Changing it up: How a Solutions Consultant became a Product Manager

12 August 2024

My name is Ben Dickinson, and (whilst trying to make this sound as little like a dating profile as possible) – I’m 26 and live in the South-East of Kent. A few quick facts about me:

I started my ‘working life’ as a Football Referee at the age of 14
My degree is in Computer Systems Engineering
I’m a big fan of Formula 1
I had (and need to restart) a podcast where I chatted with business leaders and inspiring individuals about who and what is shaping the world we live in.

I mention those because I could explicitly call out skills that I developed in each area that I have used to understand the most suitable roles and career path for me.

I started my career at SAP. I joined on a SAP placement program and after I graduated, thankfully, I was offered a full-time role in their Industry Value Advisory Team, supporting customers by assessing strategic objectives, innovation scenarios, and key improvement opportunities. I gained invaluable experience, complementing my technical background and giving me a well-rounded perspective of enterprise technology, which has greatly shaped my career.

I then joined the Beamery sales team 3 years ago as a Value Advisor, and they have really practiced what they preach when it comes to talent mobility, and celebrating and encouraging the development of transferable skills. Over my 3 years at Beamery, I’ve had the opportunity to transfer from London to Australia as the first Beamery employee down-under, move from value advisor to solutions consultant and recently transitioned from the Sales team to become a Product Manager in our AI team.

What made you join Beamery?

I loved my time at SAP, but wanted to gain experience within a smaller organisation where I could have a larger impact on key initiatives. The opportunity arose for me to help own and shape Value Advisory processes at Beamery and join the organisation as a Value Advisor, which instantly drew me in.

During the interview process, I was exposed to individuals at all levels of the business, from sales people all the way to Abakar, the Beamery CEO. I’ll never forget that during my interview with Abakar, he shared that he wanted me to act with speed and not be scared to make mistakes – an example of exactly the type of culture I wanted to join. The conversations highlighted that Beamery is being driven by intelligent and amazing people, who were all working towards the same mission – to enable equal access to work. I was instantly sold.

Tell us about being the first Beamery employee in Australia?

After an amazing first year at Beamery, it was time for the business to expand its on-the-ground footprint across the globe. An amazing opportunity presented itself where I could be the first Beamery employee within Australia, as a Solution Consultant. This coincided with a time when I wanted to progress internally, and – through conversations with my manager and other senior leaders – it became clear that this role was the perfect step at the perfect time.

Supporting the launch of a new market gave me a chance to develop a large volume of skills, such as customer discovery, technical product understanding, user persona customisation, value articulation, and more. I learned a lot both professionally and personally, and built relationships with some amazing Beamery customers, including Canva & GrabTaxi.

What appealed to you about the Product function?

An element of my role as a Solution Consultant that I particularly enjoyed was having conversations covering both business and technical agendas. With my background in Computer Systems Engineering, it became clear to me that I was keen for a role which would scratch the technical itch a little more. I spent time talking to senior leaders across Beamery’s functions, so that I could understand more about the skills required and day-to-day activities within different areas. This ranged from Sales to Customer Success, to Product.

As I explored the Product function further, it became clear that there were a number of transferable responsibilities and skills between Solution Consulting and a Product Manager, for example:

Using Discovery conversations to uncover customer pain points and priorities
Understanding the cost of problems and the value of various solutions
Communicating with personas across multiple functions, both internally and externally
Sharing best practices, whilst considering customer nuances and individual needs.

The thought of combining my technical background and business experience, whilst contributing to building an amazing product like Beamery, is exactly why I decided that Product is where I wanted to navigate into as the next step in my career.

How did you prepare for a role within a different function?

Now that I knew Product was the area of the business I wanted to move into, it was important for me to understand where my strengths and weaknesses lay. Conversations with multiple individuals across the Product function helped me to identify which of my current skills would be transferable, and where some skill gaps existed.

My next steps were to explore Beamery’s Talent Management initiatives: identify a mentor, locate upskilling methods, and explore career pathways.

Thankfully, I was able to complete all three:

An amazing Product leader was willing to have regular mentorship sessions with me, providing invaluable advice and constructive feedback.
Skill gaps were improved through a short-term gig within the Product team, where I was able to lead a specific project during part of my working week. I also relied on access provided to Learning & Development courses, to supplement my knowledge with resources I could visit in my spare time.
Access to Beamery’s career frameworks and paths provided me with an insight of how a Product Manager could progress within the organisation.

All of the above, combined with support from Beamery leadership and my amazing manager, provided the foundations for a smooth transition into being a Product Manager. This also involved moving back to the UK, and I can’t thank Beamery enough for the level of support and expertise provided both when originally leaving, and then returning a year later.

Tell us about your transition: what have been your biggest learnings?

I am now a year into my Product Manager journey, and in short it has been an extremely steep learning curve! As someone new to the function, it was extremely important that the right foundations, support and training was put in place, and that is exactly what Beamery provided. I was quickly assigned another Product Manager as a mentor, and provided with a development framework and coaching from individuals at all levels of the organisation.

It has been an extremely challenging but equally rewarding experience, with my top learnings being:

As I hoped, there are many transferable skills between Go-To-Market functions and Product.
Don’t be afraid of asking questions. I am always scared of looking and feeling stupid, but I’ve found that the best way to not look stupid is to ask as many questions as you can!
Eradicating silos is the best method of achieving positive customer outcomes. Being able to bridge the Sales & Product functions has been a key strength and value add of my transition.

What does the future look like?

I’m so glad that I’ve found Product: it is certainly the place where I get the most enjoyment, and where I can add the most value to both Beamery and our customers. As a result, my main focus area is to progress through our Product Manager skill framework as effectively as possible, whilst trying to add as much value as possible along the way!

My particular area of focus is how Beamery can deliver value to its customers by providing a consistent and dynamic skills foundation across their talent ecosystem. This is an extremely exciting area to be a part of, and hopefully the future is a world where Beamery is delivering even more value with a product that I have helped to create!

To conclude, if anyone is looking to move internally within their organisation, but isn’t sure how to go about it, the three key learnings I would share are:

Don’t just look at your current role when evaluating your skill set. There is a huge amount you can draw from previous projects, roles and interests outside of employment.
Use resources within your organisation to explore potential roles. For example, reach out to individuals in different functions, locate a mentor, and explore different career path examples to see which ones resonate most.
Don’t be afraid to try something different. You never know, it might be the role you’ve always wanted but never known about!