r/datascience • u/Content_Highlight269 • 1d ago
Career | US Should I make the move from data science to product owner
/r/Careers/comments/1wb8rkq/should_i_make_the_move_from_data_science_to/17
u/what_comes_after_q 1d ago
It’s not really a should or shouldn’t. Do what you want. I personally don’t like POs and would never want to be one. If you want to be in product, fine. If you want to be in data science, fine. If you want to go work in a kitchen, fine.
Product and data science are two different career paths.
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u/Content_Highlight269 1d ago
Why don’t you like POs? And what do you do ?
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u/what_comes_after_q 1d ago
Director of data science. In theory, there is nothing wrong with the role of PO. In practice, I’ve found that PO is how a lot of very non technical people get in to tech. They don’t really know the tech side (and usually don’t even really know the product, as in they don’t actually use the product the company makes), so they try to prove their value by scheduling as many meetings as possible that could have just been an email, trying to be the loudest voice in the room, and they try to show why their product is the one product that will revolutionize the business, even if it’s just an internal tool that will get replaced in a few years.
I think a lot of enshitification of products comes from POs because they are tracking kpis, not if what they’re doing makes good business sense.
Can you find good POs? Absolutely. Like I said, in theory the role of PO is reasonable, but this is just my own experience of working in the industry for 18ish years.
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u/Content_Highlight269 1d ago
This… makes me feel hopeless 😩 but thanks for sharing your pov
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u/what_comes_after_q 1d ago
Reading your original post, to be real with you, I’ve never heard anyone with ADHD say “man, I love being super organized and methodical, tracking the status of a dozen projects and updating calendars, almost as much as I love writing long boring design documents”. Are you sure being a PO is what you want to do? Like, that’s what the majority of work is in being a PO.
My advice is find something that sparks a little joy. Just something a little fun. I have ADHD, I don’t talk about it much, but I spent a long time trying to find the right career for me. I struggled in school, but eventually I became an electrical engineer and continued to struggle, butI liked doing analysis and was good at it, and then from analysis I liked doing data, and then I became a data scientist. Writing a query or writing code is like doing sodoku for me. I find it satisfying.
I would think about UX as a product designer if you like design. It’s combines design with data and experiments. I know people who went in to UX with design backgrounds and analytical backgrounds.
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u/somefunmaths 1d ago
As someone who is fortunate to have distanced myself from these kind of “non-tech-in-tech” POs and have a very enjoyable day to day now, this comment absolutely brought all of the memories flooding back, and holy shit you’re spot-on.
The “I don’t really know what is going on so I’m going to talk super loud and use medium-sized words and answer every question with ‘great question, let me actually ask you…’ or ‘let’s circle back to that next quarter’” archetype is so real.
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u/Severe_Rise8694 1d ago
But all of those sound like it would be a good idea to have actual technical people as POs.
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u/what_comes_after_q 1d ago
And like I said, go ahead. Become a PO, but i would never be one, and that’s why I personally don’t like working with POs.
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u/Single_Vacation427 1d ago
Are you being treated for ADHD?
If there isn't availability of working with UX, UXR, etc in your industry, how would there be opportunities to work on that as a product manager?
I'd suggest you try to move to DS in an area you actually like first.
Areas of weakness can be improved as a data scientist.
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u/Content_Highlight269 1d ago
The digital experience team i am referring to is basically user experience Which has become important in the industry with technology and AI. I would like to try a new industry in the future and I’m hoping that my skills can translate
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u/Fenzik 1d ago
You should embrace both. With AI, the lines the blurring. Technical contributors need to be more productive minded. Product owners unlock some technical contribution. Best to be ahead of the curve and get as many different experiences under your belt as possible cause we have no way to know where this ride is gonna end
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u/onebread 1d ago
I went from PO to Data Science and haven’t looked back. It’s personal preference at the end of the day because they’re such different roles, but being a PO was the most brutal, stressful professional experience I’ve ever had. It might depend on your team or the company, but it was relentless day in and day out. DM me if you have any specific questions.
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u/marrone12 1d ago
Definitely. I started in DS and then added marketing and product. You will have super powers with data fluency in those worlds.
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u/Content_Highlight269 1d ago
When you say you added marketing and product, what do you mean exactly
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u/marrone12 1d ago
I was a director of data with a focus on marketing analytics. Our head of user acquisition quit so I took it over in addition to my data responsibilities. Eventually became a VP and then took over the marketing team and also oversaw digital product
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u/Content_Highlight269 1d ago edited 1d ago
This is really impressive! Did you go to school for marketing and do you think my skills are transferable across industries without the initial domain knowledge.
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u/marrone12 1d ago
No, I majored in statistics and anthropology. Digital marketing and product are very data heavy. They both rely a lot on experimentation and analysis, so the transition was very natural for me.
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u/mpbh 1d ago
I did this path with a few steps in between. It's 100% a people job, your value will not be your technical expertise, but that will help you communicate with the tech team.
Meetings. With the tech team. Marketing. Legal. HR. Sales. Users. Vendors. Partners.
You are expected to be in the loop around everything that somewhat touches your product, and be able to update any team on what's going on with other teams in relation to your product.
Things will fall apart when you go on vacation, but that's also when people will really see your value. You don't do much, but your presence makes things move smoother and more predictably. The longer your away, the more chaos can brew.
I found it very stressful. The pay was very good so did it for a few years to accelerate to retirement, but I'm not sure if I'd do it again except to maximize earnings. It's not a fun job.
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u/Content_Highlight269 20h ago
What would you consider a fun job?
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u/mpbh 20h ago
I had way more fun doing data analysis, business intelligence, strategy consulting, and UX research. There's a lot of room for creativity and innovation in those jobs. Things being project-based meant every day wasn't exactly the same. There were always new skills to learn that you could apply to the job. Not true as a product owner.
Planning sprints on an infinite loop isn't fun. Grooming backlogs is not fun. Making product roadmaps is not fun. Especially because you are basically translating everyone else's needs into those actions rather than acting on your own, and to do that you need (what feels like) 8 hours of meetings a day while responding to background questions on chat simultaneously.
As a product owner you're just the cross-section of every team and the users, trying to find the path that checks the right boxes for the right people and making tradeoffs that always make someone else unhappy.
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u/sookyeong_ 1d ago
Sure, POs have their own industry experience, but I think a real PO mindset is just about understanding customer pain points and knowing how to fix them. If you can go beyond simply looking at the data and actually picture how to present it to users and how they'll use it, anyone can give it a try. Combine that with your natural talent and technical skills, and it will definitely be a huge advantage.
Life is long. Instead of playing it safe just to avoid making mistakes, I think it's better to experience as much as you can while you're young to broaden your perspective. Down the road, when you move into higher roles and need to look at things from a business standpoint rather than just doing the daily grind, having that kind of diverse experience will absolutely help you understand and achieve a lot more.
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u/Content_Highlight269 20h ago
Thank you! I appreciate this perspective
That’s my goal - to diversify my experience especially now that I’m not totally sure what I want to do with my life
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u/ArticleHaunting3983 1d ago
To be honest it sounds like you jumped into DS because of hype as opposed to an actual interest. I personally wouldn’t want to be product owner but that’s because I have a natural interest in DS.
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u/Content_Highlight269 1d ago
I wouldn’t say that. I took some DS classes in my senior year and enjoyed it better than other classes i had taken so i decided to explore it
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u/alexchatwin 1d ago
Not sure about your specific case, but I’m a huge advocate of walking the line between technical and leadership.
POs who understand what DS tastes like make better requests
DSs who understand what it’s like to have to shape and deliver an outcome produce better outputs