Ask HN: Developer to Product Role, Possible?
So much of the job just feels like doing the exact same thing over and over. You plumb some data from persistence to the UI (or back). That's basically it. Each time there are some trade-offs to assess and technical decisions to make but in most companies it's a fairly disempowered role. Even in non-CRUD code you're basically choosing between data-structures, types of sort, what/where to cache, etc. and it gets very repetitive. Not to mention it's a very isolated/isolating role where you can go days without human contact.
Ultimately what really interests me is the level above the boring plumbing part. Deciding what to build. Getting insights from users. For this reason it seems like Product Manager/BA type work is more closely aligned with my interests. I think I'd be in a fairly unique/advantageous situation for a Product Manager role due to knowing the SDLC inside-out having done it for years. But when I look at product jobs they all seem to require you to have previous Product Manager experience for 4+ years and there's no real way "in" coming from software dev (or indeed from anywhere).
I saw Auth0 had a role for technical product manager (US only :/) but nothing else suitable.
Does anyone have some insights on the feasibility of moving to product and how to get there?