a separate entity. During this talk, I was asked to be a Co-Founder for the separate entity.

My first day was pretty chill. I asked Pam what I should be doing and she said that I should just read up on Product Management and learn about the Agile Methodology. I think it does differ between companies where some are chill on the first day while others make you jump right in to the action so I think the best way is to ask you contact person what to expect beforehand so you’re more prepared before starting.

Gian: I can relate. I was also fixing a few bugs when I first started. Was generally just being the fun guy and I was even the mascot for a few days. There are so many bugs in products though and I think doing this kind of work, even if it’s exhausting, makes me understand our product more because now I know what’s wrong with it.

What content did you find impactful in your journey?

Nexi: I think the first “legit” book I read was The Lean Product Lifecycle which really clarified for me what an MVP really was. I also asked my sister, Ann, for help a lot and it was her who introduced me to Product PH and dragged me along the different meetups pre-COVID. I also read a lot of threads and I found that I learn best from people’s past experiences so when I read that they are encountering the same problems as I am, it inspires me to create solutions for them given the perspectives I read about.

Elle: Definition of terms was really helpful for me. Because it’s a new industry, there were so many terms like sprint, and velocity, and the difference between an issue and a bug. Google and the CTO was very helpful for me to just find the definitions of terms and aside from that, I also took courses at edX.org that helped me catch up to different topics that could help me and I also recommend Mountain Goat Software which was recommended to me by one of our consultants.

How did you work into bridging that gap between you and the development team?

Nexi: When I first started I didn’t realize how technical devs could be. I was used to giving vague instructions and just assumed that they would “get” me but working with them made me realize that I have to compose my asks better to get them onboard. Slowly, through asking reading and doubting yourself, I learned how to give clear instructions. I feel like I improved but there definitely is still room for improvement.

Elle: I went through something similar when in the real-estate industry where I had to talk to architects and engineers who had ten to fifteen years of experience and I had to lead them and manage the team as a fresh graduate who had no experience so it was very hard to gain their trust.

At that time, all I did was observe. I observed how they talked, how they worked on their tasks, their personalities, and I think doing this is just as important as learning the jargon when working with a technical team as a non-technical person.

When I did tech product management, I basically did the same thing where I observed for the first few weeks and tried to understand what they were making — the product that was already there. I think it helped that I took the data science course before joining the company because I was familiar with some terms but in the end, Google was still my best friend in understanding the terms the team would use.

How about working with Quality Analysts?

Nexi: I started doing quality control as part of my role but later on I had to request someone to help as I knew my technical skills were lacking. I think the only challenge I encountered in this aspect was the onboarding process.

Since every product is unique, you have to explain the process and the functionality of each feature for the other person to perform properly.

Elle: For me, personally, because I am so detail-oriented, I tend to catch a lot of bugs and so I think it is important to define the expected results during the sprint planning sessions to set expectations with both the development and quality teams.

Eventually, we are able to not only define the expected results but also communicate it step-by-step so that those in QA are able to test it out efficiently.

What is your advice to people who are just starting out as PMs and having the responsibility to manage stakeholders who are often in a higher position?

Nexi: Since our organization is so small, I talk directly to our CEO and CTO every day and what I noticed in my interactions with them is that I couldn’t just make suggestions without data to back it up — I needed to have evidence to show to my bosses to express why we had to do XYZ now, for example.

It was hard to learn for me at the beginning and it was hard to earn their trust at first but since I was able to back my arguments up with data, they were able to learn to trust me more.

Elle: It really depends on who you’re working with but what’s important to me is transparency and being direct. We can’t solve a problem if we don’t know there’s a problem, right? And so being direct and outright is very important for me.

Also, as a Product Manager, you should know the product’s ins-and-outs and so it’s important to know everything about the product when talking to stakeholders — be able to discuss what the product is, how it’s going, what development problems are there, how you’re planning to sell it, and etc.

How can PMs prepare to “say no” to stakeholders who “signs your check”?

Nexi: Most ideas from the stakeholders I’ve dealt with, was inspired by customers so their new ideas inspire me too but, on the other hand, when talking to customers I take a different approach.

The bottom line is to listen to their needs and what their problems are and be able to explain why the product doesn’t have a certain feature yet considering your goals as a PM. For example, your goal for the month or the year might not align with what the customer wants so, if they make sense, then it can be added to the backlog but if not, make them feel like you are considering their idea because shutting them down on the get-go will not foster good relationships in the long-term.

Elle: It’s important to learn how to balance both the needs and expectations of stakeholders and so planning is a very important skill for a PM. And if you have a concrete vision of what your product is or should be then that knowledge is something you and your stakeholders, if communicated well, can used as a baseline. So, once an unreasonable ask comes (and mostly they are “unreasonable” because those requesting it don’t know the details of development), using this baseline effectively will help you in the planning and shaping your product alongside the customers you are serving.

There will definitely be a tension between managing your short-term and long-term objectives so knowing how to prioritize is also another skill that needs to be developed. And to know which features to prioritize, there are many factors such as what stage your product is in, who are your target customers, what’s your team size, do you have enough resources, and what’s the nature of your product.

What moment were you proud of in your PM career so far?

Nexi: For me, it was redesigning our widget. We received positive feedback for the new widget we released and this was one of the first biggest projects under my responsibility and I was very proud of myself and my team at that moment.

Elle: It was launching Kamada and being able to close a B2B deal within a week.

What three most challenging things did you experienced when you first switched to Product Management?

Nexi: For me, it was responsibility because I didn’t know what I was getting myself into especially prioritization and that took a lot of learning for me. Second would be time management because I still do sales and marketing on the side along with my product management role. Thirdly, is when I feel like I get too attached to the product — I needed to learn how to accept criticism from customers on our product else I can never help it grow.

Elle: For me, the culture was quite different coming from a corporate background going into startup so one of my challenges was resources and changing my perception of it because being in a startup means very limited resources compared to corporate. My second challenge was, again related to resources, the kind of people who I worked with. In corporate, I would often be working with people with ten years of experience whereas in startup it would be people with three to five years so I had to change my mentality and way of communicating. Lastly, time management would also be my challenge because PM is basically an all-around job and knowing how to juggle everything and stay sane is still a continuing battle.

In your view, where would you suggest new PMs to start? Within corporations or at a startup?

Elle: For corporate, you will have more resources at your disposal and there will be existing standards and systems that you will need to learn and follow. Whereas with a startup, you’ll have more freedom and control and product ownership which generally makes more people feel fulfilled. You have to balance the pros and cons for either and it’s a matter of finding the right fit based on your personality and goals.

The Q&A session of the event is not included in this article. You can start listening to it through this link or jumping to the timestamp 1:15:18.

Do you want to get involved in the Philippines’ Product Management community? Check out Product PH at Meetup or on Facebook to learn more.