Ask HN: Your chance to shape a product manager (advice for a new one)
Three weeks from now I will be leaving my QA position to be a product manager at a different company.
I have no product manager experience (I only have about 3-4 years of work experience, 2 of them in tech)- the people hiring me know this, but like me, believe I can succeed after an initial period of handholding.
The company is a leader in a very niche market. Their current offering is a desktop application which they plan to take online and to mobile devices, I will (eventually) be responsible for the online/mobile product as well as setting up a e-commerce system. From what I understand, the customer is typically slow to adopt new technology, risk averse and just wants the product to work and be as intuitive as possible. They currently have one person handling the product role, they will move on to other responsibilities once I'm up and running.
What advice do you have for a person in my situation- what would you do to prep for the position? What would you focus on early on? What mistakes have you made that I can learn from?
Thank you!