I made the switch to Product Management in my early thirties, having worked in marketing for nearly 10 years. It was a daunting choice, especially since I lacked the detailed technical knowledge that so many PMs had from their backgrounds in software engineering.

But now I’ve been in the role for some time, I’m more appreciative of the transferrable skills I’d built during my marketing days, and I can see how they really helped me with this pivot. Here’s a few that really stand out for me:

1. Skills in storytelling and creating value propositions

This was one of my favourite responsibilities as a Marketing Manager, and remains one of the most enjoyable parts of Product for me. As a marketer, you create a value proposition that will resonate with your target audience. This is derived from what you know about the market, and how you want to position your brand in relation to competitors.

As a PM, you create the value proposition of your product portfolio but also for every revision and iteration. For every problem you solve, you need to link it back to user needs and business objectives. Creating this narrative for your team is crucial to align them on the why behind what you’re doing.

This experience means you already have the skills to effectively link product strategy with both business and user needs. Telling a compelling story about your product that aligns with other strategic visions is crucial, both for leading a product team and getting buy-in from your stakeholders.

2. Using data to inform decision making

Marketers always track their return on investment through a series of metrics, using insights to determine what channels and creatives are most successful. Coming from a role where data is integral to your decision making sets you up brilliantly for product management. It’s useful to have a good grounding of digital metrics, especially how they’re used to identify issues and opportunities.

PMs draw on a variety of evidence to inform their decisions, including product usage data, market insights, findings from user interviews and usability testing, feedback from users and stakeholders, and bespoke business data. As a marketer you’re already familiar with most of these. But the exciting thing about Product, is the space to really delve into the ‘why’ behind the numbers.

3. Content strategy

This one was particularly useful for me, since my Product role is managing a website for a large global organisation. A clear content strategy, information hierarchy and SEO optimised content underpin its success. Because I’d crafted multi-channel content strategies before, I had an inherent appreciation for brand consistency, tone of voice and congruent messaging.

Overlaying this with user needs made it really clear how the content was serving the audience in the right way, in the right place, at the right time. It made it easier to understand how to create user journeys through progressive disclosure of content, as I could see the narrative unfolding through each touch point.

What’s more, it gave me an appreciation for how the product needs to align with other touch-points in a user’s interactions with your brand.

4. Market research

There is quite a big difference between market research and user research. And interestingly, the two can conflict each other sometimes. Both are important for PMs, but I’d had little experience of user research when I first started the role.

User research is generally small-scale, using qualitative data from conversations with 8-10 participants. Generative methods such as interviews are essential for understanding what drives and motivates your audience. Evaluative methods allow you to test how people actually respond to your product and find out what they think – something not many marketers are able to discover. Rich insights from a small sample are extrapolated to inform your product design, which can be tested with larger samples (e.g. via analytics data or on-site surveys) once live.

Market research uses large samples of data, and in my experience often secondary research sourced from third parties. This made it even more exciting to be doing my own research when I moved to Product. Market research is still useful – it can help you get ahead of the game by predicting shifts in customer behaviour. For example, the current macro environment is plagued with anxieties about cost of living and job security. We’re seeing a change in attitudes towards higher education. Therefore I expect information about things like employability skills and industry exposure to become even more influential to my users – sparking an idea for a product opportunity (more on this another time).

5. Project management

You’ve got multiple campaigns running on various channels all targeting different audiences, plus another few in the pipeline while you’re still analysing the stats from the last two and updating the overall marketing strategy at the same time… sound familiar? Then you’re already an expert in the corporate juggling act.

The skills you develop as a marketer, especially if you have more than one audience or segment you’re targeting, are 110% applicable in Product. You’ll have products at all stages of maturity, while refining the backlog, product strategy and vision, getting updates on current projects from across the team and presenting to internal stakeholders (probably all in the same day).

Suffice to say, you’ll be grateful for the super organisation skills you’ve already perfected.

6. Strategic thinking

I’ve always gravitated towards the bigger picture, while delving into the details when needed. This has been paramount in Product, and I credit my marketing days for instilling this approach.

In my previous marketing roles, an average day involved writing copy for an email campaign, proofreading a brochure, crafting a campaign channel strategy and participating in a brand development workshop. I had to have perspectives from all angles – both from the business side and my target audience. Similarly in Product, I could be discussing the semantics of a page heading while also prioritising initiatives on the roadmap to support the strategic direction of the business.

I’ve always loved working with a dual-view, but most of the time my priority is the overarching strategy; how individual elements are all contributing to that bigger picture. Much the same as it is for marketers working on tactical activities that contribute to a strategic goal.

If you’re a marketing professional thinking about a career change, Product Management is definitely one to consider. Don’t be put-off by a lack of technical knowledge – that can be learned. You already have some transferrable skills that will make you a brilliant PM.