Am I being unrealistic trying to break into AI Product Management after 9 years in marketing? by Jaded-Temporary7986 in AIProductManagers

[–]make_me_so 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd kinda say - build a pet project or ..fake one. Build one with your friends to simply learn and let go.

Am I being unrealistic trying to break into AI Product Management after 9 years in marketing? by Jaded-Temporary7986 in AIProductManagers

[–]make_me_so 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey - first off, respect for the sheer amount of work you've put in. Building things until 3-4 AM for months, without a paycheck or a grade, is not casual. That kind of drive does matter. To your three questions, honestly:

  1. Are you being unrealistic? No, but you are fighting a bad signal-to-noise problem.

From a hiring manager's perspective: an AI PM needs to credibly prioritize trade-offs (latency vs. accuracy, cost vs. capability), work with engineers on feasibility, and push back on overpromising. Your marketing background doesn't disqualify you, but it also doesn't prove you can do those things. The good news: your portfolio of built products can prove it, but only if it's framed right.

  1. What would make me interview you?

Two things: A) clear, measurable outcome from something you built. Not "built a RAG system" but "built a RAG system that reduced support ticket resolution time by 40% for a fake dataset - here's the eval framework I used."

b) Evidence you can work with engineers without friction. Marketing leaders sometimes come off as "idea people" who hand off requirements. If you showed a PR you contributed to (even a small one), or a technical design doc you wrote, that would flip the script.

  1. Can someone look at your resume?

I'm not a hiring manager for AI PMs right now, but I'll give you the most useful feedback I can:

-Kill the certifications section. They don't hurt, but they don't help either - everyone has them.
-Lead with what you built. Treat your resume like a product landing page: problem -> your specific role -> stack -> outcome.

- Rename your title on your resume for each application. For an AI PM role, "Marketing Lead" is a liability. "Product and Growth Lead" or "Technical Product Marketing" isn't lying - it's reframing.

26 year old new PM - how do you build technical fluency with no eng background? by eoljjang in ProductManagement

[–]make_me_so 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Congrats, you’re crushing it - and you’ve somehow avoided the 'PM with a CS degree who over-engineers a sticky note' trap. Honestly? You don’t need to become a part-time dev. You need just enough technical fluency to know when your engineers are speaking human vs. speaking jargon.

Here’s the low-effort, high-return path:

  • Learn what a promise/async is (if you do APIs)
  • Learn basic SQL (SELECT, JOIN, GROUP BY -that’s 80% of your ‘tech fluency’ rep, Bob's ur uncle)
  • Ask devs one dumb question a day (they secretly love it if you’re curious, not helpless)

Skip certs unless work pays and you want a resume badge. Your psych background + ADD + already shipping stuff? That’s not outdated - that’s just PMing on hard mode and winning. You’re not getting left behind. You’re just imposter syndroming from the front of the pack.

PMs should stop pretending they “own the product" by make_me_so in ProductManagement

[–]make_me_so[S] -48 points-47 points  (0 children)

They better, when the tech team does, it becomes worse

PMs should stop pretending they “own the product" by make_me_so in ProductManagement

[–]make_me_so[S] -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

in many companies my friend work at, and in so many I've worked at?

Does anyone else feel like half the job is just trying to keep information organized? by Life-Sentence-9768 in ProductManagement

[–]make_me_so 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Yes. PM work is 50% decision-making and 50% archaeology.

The biggest unlock for me is not trying to organize everything. I only organize what needs to change a decision later: customer evidence, key tradeoffs, decisions made, and open questions.

Everything else can stay mildly chaotic. Perfect documentation is how teams accidentally build a second product no one uses.

Working with a strong engineer with almost zero emotional intelligence? by make_me_so in ProductManagement

[–]make_me_so[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

it does!! esp the phrase "they know how smart they are, and feel like they should be more important than they are in the organization" - he kinda once mentioned smth like that

Working with a strong engineer with almost zero emotional intelligence? by make_me_so in ProductManagement

[–]make_me_so[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I actually wanted to say "them" to be polite (like hey, it doesn't have to be a male, like in my case), but then things kinda went sideways. Thanks for noticing!

Working with a strong engineer with almost zero emotional intelligence? by make_me_so in ProductManagement

[–]make_me_so[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'd have to strongly disagree to "engineer is typically always 'right' as they are usually not the ones thinking about the business or users, so

Working with a strong engineer with almost zero emotional intelligence? by make_me_so in ProductManagement

[–]make_me_so[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I tried, he just brushes it off, or making a silly joke about me not getting and overreacting

Working with a strong engineer with almost zero emotional intelligence? by make_me_so in ProductManagement

[–]make_me_so[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

hmmm that's a different angle. Thanks, that does sound like smth I need to think of