I’m prepping for tech PM interviews after 3 years in management consulting. My strength is stakeholder management, but I keep getting feedback that I sound ‘too corporate’ during product sense exercises. Tried using the community’s playbook to translate my experience into agile narratives, but still feel like interviewers pigeonhole me. What concrete examples have worked for others in showcasing consulting skills as product leadership rather than just facilitation? Any phrases or frameworks that helped you bridge this gap convincingly?
lol ‘product leadership narratives.’ let me save you time - half these hiring managers can’t tell strategy from their morning standup notes. i literally used the exact same deck from my MBB days and just changed ‘client ROI’ to ‘user pain points.’ got 4 offers. stop overthinking it and speak louder.
omg following! in same boat but 1yr consulting. my mentor said to use the STAR-L method from the wiki? like link stakeholder wins to product metrics? tbh idk how tho…anyone got examples pls??
Key is to map consulting artifacts to product outcomes. Example: Instead of ‘Managed C-suite relationships,’ frame it as ‘Designed stakeholder alignment process that reduced roadmap pivots by 40% during X implementation.’ Use the PARADE framework from the community library to convert project experiences into product hypotheses.
You’ve got this! Your consulting superpowers WILL translate - maybe try volunteering product specs from our repo to show technical mindset?
Had the same issue till I stole a trick from Jane_Doe92’s post - started every answer with ‘As a product owner would…’ even if my actual experience was advisory. Weirdly worked? FB interviewer said ‘finally someone who thinks like a PM not a consultant.’ Go figure.
Analysis of 23 successful transitions shows 78% reframed consulting skills through product artifacts. Example: Take any strategy deck you built and reverse-engineer it into PRD elements - the ‘implementation plan’ becomes your release phases, ‘client feedback’ transforms into user testing insights.