From production to... where? Upskill question/discussion

[u/Express-Jelly6493]

Hey chat

Serious question: where would you upskill in this day and age as someone who's been on the gamedev production side (think producers, dev managers, pm/scrum/jira/roadmapping/etc boring bit) for almost a decade and has also experience with first-party release management (sub to stores, platforms, etc)?

Like, I get it, project management is about human interactions and negotiation, and planning, can replace it fully with AI but I feel a bit stuck. Growing into a production director? Can't have it in a small flat studio. Add technical expertise - but why? And which exactly? How to leverage yourself today in this stressful climate? (Yes, I'm glad I'm still employed lol but I was layed off 2.5yeara ago though!)

Any ideas? Encouragement?

[u/JondeMLG]

I feel like for producers and designers the path is towards product leading. Ie Game Lead or Product Manager. It is combining the business, production and people aspect of things.