Pivot to Product: Different Paths to Land Your First PM Role

Breaking into product management doesn’t follow one predictable path—and understanding the variety of ways people get in can massively increase your chances of success. In this session, you’ll learn the most common entry points into product, how to leverage your current skills, and what companies actually look for when hiring first-time PMs. Your coach, Kritika, who has worked at Microsoft, Amgen, and Amazon, will share lessons learned from her own journey of pivoting into top PM roles. She’ll unpack the strategies that work (and the ones that don’t), the tradeoffs of different pathways, and how to position your experience based on your background—whether you're coming from engineering, design, operations, consulting, or something totally different. You’ll leave with a clearer map of potential routes into PM, tactical steps to strengthen your candidacy, and a smarter strategy for choosing roles, companies, and timing that align with your goals.