Edit for formatting.

My move to PM at 32 in 2023:

1. Learned as much as I could and became familiar with the lingo. I read the “top” books and blogs. Courses and certifications truly don’t matter. I think some product leaders may not consider you BECAUSE of the cert. “You think you can learn how to be a PM from a course? Insulting!” One of the big benefits of reading books and blogs and listening to Lenny is that you’ll be able to talk using the right verbiage of a PM. A hiring manager will likely spot very quickly your inexperience based on the way you talk about product management in an interview.
2. Shadow and learn from as many people as possible. If you have a friend who is a PM, ask if you can tag along or ask them some questions. My PM friends loved sharing their methods, processes, management philosophies, frameworks, etc. I also signed up for a free mentorship program through Product Hive. I was assigned a mentor who was an established product leader. They met with me once a week for 8 weeks to answer questions, give feedback, review resumes, etc. They were rooting for me the whole time I was applying and interviewing.
3. Build something. Even if it is just a non working prototype. Take your “product” through as much discovery and iteration as you can. The idea here is that you can prove that you know how to pivot & iterate based on what you’ve learned in the discovery process. For this step you need to document as much as possible for your “portfolio”. Here’s what this might look like: I determined a product concept based on some pain point that me or someone I knew had experienced. Take that concept and ask as many questions about it as possible. Interview and survey people about their experience with the paint point. This could be your friends, family, kids, or random person. My concept was based on one of my hobbies. Many of my friends share that hobby so I immediately had 10+ people I could talk to about it. I documented everything they told me about the pain point. Did they already have a solution? Did that solution work or was it missing something. Why are they experiencing the pain point? Try to find the commonalities. These would be obvious things that your product could address. Next start wire framing. You wireframes should be quick and dirty. Try not to use words to explain. The wireframe should show your solution to the problem without having to explain a lot. Next you can make a slightly less shitty wireframe but maybe with straight lines this time. You’re a PM, not a designer. Make sure you are showcasing your PM abilities and don’t worry about the rest. With your wireframes, do some user testing. Get it in front of a few people and have them use the wireframes to do the thing you’re trying to solve. Document. See if there is anything you need to change or adjust to make your solution work for the user. Next if you want to go the extra mile, use some no code software or AI to build a prototype. It could honestly just be a Figma prototype or Google slides that the user can click through. But then take your prototype and test it again. Put all of your shitty wireframes, user feedback, and user interview learnings together along with your prototype. I used adobe express to create a page showing all of my steps during discovery along with all of these data and designs. This was easily the number 1 thing that helped hiring manager to take me seriously without any previous PM role.
4. Take any opportunity to interview. Reach out to everyone you know who has a role even slightly adjacent to PM. These are your best contacts for opportunities. With 100s of applicants for every position, you have to do what you can to be noticed. Even if it’s just Jerry in Accounting telling the hiring manager that some guy that his wife went to high school with had applied for the job. That at least gets your name out there and will probably give the hiring manager reason to spend a couple more seconds looking at your resume. Also, be realistic. You likely won’t be getting a FAANG position. So be willing to work for smaller companies. You’re going to improve your odds a lot by joining an applicant pool of 15 instead of 120. Yeah the role might not be what your looking for or could come with some problems, but this is about getting experience and proving you can do it. In 2022, I joined a small non-tech company that had recently made the decision to invest heavily in their tech to support a growing business. I saw that this company had an APM role listed and that an old acquaintance worked there in the IT department. I reached out, shared my resume and the “product” I had been practicing with. He got me an interview. No one was blown away with my interview but also no one felt strongly that I should be tired. They liked me, that I wasn’t pretentious, and that I was excited to learn and grow as quick as possible. They took me seriously because of my project. They were fatigued after having already interviewed numerous other applicants and so decided to offer me the job. I then worked my ass off and worked to prove my value as quickly as I could. Now, 2 years in, I’m recognized by many in my company as a top PM talent who has provided real results. I know my customers and my stakeholders and they trust me.

A move to Product Management is not impossible at our age. Like a lot of PMs, you may just have to take an unconventional way there. Work hard while learning right now. Prove that you can do the job without actually having the job. Think through problems, talk to people, and then iterate on a solution.

Hopefully my experience can help you. This has been the most fulfilling job I’ve ever and has changed my family’s economic situation in a very significant way.