Career Paths into Product Management and Product Marketing

Last week, at the joint meeting of the Cambridge Product Management Network and Cambridge Network, I shared my observations and thoughts about common (and not so common) routes that Product Managers & Product Marketers have taken to get to their current position. Céline Sharpe from FIS (formerly WorldPay) shared her practical experience.

To view the slides, please go to Career paths into product management and product marketing on SlideShare

In summary, there are three core skills that product managers / marketers need have their arms around:

• Proposition Development (eg Sales and Marketing)
• Technical Construction (ie Engineering)
• Value Realisation / Utility (eg User Experience, Implementation, Customer Support)

Given that technology innovation dominates the software industry then this is obvious. (Product Managers in the Food industry are likely to have Food Tech credentials, right??)

But there is a whole lot of other skills requires - and these are skills that can't be taught, but have to be learnt on the job:

• Human 'Savvy' (ie awareness or sensibility)
• Communication
• Trust
• Corporate 'Savvy'
• Leadership
• Project and Process Management
• Translation

See SlideShare for more details.