Learning on the job

Product management is a hard job. Aligning business objectives to user needs and technology constraints while balancing different stakeholders is an experience you have to go through a number of times to really understand how to use those tools, in which circumstances and when to throw out the rule book to get the work done. 

When people are just entering the profession it takes a lot of support, coaching, mentorship and guidance, ideally from a diverse set of experienced leaders to really help people through those first couple of years properly equipped. Not every company can afford to provide that level of support. And even companies with great product leadership are going to bias towards a specific way of doing product, when we all know there really isn’t one right way to do product management. 

At APM Canada, we believe the first year or two of being in product, often as an Associate Product Manager, are critical for professional development. APMs need to be able to learn how to apply the tools in an actual work environment from experienced leaders who’ve seen the good, bad and ugly of various product decisions. APMs need a community of peers to share their experiences with and safely work through challenges. These relationships often become the basis of years of future career development and support.

This type of learning can really only be done when actively working in a product role. The real world trade-offs, personality conflicts, imperfect metrics and unique working environments shape the nature of how to move things forward and become the basis of the way lessons are taught and APMs are coached through real life challenges at APM Canada.