I’ve been trying to break into PM for a few months now, and I keep hitting this wall: I find PM contacts, draft outreach messages, send them… then either radio silence or polite rejections. What I’m realizing is that I’m probably not being specific enough about who I’m reaching out to or why that person would care about talking to me.
The problem isn’t that there aren’t PMs out there willing to chat—it’s that I’m casting way too wide a net. I need to get strategic about this. Like, instead of messaging every PM at Google, I should probably target folks who’ve actually made moves similar to what I’m trying to do, or who work on products I genuinely use and could speak intelligently about.
Has anyone built out a real system for this? I’m wondering how you actually narrow down your list of targets and what your first message to them actually says. Do you reference their publicly available work? Ask for advice on a specific problem? I’d rather send 10 thoughtful messages than 100 generic ones.
Also curious—if you’ve gotten responses from cold outreach, what actually worked in your message?
The mistake most people make is treating outreach as a volume game. It’s not. Start by identifying three to five companies or product areas where you’d actually want to work. Then, leverage LinkedIn’s filters and company websites to find PMs who match a specific profile: someone who’s been in the role two to four years, ideally with a career trajectory you admire. When you do reach out, personalize ruthlessly. Reference a specific product decision they made, an article they wrote, or a talk they gave. Your message should demonstrate that you’ve done your homework and that the conversation serves both of you—not just you.
I’d also recommend building a simple tracker—Google Sheet works fine—with their name, company, product area, contact method, when you reached out, and follow-up status. This keeps you accountable and prevents the scatter-shot approach. After thirty days with no response, send one thoughtful follow-up. Most PMs aren’t ignoring you; they’re just buried. A second, well-timed message often opens the door.
look, half the pms you message won’t respond no matter what you write. that’s just facts. so yeah build a targeted list but don’t expect magic from it. the ones who do respond are usually the ones looking for something too, or they’re genuinely nice people—which exist but aren’t the majority. focus on quality over quantity sure, but also accept that this is a numbers game with worse odds than you think. still worth doing tho.
this is so helpful, thank u! im gonna start w/ a spreadsheet rn & map out like 20 pms i actually admire. personalization is key i get it now. gl w ur outreach!
I did something similar last year and honestly it shifted everything for me. I started tracking PMs at three companies I actually cared about, and instead of generic messages, I’d mention something specific—like how their design system approach was interesting or how I used their product and noticed a gap. One PM actually responded because I’d thoughtfully critiqued their onboarding experience. We ended up chatting for 45 minutes about PM strategy. That conversation didn’t land me a role immediately, but it led to an intro to their recruiting team. The personalization really does matter.
You’ve got this! Building a targeted list and personalizing each message shows real initiative. Every PM who responds is a win, and you’re learning with each conversation. Keep going—you’re already thinking smarter than most!
Research shows that personalized outreach has roughly a 15-20% response rate compared to generic messages at around 2-3%. The key variables that matter: specificity of the ask, relevance of your background to their product area, and whether you’re reaching out during business hours mid-week. Track your response rates against these factors. If you hit 50 contacts with a solid system in place, you should expect roughly 8-10 responses. That gives you meaningful conversations to learn from and potentially convert some into referrals.
One more thing: timing and channel matter. LinkedIn messages during Tuesday-Thursday mornings tend to get higher engagement than weekend sends. Also, crossing over to email (if you can find it) sometimes outperforms LinkedIn entirely. Test both channels on a small cohort first to see what works for your specific target profiles.