Understanding Tech As a PM… My New Hobby?

Hello fellow PMs, new PMs, tech people, friends etc.,

My name is Alex and I’m currently a product manager building software. I’m sitting here today thinking of a new hobby I can do while I’m snuggling up for winter at home after I work my 9–5 (not so 9–5) job. As you might already tell, I’m not the greatest writer and pretty much hated any English class throughout school but I’m going to take this opportunity to jump out of my comfort zone and introduce you to my first ever blog. If you’re still reading this, I’ll jump into what you can expect. (I still really don’t know what I’m going to do here but from the renown PM saying, ship early and often)

I have only been a product manager for three-ish years and it still feels like when I finally think I understand something, I’ve only peeled one layer of the onion. I assume this feeling is mutual for other PMs.

TECH vs NON TECH PMS?

It seems like PMs have been informally segmented into two groups. PMs with technical knowledge and PMs without technical knowledge. PMs with technical knowledge generally started with some sort of computer science degree and had years of engineering experience. I’m on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. No degree and no engineering knowledge (but hey I have some soft skill qualities?). You couldn’t ask for someone further away from tech when I initially started but I somehow nestled myself into this infamous “Product Manager” position, studied hard, failed, succeeded, delivered, and underdelivered. The PMs that fall under this group understand what the unknown feels like. We live in it. We compensate with asking “why” a lot and use any available resource to achieve our goals.

This blog will be me discovering how I can bridge the gap to the technical side. Now, I know this isn’t a requirement to be successful, but being in the position, it’s something that I find myself the most lost on and I know it’s something others experience as well. I think this blog will not be linear and will go into multiple different paths. I want to have interesting tech stories, interviews, easy to read technical concepts, or even in depth knowledge on concepts with the help of experts. I have no idea how to wrap up blogs, but this IS my first ever blog so I’ll use that as my excuse for now to end it.

Thanks for reading and welcome for any feedback!

Alex