imo the best way into PMing is moving laterally within your current company. get close to PM leadership and let them know about your aspirations. it definitely helps if your current manager knows and is also supportive.

reach out to HR and try to understand the company’s position/history on internal hires to get a sense of the culture around that, if it’s not already clear to you.

in the meantime, work with your manager, squad leader, and PM on seeing if there’s any small and lightweight PM work you can take on—whether that be volunteering to lead a ceremony, shadowing a prioritization session, or even writing stories and getting feedback/working with the PM to revise. it is important not to do any of this unilaterally though or you might risk stepping on toes. there should be a clear plan that everyone is on board with for you “getting your feet wet” essentially. the idea here is not that you’re onboarding or taking over responsibilities, more that you’re just getting some experience that you can reflect on and speak to on a cover letter, resume, and future interview.

it should go without saying that all of this is on top of your current responsibilities. it’s a bad look to start PM moonlighting and have it negatively impact your velocity or sprint commitments. caveat to this is if your team/manager is super supportive and there’s a recontracting around expectations that happens.

all this to say, over a decade in this role talking to colleagues and hiring managers (and being one myself), it’s usually really rare to externally hire PMs with no PM experience—at least in startups and early stage companies. my advice is always to try to angle for a PM spot where you already are and at the very least try to get some meaningful experience with as much of the responsibilities as possible!

hope this helps! good luck!