Originally published in Q4 2022 Edition of BA Digest from Blackmetric Business Solutions.
Are you a business analyst who wonders what your career will look like in three to five years?
Is your company undergoing an agile/digital/product transformation leading people to believe that “we don’t need business analysts anymore?”
Do you really enjoy business analysis but feel like the only way to get the compensation you deserve is by taking a new job with a different title?
As I first noted back in 2017, product management roles offer a viable career path for business analysts. This path is especially relevant for business analysts who currently work on custom software development projects in their current role.
Here are the stories of four people who shifted from business analysis to product management.
Lessons Learned from BAs who are now product people
Don’t worry about the title, focus on your skills
Stephanie Cooper started out as a data analyst at an IT Consulting firm where she taught herself SQL. After a few months, the company had a business analyst spot open on their tech side so she moved over to that role.
After a few years as a business analyst, she wanted to have a bigger impact on her business and have a bigger vision of her product. She felt that shifting from business analyst to product manager would allow her to do that.
To make that switch, Stephanie started looking for product management roles outside of her company. To overcome the challenge of not having an official product management title before, she leaned into the skills she brought to the table, not necessarily the title. The skills came from her business analyst experience including working through requirements with customers, and working with API integrations.
Stephanie’s advice to business analysts looking to move to product management: “Don’t doubt yourself in the skills that you have. Look at the skills that you have. Don’t worry about your title, worry about the skills that you have and see what transitions over.”
Explain how your BA experience applies to product management
Stephanie Lewandowski got her business analyst experience working in the business analysis practice of an agile technology firm. While in the business analysis practice she became practice lead and expanded the practice to include aspects such as process analysts, product managers, strategists, and data analysts.
Stephanie’s move to product management initially came when she expanded the business analysis practice, followed by leaving consulting to become a practicing product manager. She made the move to product manager to get out of consulting and because she found that the business analyst role seems to “tap out” at some point and the product management role is higher on the organizational chart and includes more responsibility.
During her search for a product management role, Stephanie was frequently asked if she had actually managed a product. She responded with all the product manager techniques she had used, but the interviewers kept coming back to “but you haven’t actually managed a product.”
Fortunately, when Stephanie got her first product management role, she found out she was doing “10 times more than what they expected for many product managers at an entry level.”
That experience leads Stephanie to observe that business analysis and product management are very similar from a skill set perspective. The difference comes in the scope of responsibilities for the two roles.
Stephanie’s advice for landing a product management role is to explain how what you’ve done as a business analyst matches the abilities the product management job is looking for. For example, if the particular role you’re trying to get is looking for the ability to put together roadmaps, be prepared to “explain how you’ve done that before and communicated them to a wide range of audiences.”
Discovery should be iterative
Beth McHugh’s path toward product management included several roles such as a stint as a business analyst/developer, a move to user experience then a move to product management..
Looking back on her various roles Beth identified the flexibility of the business analyst role as an enormous benefit. The various processes she analyzed exposed her to a variety of situations that helped her refine her interests and decide her career path.
When she transitioned into a product management role, she found she got the most benefit from having worked with a product manager. That experience helped her understand “what he was doing and how he approached things and what his role was because I honestly don’t think a lot of people understand what product management is.”
Beth’s advice for business analysts moving into product management is to keep the proper perspective on discovery and research. Instead of trying to do all of your research at the beginning of a new effort, make it more iterative and do it in increments. You won’t find all the answers during an “analysis phase” so you should view research work as a way of answering questions and get direction throughout the entire initiative.
Acquire additional skills while in your BA role
Muhammed Zaulifqar had a variety of product owner and product lead roles over the course of 3 – 4 years which he considers “technically” business analyst roles.
While in those roles he began “pushing for user feedback, tracking analytics, user discovery to better understand personas, GTM strategy & a more focused product vision.” Those extra activities led to additional responsibilities and eventually a move into the product management role.
Muhammed made the move to product management because he saw the product manager role as an opportunity to empower users rather than “being a document writing feature factory facilitator.”
Muhammed’s advice to business analysts looking to move into product management is to pick up the additional skills you’ll need as a product manager while still in the business analyst role. “This could be technical, strategy, commercial, ux, data querying, learning new tools, etc. Whatever you do, think about how it will enable you to empower your users.”
Do you want to be a product person?
If you answered “yes” to one or more of the questions in the intro, it may be time to learn how to apply your existing skills in a product setting and pick up additional product management skills.
That collection of skills will come in handy whether you’re joining a software product company, or you’re working on internal products – custom developed software that your organization builds for itself.
To get help building and growing your skills, check out Blackmetric Business Solutions and InsideProduct.co.