[mattbrewsbytes]

It sounds like your goal is to be a Product Owner/Manager. I think your best career path is to start with Business Analyst or Project Coordinator types of roles at a SaaS company that builds products and is making profit. They will have Product Managers and likely some career options as you get more experience.

The difference with Product Manager vs. Project Manager I think is really a Product Manager will have to acquire or start with in-depth knowledge about the market a product operates in. In some ways a product manager might be a superset of skills including project management. There could be organizations big enough where these are different roles though. If you have knowledge/experience and interest in some domain, start there since that is helpful.

There are project mgmt classes and certifications like PMP or Scum Master. I don't think highly of orgs that require certifications on things like this, they tend to focus a little too much on strictly following a certain framework's guidelines as rules. They could be a way to get a job and some experience under your belt. I think the PMP cert is shorter if you have a college degree and it does require doing PM work as part of the cert, has different levels, etc.

[dezeiner]

Thanks for the guidance. As an alternative to PMP / Scrum certification, would it be worth looking at Product Management courses directly? Would I be making too big a leap in skill development?

[mattbrewsbytes]

I took a MS level project management class that was geared towards PMP and the instructor had run massive projects to build out factories before teaching. I don’t know what base you’re starting from but if there are courses that seem relevant, research the department/school they are under to see what people that finish those courses end up doing. See if the instructors have real world experience and if you jump into that, aim to build your network along the way. I have no idea if they do product mgmt but MIT and Stanford have some of their curriculum free online or post videos from classes. You could get a feel for the content and see if it would help, if thats available.

I think you’re underestimating your experience at a startup. Bad experiences really help solidify what not to do and the path ahead is easier to see.