Any ideas on how to make the move from Business Analyst/Solution Architecture role to Product Manager’s role? Did you personally do it or know someone who did? How was it like?
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Went from a BA to Product Owner to Product Manager. I was a BA at a software company but I was managing a backlog and doing PO-type work (without the title). I got a PSPO certification along the way, which by itself is useless, but it did help me understand the lingo I needed to use to sell myself as a PO.
Still, finding a PO role was brutal. A pre-seed startup rolled the dice on me (and I rolled the dice on them) after a long and arduous job hunt. After about 4 months of writing product requirements documents and helping my director of product strategize, I made the case that the scope of my role had grown to encompass critical PdM tasks. They agreed.
I’m now looking to shift into a PdM role where the pace is slower and the risks are lower, but the insanity I now find myself in was a price I was willing to pay to break into Product. Learned a lot though!
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I did it. Spent two years as a BA reporting to a Sr. PM. As long as you’ve actually held the responsibilities, changing my title to ‘Business Analyst / Product Owner” on my resume got me responses.
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The company I work for does a lot of internal hiring. Most of our L1 and L2 PdMs come from BA backgrounds.
Additionally, we just did a round of external-facing hiring events aimed at people in various competencies to come work for us. One of the career paths we’re pitching is “join as a BA, grow into Product Manager”. This is supported by internal learning, coaching, and mentorship initiatives that the company does (and even has full-time roles assigned to support).
I am pretty sure we’re not the only ones out there.
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I went from BA to Associate PM to Product Manager.
Not sure how I was able to do it. I definitely had PO responsibilities as a BA, which I think helped my transition to PM. I think it definitely helps if you have a BA job with some PO/PM responsibilities.
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I am wondering if you find PM to be more pressured job? I originally like to be a PM but now I hate meetings and such.
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Hmm…BA and SA are two pretty different roles and skill sets. If you’re conflating those two roles then you got some details to sort out first.
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Thank you all for your insights.
@aranTrivedi, I am not conflicted as in my current role and my previous role I did both the responsibilities of BA and SA from inception (i.e. analysis of concept till delivering an impact analysis document with the translated business requirements into technical specs), you may be right because BA/SA responsibilities definitions may vary and change from one employer to another.
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BA roles differ in every company I worked in. I went from a Data Analyst, to Data Engineer to PM. And it helped me since I am a big fan of understanding where a product is headed and how the data is shaping the decisions. It helped me help the sales teams, the Ops folks and most teams in between. But BAs can be so diverse that I see a lot of them jumping into PM as industry hires because of their understanding of the requirements of the product functions