
I almost missed a point of reaching a three-year tier in my product manager career, which nearly matches with ten years in IT. I wrote essays about my previous years (year one, year two, combined article on Medium) as a retrospective of my thoughts and feelings.
I had doubts about whether I wanted to write the continuation. I re-read previous pieces, which made me realize I needed to continue. First, the "Sophomore Year" was quite depressing. Second, I need to finish the series, and having that as a trilogy sounds right.
I don't say it will be optimistic than a previous one. A bit brighter, maybe. And most probably, the last. Writing that in a third time felt more like an obligation.
Anyway, it is time for a retrospective of my 3rd year of being in product management.
Last year, I had an identity crisis because my job seemed to be far away from what is written on product management. It coincides with general terms, but the devil is always in details.
Then, I realized that platform engineering and product managers who are working on Internal Development Platforms (IDP). There is a community, books, webinars, courses, and tools around that. Many people are doing similar things I am trying to do and have similar problems.