What other career can help one make transition into Product Management?

Product & Design
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#1

When asked to weigh in on the question that’s so popular, some thoughts that immediately come to mind are:

a) If possible, begin with management consulting. It is more difficult to find a product management job that allows one to do management consulting-like work than it is to find a management consulting job that will enable one to do product management-like work.
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b) If you begin consulting, communicate with your resource manager or director to work on product management projects.

c) Companies that provide innovation consulting may be worth investigating; however, this will likely depend on what aspect of product management you enjoy the most (e.g., management versus creation)

PARTING THOUGHTS
As a final thought, combining the two disciplines is probably not the easiest thing to do. Other options include working for the professional services side of a product company, as part of an incubator, or as part of a turnaround firm, but these would not be among my first recommendations.