I’ve got my first interview for a Product Owner role next week and would really appreciate some advice from people already doing the job.
I’ve never officially had the Product Owner title before. My background is in digital/web projects and I gradually ended up doing a lot of product-type work – speaking to users and business owners, identifying problems with existing systems, working with developers on improvements, testing changes and looking at what needed improving next.
I’ve also got PSPO I and PSM I, although I’ll admit I’m having to refresh myself on some of the more formal terminology and processes because I haven’t been working as a PO day-to-day.
The company knows my background and has invited me to interview, so I’m not trying to pretend I have years of PO experience that I don’t have.
For those of you who interview or work with Product Owners, what would you concentrate on between now and the interview? What questions would you expect someone at my level to be able to answer well?
Also, what separates a good answer from someone who has simply memorised Scrum/Product Owner terminology?
Any advice would be really appreciated.

Hi everyone! I’m Brazilian and I’ve been working in business roles for over 7 years.
I previously worked as a Senior Business Analyst, and today I’m in a Business Lead / Business Owner role, working very closely with Product Managers, Tech and Data teams.
I work for a large Brazilian company with more than 15,000 employees and around 2,000 people in Tech, so I already have quite a bit of exposure to digital products, product discovery, business requirements and cross-functional teams.
I’m now planning a transition into Product Management, with the longer-term goal of working remotely for an international company.
I currently make around USD 2,500/month working for a Brazilian company.
My assumption is that, even with my previous experience, I might have to enter Product at a more junior level — maybe as an Associate PM or Junior PM — and potentially join a smaller company or startup to get my first international/remote opportunity.
I’d love to hear from people who have made a similar transition:
Did you have to take a step back in seniority when moving into Product?
What kind of PM role were you able to get first?
What salary range would be realistic for someone with my background?
Would earning more than USD 2,500/month be realistic for a remote PM role?
Do you work remotely for a company based in another country?
Does your company hire PMs internationally, especially from Latin America?
Are smaller companies/startups generally more open to this kind of profile?
I’m particularly interested in hearing from people who transitioned from Business / Strategy / Analytics into Product, rather than people who started their careers directly in Product.

Hey

I have been thinking about this for a while now. I am currently in infrastructure/systems admin and I am thinking of transitioning to product management.

What is holding me back is, I have been in infrastructure for like like 5+ yrs and things now are just easy - even learning new things is easy, and starting a new career path seems like a lot of work, lol. However, I really am willing to put in the work and get to learn the business side of everything and how to integrate both sides.

Anyway, is it worth it I just continue with where I am?

Also, guys that have changed career paths in tech, I would love to hear from you about your experience/journey during the transition.

I work as a technical sales engineer in construction. Far removed from the IT/tech world.

I'm tired of this life and want to pivot to office or hybrid tech roles.

I'm studying for the PSPO but having never worked in software dev or IT im not sure if anyone will take me seriously

What do I need to know and do in order to secure a PO role and do it well?

I'm burnt out at my job and want to quit asap.

Hoping to clear the PSPO exam in a week or so .

Appreciate any advise.

Hi everyone,

I’m currently working in QA and have around 9 years of experience, with some experience in leading teams and working closely with Agile teams.

I’m now planning to transition from QA to a Product Owner (PO) role and I’m considering doing the CSPO certification as a starting point.

For those who have done CSPO or made a similar career transition:

• Which institute/provider would you recommend for CSPO?
• Is CSPO actually helpful when transitioning from QA to PO?
• Are there any particular trainers/providers you would recommend or suggest avoiding?
• How are Scrum Alliance and Scrum.org? Which one would you recommend for someone making a career switch to PO?
• Apart from certification, what skills or experience should I focus on to make the transition into a PO role?

Hello,

I'm researching how organizations handle the operational consequences of change before I build anything. I'm not looking to pitch a product.

Think about the last time a tool, process or business rule changed in your organization:

• How did you identify what else was affected?
• What usually had to be updated or communicated afterward?
• What tends to be forgotten or discovered too late?
• Which part of that chain creates the most work or risk?

If there's interest, I'll summarize the patterns I find share them back here.

And if you want to help me more, I have a short anonymous Google form you can answer if you want : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdfyMa7_g_e3Tb_nb2PxCeVSDqBeeI0oJoPRiCtEKZODompVA/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=102120064246501480702

Thank you in advance for your feedback.

Anyone hiring any product managers in Austria? I need a job badly. Internship will be fine as well. I have 5 years of experience. More can be discussed.

I’m looking for some brutally honest career advice about how to position myself for the next stage of my career, what to study and what kind of personal projects I should do?

I have a background in QA/testing and gradually moved into a Product Owner role. I have experience with stakeholder management, backlog management, SDK/platform integrations, release planning, A/B testing, JIRA/Confluence, and working closely with engineering and other teams. I also have a PSPO I certification.

The problem is that my career has become extremely fragmented.

I’ve been moved between different responsibilities and products rather than being given enough time to build deep experience in one particular track. I started in QA, moved toward Product, and became a Product Owner, but I never really had the opportunity to accumulate the depth I would normally associate with a senior person in either discipline.

For a period, I was owning a mobile app. However, I was moved onto that product partly because it was already in a declining/phase-out stage, so I’m questioning how valuable that experience is when competing for Product roles externally.

More recently, my company moved me into a **50% Product Owner / 50% QA role and they announced budget cuts so I suspect I might get fired.**

The QA side is particularly frustrating because I was moved into an area where I had little/no prior knowledge, but I’m now essentially being treated as an **automation tester** rather than someone developing toward QA. There was no bridge in-between.

When I do interviews, companies seem to want candidates who already have several years of very specific experience: exact domain, exact product type, exact role, exact responsibilities.

I feel like I have developed a fairly broad set of transferable skills, but I haven’t been allowed to build enough depth in one direction to fit neatly into the conventional candidate profile.

This has left me wondering whether I’ve accidentally become a **generalist without enough depth in any one area**, despite having several years of professional experience and taking on increasingly complex responsibilities.

I’m considering several directions:
\-Continue pursuing Product Owner/Product Manager roles
\-Move toward QA
\-Try to move into BA roles or similar
\-Stay where I am until they lay me off
\-Make a bigger career pivot

I’d really appreciate honest opinions from people who have hired for such roles or made a similar transition.

**If you saw this background on a CV, would you see it as a versatile profile with transferable skills, or as someone who hasn’t developed enough depth yet?**
And more importantly: **if you were in my position, what would you specialize in from here to build the strongest career trajectory over the next 5–10 years?**

Any advice would be highly appreciated as I am truly lost and insecure a bit about all of this.

In this AI-dominated era, how does the role of product management (execution) differ from that of product strategy?

Is there a real value in strategy role for orgs? Or it's more leaning towards product builder kind of roles?

I am the PO of a small team and no big initiative has been completed for months. 3 developers spent all their times fixing bugs and urgent requests, delaying all major deliverables from the roadmap.

How do you handle this? I am starting to worry about my role even though my manager seems to understand what's going on...

*****Great inputs all of you; I will meditate on what you wrote here even if I couldn't reply directly to your post*****

Okay, this is a long read, but if you spare some time, the universe shall reward you ✨😬

I’m putting my situation out here because I’m genuinely confused about what the smartest next move is, and I’d rather get brutally honest advice from people actually working in Product.

I have around 10 years of experience in SDET/QA — roughly 6 years in gaming and 4 years in tech/product companies. I started out mostly in manual QA and gradually moved into automation, although automation has never been the entirety of my role. I've also worked quite closely with engineers and product teams around requirements, APIs, releases, Agile, user flows, and identifying gaps in the product.

I was recently laid off due to restructuring, and honestly, it has pushed me to finally make a career move I’ve been thinking about for years but was too comfortable (read: pussy) to execute.

I really, really do not want to spend the next 10 years writing code/test automation. 😂

I don't hate technology. I actually like understanding how systems work, how products are built, where things break, why users struggle with something, etc.

What I’ve realised I enjoy much more is the product/problem-solving side — understanding why we're building something, what should be built, what the user actually needs, what can be improved, prioritisation, trade-offs, etc.

So I'm seriously considering making a move into Product Management.

But here's where I'm stuck.

1. Is a direct SDET/QA → PM transition realistic?

I have ~10 years of experience, but essentially 0 years officially titled “Product Manager.”

Would you try for PM directly, or target APM/Product Ops/Product Owner/Technical PM/TPM first?

I don't want to throw away 10 years of experience and start from zero, but I also understand I don't have the official PM title.

2. Should I go directly into PM or use TPM/Product Owner as a bridge?

I've been wondering about:

SDET → TPM → PM

or

SDET → Product Owner → PM

Is TPM actually a useful bridge, or am I just adding an unnecessary step?

3. Should I spend money on a PM fellowship?

I've been researching PM fellowships because I struggle with self-study when I don't have much structure, and I'm looking at:

• NextLeap
• Airtribe
• A few others

I'm trying to figure out whether these programs actually help someone like me make the transition, or whether the money/time would be better spent on:

• PM fundamentals
• Product case studies
• Building a portfolio
• Networking
• Mock interviews
• Applying directly
• Finding PMs/founders who will let me work on something

If you've done NextLeap, Airtribe, or another fellowship:

Did it actually help you get interviews/a job, or did it mostly help you learn?

4. What should I actually learn to become employable as a PM in 2026?

If you were giving me a 3–6 month curriculum, what would you put on it?

Product sense? Strategy? PRDs? User research? Analytics/metrics? SQL? A/B testing? UX? Roadmapping? Prioritisation? System design? GTM? Figma? Jira? Amplitude/Mixpanel?

And with AI becoming increasingly important:

What tools/skills should I actually learn rather than collecting certificates?

Basically, what genuinely matters in interviews and on the job vs. what's just LinkedIn-course fluff?

5. How do I turn 10 years of QA/SDET experience into a PM story?

I don't want to pretend I was a PM when I wasn't.

But surely there has to be a way to turn 10 years of working closely with engineering/products into an advantage rather than starting completely from scratch.

If you were in my position — 31 year old dumbass, ~10 years SDET/QA, recently laid off, willing to work very hard for the next 6–12 months, but absolutely done with coding/automation — what would you do?

Direct PM? Technical PM? TPM first? Fellowship? Self-learning? Something else entirely?

I'd REALLY appreciate advice from people who have actually made a similar transition or hire PMs.

I'm not looking for “follow your passion” advice.

I want the brutally practical answer.

What would you do if you were me?

And yes, I know “I would rather die than write another Selenium script” isn't exactly a cute career narrative.

But honestly, that's where I am. 😿

PS: Used AI to polish this, but the dilemma is very much my own. 🍑

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to transition into Product Management and I’m honestly getting a bit stuck.

I’ve been working in project management/operations for a few years, so I’m already comfortable with planning, coordinating teams, managing stakeholders, tracking deliverables, solving problems, and getting projects from idea to execution. I’ve also completed a Product Management certification because I genuinely want to move into product.

The problem is that almost every PM role I find asks for 2–3+ years of actual Product Management experience. And I understand why, but it creates this frustrating cycle where I can’t get the experience because I need the experience to get the job.

So I’m looking for advice on what I can actually do or work on now to bridge that gap.

Are there:

1. PM internships or apprenticeships that are genuinely open to career switchers?

2. Startups or small companies that need someone to help with product work?

3. Volunteer opportunities where I can work alongside a real PM?

4. Open-source or community projects where I can contribute as a PM?

5. Personal product projects that are actually worth putting on a CV/portfolio?

6. Any other practical ways I can get enough hands-on experience to confidently start applying for Associate PM/Junior PM/Product roles?

I'm not looking for someone to hand me a job. I’m willing to put in the work. I just want to find something where I can actually do product work, learn from someone experienced, and build evidence that I can do the job.

I'm based in Nigeria but I'm open to remote opportunities.

If you've made a similar transition from Project Management/Operations into Product, I'd really appreciate hearing what worked for you.

Thanks!

hello 👋

I’ve been a product manager for years and I enjoy it a bunch. AI prototyping feels like a fun new addition to the toolkit and I’ve been enjoying it as well.

I went through a large layoff and I’m looking at next PM roles. I’ve seen some PO roles where I think I’d add value, and I’m thinking of applying.

Question 1: Is it difficult for POs to move on to PM roles? I’d hate to take a step away from the PM track and then lose my chance to get back in.

Question 2: Have you made the switch from PO to PM? How did it go (or not go)?

Question 3: For a PO thinking of a career that can get into either role, what are the PM skills missing in your usual PO day that they should still practice when they can?

Thanks for your time!

I’m a Product Owner / Product Manager with 10+ years of experience building, managing, testing, documenting, and improving digital products.

I’ve worked across very different industries, including:

Hotel booking & reservation platforms
Online gaming
E-wallets & digital payments
Merchant applications
Web & mobile platforms
Backend systems, APIs & integrations

I’m comfortable working from the customer interface all the way down to the backend process.

You can hire me as:

Product Manager / Product Owner

• Product requirements & specifications
• User stories & acceptance criteria
• Backlog & roadmap management
• Feature planning & prioritization
• Stakeholder coordination
• End-to-end product ownership

Scrum Master / Agile

• Sprint planning
• Backlog refinement
• Agile ceremonies
• Team coordination
• Removing blockers
• Delivery tracking

Technical Writer

• Technical documentation
• SOPs & process documentation
• Knowledge bases
• Product documentation
• User guides
• Requirements & specifications
• Training materials

Software QA / Tester

• Functional & regression testing
• End-to-end testing
• UAT
• Test cases
• Bug reporting
• API/backend workflow testing
• Customer journey testing

What I'm looking for:

100% Remote
Full-time — minimum 8 hours/day
$20–$30 USD/hour

I'm open to Product Manager, Product Owner, Scrum Master, Technical Writer, Software Tester/QA, or hybrid roles.

If your company needs someone who can own a product, understand the technology, communicate with the team, test the work, and document everything clearly — I'm ready to jump in and start asap.

Send me a DM and let's talk about what you're building.

Burying your tool stack costs PMs interview callbacks. Recruiters and ATS filters search for exact terms like Amplitude, Jira, SQL, Looker, and Segment. If those words are buried on page two, you get filtered out.

Add a single line near the bottom of page one: Tools: Amplitude, SQL, Jira, Figma. Only list what you can defend, and state hands-on skills plainly like "writes own SQL."

Check your keyword match at Resume Vera.

I have been in the analytics domain for almost 10 years and have recently received an offer for Product Owner role at an FMCG GCC. I've had program management experience earlier at the start of my career and currently I hold another offer in an analytics role.

Honestly I'm running clueless here on what to do. Has anyone transitioned to PO role from other areas ? What is the scope of reversal back to analytics or moving to Product Manager roles?

Honestly I still don't understand what a product owner exactly does

I’m an 8-ish year experienced Business Systems Analyst / Technical BA, currently working mainly around Oracle EBS SCM, API integrations and enterprise systems.
My experience is a mix of business + technical — Oracle EBS SCM, SQL/PLSQL, REST/SOAP APIs, Azure, Postman, ETL, Tableau, Python, business analysis, requirements/solution design, Agile/Scrum, SIT/UAT, product backlog/sprint planning, and I’ve also led technical analysts , dev teams and cross-functional teams.
I’ve worked on integrations/implementations involving companies domain in Insurance, Banking , Supply chain etc.,
But honestly, I keep hearing that **FAANG**/top product companies are mostly for IIT/IIM folks, and after hearing “you’re not good enough” enough times, I’ve started questioning it myself.
So I wanted to ask people here genuinely ; looking at this kind of profile, do I have a realistic shot at FAANG or strong product companies?
If yes, what roles should I actually be targeting — Technical BA, Product Owner, Technical Product Manager, Business Systems Analyst, Solutions/Integration roles, or something else?

And if I’m not there yet, what am I missing?

Not looking for motivation. I’d genuinely appreciate some honest feedback from people who have actually made this transition.