Yes, I want to be a PM with deep technical understanding. What are the other more efficient paths?
* Depending on your industry and its maturity, there may be courework or certification tracks designed for managers, etc (still expensive, but better focused)
* Regularly attend technical conferences in your industry. Sit for sessions and presentations on those deeper topics, work hard to understand them, make a point to follow up on what you're exposed to, make connections with people who can amplify your knowledge and keep you inspired, etc (broadly cheaper, and ongoing)
* Audit classes and seminars. Generally, you do not need to be enrolled in a degree program to attend classes and learn things. But you do often need to make a personal connection with whoever is leading it and get their permission. You may sometimes need to lay fees. (cheap, ongoing, deep; maybe not convenient if you're not near a suitable university)
* saturate yourself in the technical meetup circles in your area and do your best to catch up and keep up. As with conference, find friendly people who can help you learn and keep you inspired (cheap, ongoing, maybe not convenient)
* take ad hoc online classes. (cheaper, ongoing, available anywhere)
* do what other auto-didacts do: just immerse yourself. Buy books that look like they'd be fascinating, and if they end up over your head, figure out what other book or video or class might help remedy that, recusring until you find the starting point you need. (cheap, ongoing, limitless)
* etc
Technical degree programs are generally structured and priced for people who are pursuing the field professionally, but they are only a tiny fraction of the learning opportunities that are out there.
ADDED: I did go back to school for an MBA and used it to somewhat change careers. But degrees from good schools were less expensive at the time, I had sort of planned to do so, the degree was more of a gate for certain roles, I enjoyed it, and as I say it was a good way to transition into the computer industry which might otherwise have been hard.
If you don't actively stay up with the tech, your understanding will atrophy. Consequently, because you intend to remain a PM, your tech will never be as strong as someone who is dedicated to it and you need to be okay with that.
Another classic example for this are engineering managers: people management (like project/product management) is its own discipline with a deep set of skills, research, training, etc. To become a good EM means you _will_ sacrifice some of your technical edge. That "deep technical understanding" that good EM's maintain is built on a foundation of years as a practitioner and, even then, requires continual investment.
I don't mean to discourage you, I just want to ensure you have realistic expectations.
Given all that and given your goals, I think you should just ask yourself a question only you can answer: how do you best learn?
If that's in the classroom, then go get that masters (online or in person). If that's with hands on projects, then set aside time for tinkering and get going. Likewise with books, videos, meet-ups, etc. You know what motivates you and what techniques keep you focused (because you'll need that discipline).
Regardless, I wish you luck and enjoy the journey!
Ex-tech turned PM here. This is totally accurate. But as you say, don’t be discouraged. When I was a tech, if my PM had taken the time to learn anything I would have been ecstatic.
My advice: learn at home. Set up some VMs and watch some YouTube. Install some things. Whatever field you’re in, install it. Play with it. Honestly that’ll put you well above your peers.
Other excellent advice in this thread re: going to meetups, conferences etc. Just absorb stuff. It takes a while but it’ll sink in.
I mean, just knowing what half the terms mean is half the battle...
What reading or other recommendations do you have here?
If you want to become more effective as a PM through sharing a technical understanding, it would probably be better to gain first-hand experience of what teams are practicing -- That would provide a better understanding and empathy for what they have to deal with.
Early on I just read books and built distributed systems and database engines from scratch.
These days I have been able to drink from the firehose on YouTube for a variety of subjects. Physics, chemistry, business finance, technical analysis (stocks), CAM, food production, and plenty more. I'm literally blown away at how much more efficient it is than trudging through college. If you put in the work you can go deep and gain skills very quickly.
This is no substitute for broader knowledge on core principles, but they will reinforce each other.