Dev to PM

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A common career question I get is how switch from dev to PM.  When someone asks me this, the first question I ask is: why? More often than not, people are at this phase:

  1. Switch to PM
  2. ???
  3. Profit!

I’m only partially joking.  Before deciding if you want to switch, it’s critical that you figure out why you want to. If you don’t know why, you could go through a bunch of work only to find that it isn’t at all what you expected.  Or worse, you won’t be able to make the leap without it. Whether you’re considering dev to PM or any other discipline change, get out a piece of paper. I’ll wait.

  1. List EVERY reason why you want to change disciplines. I mean it. E.V.E.R.Y reason. Even the silly ones and the ones you are embarrassed about. All of it. Give yourself a solid 10 min. What are you running from? What will be easier in the other role? If a thought comes up during this exercise, write it down, I don’t care if it doesn’t make sense.  Is it all there?
  2. Now evaluate your answers. Go through one by one. This is where you can separate out which reasons are driving your decision and which answers you are willing to share.  Put a star next to each one that is a strong motivator for you. Then go through and circle each one that will become part of your pitch when asked why you want to change.  In some cases the lists will be the same. There’s a third bit of gold you can get from your list.  Use this as your guide to validate what is true about the role and what is myth.
  3. Take your stared items and distill your personal why. Write it down on a post-it or index card. Put this somewhere to remind you when you get distracted or need a bit of motivation.
  4. Take your circled items and create your pitch. The chance you will get asked why you want to change disciplines during the process is almost 100%.

If you aren’t excited by your reason, you may not actually want this change, but if you are, you are that much further ahead.

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