From engineer to product manager: what actually changed

I was a backend engineer for 6 years. As a PM:

• My output is decisions, not code. Writing them down clearly is the job.
• I say no to good ideas every day.
• I talk to 3–5 users every week.
• Engineering skills help most when I'm estimating risk, not when I'm designing solutions for the team.

Try it first: own a feature end to end as an engineer, including talking to users.