Having just spent the past two days in a class about the basics ofProduct Management, I know the answer to this question: yes, but not inthe next few years.
Is it what I expected? Somewhat, having spentyears dealing with them. There is more to the job than I knew, ofcourse, but none of it seems like it would be impossible for me to do.Do I have more respect for their job? Most definitely. Is it somethingI want to do? It's something I want to keep in my mind as a possibiltygoing forward.
The main reason I took this class is to learn theformal product lifecycle so I can learn when and where I need to getinvolved as a support person. This will hopefully increase the qualityof the products that are produced. For one thing, we can ensure thatsupport requirements are included in the product specifications fromthe get-go. Hopefully we can also catch "features" or "product designs"that are known to be problematic to support.
I won't be able toapply all this knowledge right away, of course, as I don't see any newproducts in the immediate future. In a few months, maybe. Even so,since I am dealing with Product Managers regularly, some of theknowledge will come in handy. I now know some questions to ask thatnever occured to me before.