[crystal_revenge]

I can't think of a worse time to transition to being a PM. In the old days most engineering teams PM'd their own work, and the role of PM grew into prominence as companies started hiring without care as part of a general strategy of growth (combined with a desire to reduce the power of engineering teams).

The people hit hardest by the contractions in tech tend to be PMs. While the best PMs can be incredibly helpful the average PM, in my experience, takes away from a projects probability of success.

If you want to be doing more product work, simply be more proactive in discussions involving product. If you have good product sense you'll naturally find that you spend more and more time making product decisions (most engineers don't want to do this anyway).

Another path to go is founding engineer. If you happen to be employee 1-3 and you choose to aggressively be involved in product decisions you'll find you quickly climb the ladder in small orgs and get a say in product decision. As the company grows you'll naturally find yourself in a role that has a lot of say in the way product is developed.