Do you want to become a product manager?

I have been in PM for 10 years and have been hiring PMs in the last 4. And what I can tell you from experience is that many make the same 3 mistakes over and over. At first, I thought that it was just a coincidence, but time and dozens of interviews showed that it was pretty typical.

Mistake #1: Scrum != Product management

By learning about the Scrum methodology, or even worse, having a "Scrum product owner" or "Scrum master" certificate, you don't automatically qualify as a product manager. There are tons of resources on the topic of the difference between PMs and POs.

Some companies use one for the other, some have both roles. Historically, PO was a role within the Scrum framework, while PM was a profession that might include the PO responsibilities depending on where you work. Big organizations sometimes separate Product discovery and strategy responsibilities from product execution. And Some companies don't have POs or PMs at all.

Mistake #2: you're not a shot-caller, at least not in the sense of direct authority

Don't make the mistake of thinking that you must come up with all the brightest solutions and ideas while others sit and wait for your commands. You might be the person who connects the dots, but you'd better be smart and effective in involving and engaging all stakeholders, especially your business, design, and engineering counterparts. And even more critical - you will need to learn to understand what your customers truly want. If you imagine PMs to be mad scientists sitting alone, tinkering with technology, and googling stuff to come up with the next best idea, you're wrong. Research is part of the job, but the best ideas usually come from others.

Mistake #3. You read and learn about how to BE a great PM instead of learning how to BECOME one.

Here is an ugly truth many hiring managers struggle with their entire career: it's extremely difficult to 100% predict someone's future performance by interviews alone. We use interviews as a proxy indicator of future success, but I have been duped a few times by stellar interview-surfers.

I hate to admit it but interviewing for a job and succeeding in that job are two different skills. And many would-be PMs don't really understand what's expected to clear each stage of the interview process. So you might read everything about how to be a product manager, but if your interviewing skills suck, if you're quoting and misquoting Medium posts and PM books trying to display competence, or have horrible storytelling skills, it will be just extremely hard to make it.