A few months ago, I found myself in a familiar position—scrolling through endless Google search results, trying to find a specific product management framework I’d bookmarked weeks earlier. Sound familiar?
As a product manager, I’d accumulated hundreds of bookmarks across different browsers, folders, and note-taking apps. Tools scattered across ProductHunt. Articles saved in Pocket. Frameworks screenshotted on my phone. The irony wasn’t lost on me: here I was, someone who preaches about user experience and information architecture, living in complete resource chaos.
That frustration became the spark for PM Directory—a curated collection of resources, tools, and best practices for product managers at every career stage. What started as a weekend project idea turned into a three-month journey that reminded me why I fell in love with building products in the first place.
The Problem That Wouldn’t Go Away
The challenge wasn’t a lack of product management content—quite the opposite. We’re drowning in it. Every week brings new frameworks, tools, and “must-read” articles. The real problems are discoverability, quality assessment, and context.
After informal conversations with fellow PMs, I discovered this wasn’t just my problem:
- Most of us spend 2+ hours weekly hunting for resources
- Junior PMs particularly struggle to assess what’s worth their time
- We bookmark resources we never revisit
- There’s no central hub that considers both content quality and career stage
I’d been thinking about solving this for months. Unlike many PMs, I had a technical background—over a decade writing C/C++ code before transitioning to product management seven years ago. But building a modern web application? That was uncharted territory.
Bridging Old Skills with New Technologies
My programming experience with C/C++ gave me a solid foundation in logic, algorithms, and system thinking. But web development in 2024? Next.js, React, Tailwind CSS, Supabase—it felt like learning a new language.
This is where AI became my bridge between past experience and current technologies.
Working with Claude wasn’t about replacing my technical knowledge, but translating it. I could describe the logic I wanted, and Claude helped me express it in modern web development patterns. It was like having a patient mentor who could explain why certain architectural decisions made sense in today’s ecosystem.
This wasn’t about copying and pasting code blindly. My programming background helped me:
- Ask better questions about implementation approaches
- Understand the logic behind suggested solutions
- Debug issues when things went wrong
- Make informed decisions about trade-offs
The collaboration felt natural—I brought domain expertise and technical intuition, while Claude provided modern web development knowledge.
Building in Public (Sort Of)
I decided on a modern tech stack: Next.js for the frontend, Supabase for the backend, and Tailwind CSS for styling. With my background, I could appreciate the elegance of these choices even while learning their specifics.
The first month was all about foundations. Setting up the development environment, creating database schemas, implementing user authentication. Every new concept built on programming principles I already understood.
The second month focused on the user experience. Building the resource library, implementing search and filtering, creating detailed resource pages. This is where my product management experience really shone. I knew what users needed; now I could build it again.
What I Learned About Building Products (Again)
Coming Full Circle
Going from engineer to PM to builder again gave me a unique perspective. Product management taught me to think about user problems first, then solution design. My engineering background helped me understand what was technically feasible and elegant.
This combination proved powerful when making implementation decisions. I could balance user needs with technical constraints in real-time rather than through lengthy translation processes.
AI as a Force Multiplier
The most significant change since my engineering days isn’t just the tools—it’s how AI amplifies existing technical knowledge. Instead of starting from scratch with new frameworks, I could leverage my foundational understanding and let AI fill the gaps.
This doesn’t replace traditional learning, but it dramatically accelerates the feedback loop between idea and implementation.
Product Thinking Still Reigns Supreme
Having technical skills amplified my product management abilities, but didn’t replace them. Understanding user needs, information architecture, and prioritization remained crucial. Technology became the implementation layer, not the strategy.
The PM Directory That Emerged
Today, PM Directory houses over 50 carefully curated resources across 15+ categories. Each resource includes detailed descriptions, experience level recommendations, and context about when to use them.
What I’m most proud of isn’t the technical architecture—it’s the intentionality behind each resource selection. My product management experience helped me curate for quality and relevance rather than quantity.
The feedback from the product management community has been incredible. Seeing PMs discover resources they hadn’t known about, or find exactly what they needed for a current challenge—that validates the time invested.
What’s Next for PM Directory
PM Directory is just the beginning. I’m working on several community-focused features:
- Curated PM Jobs: A job board featuring roles at product-focused companies
- Prompt Library: Collection of AI prompts specifically designed for product management tasks
- Community Features: User-generated reviews, resource recommendations, and PM discussions
Each addition builds on the same principle: solving real problems that product managers face daily.
What This Means for Product Managers
We’re entering an era where the line between product manager and builder is blurring again. Not because we need to become software engineers, but because tools now exist that let us directly implement our product vision.
For PMs with technical backgrounds, this is particularly exciting. We can dust off our engineering skills and apply them to problems we understand intimately as practitioners.
For PMs without technical backgrounds, AI-assisted development tools are lowering barriers in remarkable ways. The willingness to learn and iterate matters more than previous coding experience.
The Broader Implications
Building PM Directory reminded me why I loved programming in the first place—the immediate feedback loop between thought and creation. Product management taught me to think bigger about problems worth solving. Combining these perspectives feels like a superpower.
The future belongs to PMs who can seamlessly blend strategic thinking with tactical execution. Not because we need to become engineers again, but because understanding how things are built makes us infinitely better at deciding what should be built.
We’re not just translating requirements anymore—we’re building solutions.
Check out PM Directory at https://pmdirectory.net and let me know what you think. I’m always looking for resource suggestions and feedback from the community.
What tools or resources have been game-changers in your PM journey? I’d love to hear about them—your recommendation might help hundreds of other product managers.