Bijan Shahrokhi 
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Article Contents
Conventionally, companies prefer full-time employees as product managers. But since the practice of freelancing the product management role has become more popular, more employers are welcoming freelance product managers into their teams.
If you’re planning to become a freelance product manager, there are a few things that you need to know before you dive into it:
Your Responsibilities and Challenges
As a freelance product manager, your role remains the same. You will still provide support for the company’s product development process but you will do so on a per-contract basis.
You’ll still be leading product development while working with other teams. You will still be consulting with executives and other stakeholders to ensure that the project is on track and the product is in line with the company’s goals.
The challenge is to figure out how you can offer value as a freelance product manager. For seasoned product managers, your value is in your experience to influence strategy. For example, a company may want to hire you because you can provide insight into the target audience and predict the success of a product.
Unfortunately, those who have no experience in product management yet may have a lesser chance of getting a freelance PM role. The key is to upskill and rack up experience as an associate product manager, working closely with a senior PM.
Experience and Skillset
Freelancing the product management role has gained traction in recent years. Experienced PMs have transitioned to freelancing, working on multiple projects at the same time.
Because the talent pool is filled with PMs who are also on the hunt for their next client, upskilling and networking should complement your experience. Learn new skills and talk about them with friends and family, your peers, and professional contacts.
Dealing with the Imposter Syndrome
At some point in a freelancer’s career, self-doubt will set in. Every achievement or accomplishment will be questioned. This is called the imposter syndrome.
It’s common in the freelancing space because usually a freelancer’s career is propelled by connections. It’s easy to attribute the success of one’s career to outside factors rather than their competency.
There are a few easy ways to overcome the Imposter Syndrome:
- Be honest with yourself
- Be realistic with the goals that you set
- Don’t be a know-it-all (Always practice humility)
- Connect with other freelance product managers
Remember that you’re not alone in feeling this way. Find support whether online or offline. And don’t forget to take a break when needed.
Overdelivering
One of the main goals of freelancing is to have a solid roster of clients who need the service that you’re offering. How can you establish a roster like this? Impress your first client by overdelivering on your first project. Then, do the same with every new client.
Before you do this, you must understand the delicate balance between making promises and fulfilling the client’s needs.
Overdelivering doesn’t mean that you work yourself to the ground. Overdelivering is giving more value than what the client is paying for.
Hacking Your Job Interviews
There’s one last thing you need to know before you start your freelancing career as a product manager. Hacking job interviews should be your specialty.
You’re going to spend most of your time explaining why you want to work as a freelance product manager, and how the company can benefit from it.
A good way to hack your job interviews is to be prepared for them. Do your research and create a PM interview cheat sheet with possible questions. You can also refer to the cheat sheet that we’ve created here.
At PM Exercises, we listed 2,000+ product manager interview questions to prepare you for your next interview. You can also double-check our interview course if you have more questions about PM interviews.
