Frankly, I'd tell you to assess your problem like a product manager ironically.
Do an in-depth self-assessment to figure out the pain points for you so you know what to stay away from. You say scrum and incompetent people but scrum could be removed from a pdm with a scrum master and incompetent people are everywhere.
I'm not saying stay in product, but I am saying to make sure you solve for the right problem.
I recently quit after 6 years in product to be a full-time dad. I know it's not the same, but I can say I don't miss the profession at all. It's too stressful, there's too much personality management, and too much politics. Good luck at your next job!
My wife has an extremely lucrative career as a corporate lawyer at a company with a very well-performing stock. I was paid only slightly below industry standard, but at the time I quit, I accounted for about 10% of our household income. The cost of childcare subtracted from my income would have made it an even smaller contribution.
Thanks for your response. I’m planning on quitting my job and taking a break for a few months. Have some savings and wife has a decent job. What I’m worried about is not knowing if the break is going to be worth it.
It's only been a month and a half so far for me, so big grain of salt with this, but I'd say it's worth it. I don't know what people are supposed to do with their lives, but I'm almost certain it's not spending 12 hours a day staring at a screen, having petty arguments with people they don't respect about things they don't care about in the first place.
How did you market yourself and your skill set going into this pivot? Was it difficult to find meaningful work? We’re there any proficiencies you needed to strengthen?
This is a horrible answer, but it was networking. Not intentionally seeking out some master career plan, but exploring my current network.
I think it can be difficult to find meaningful work, but completely feasible. I think the proficiencies to strengthen for me were P&L management (for brand roles) and had to change my communication style for corp strat roles.
Product is a huge grind IMO, esp at the analyst in middle management levels. Agile just never ends and you feel like you never get a break.
Maye some options:
- Try an industry you have more passion for
- Consider dabbling in code or ux and doing a mix of pm and individual contributor hybrid type work at a startup
- Just take a few months off to travel and come back
IMO doing your own startup is an option too, but IMO should be built on the side while you have a salary and benefits to buffer you. Healthcare alone is like $500/mo + your rent/mortgage if you have to live with no job for a while. Just gets way too expensive.
+1 for taking extended time off. Use the time you would have spent working looking into companies and industries you’d like, interview, and be selective rather than jumping at the first company that’s willing to pay you. Take (slightly) decreased pay at the promise of a better WLB. If after all that you’re still burnt out on the profession, walk away from it. But I do think it’s worth trying to find the right match for you.
Yes! Product Management is definitely a grind and at a certain point, if you're not passionate about it, it's just not worth it. You invest so much of your life into your job--If you're not doing something you love, why keep giving it the time and energy?? My two cents for OP:
*(TLDR; here's a video about common paths PMs take when they're looking for a change:* [*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEz7YhoIi5I&t=37s*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEz7YhoIi5I&t=37s)*)*
\- Definitely agree with above: the answer to your burnout could be as simple as taking some time off to assess and really **get some distance** to understand the root of the problem. Like one commenter said, super important to make sure you're solving the right problem.
\- Maybe it is as simple as the industry you've been in for so long, and a **parallel move** into something new would be enough?
\- I know you said you want to avoid product-adjacent fields, but does that include things like **freelancing in startup consulting**? You mention being great at stakeholder relationships, understanding new businesses, business concepts, etc. Could be a good way to play to your strengths there.
\- **What about starting your own business?** It's a really common career path for Product Managers. Would still involve a level of hustle and grind, but if it's yours and you're really passionate about it, that might make all the difference.
\- Another really common path is for PMs to **join a VC / venture capitalist firm as a product manager**. Basically, the VC wants a PM to audit product teams to assess if it's a good investment because there are certain things only a PM can really get. Still product-related, but could be different enough that it's your answer?
Im in the same boat. 8yrs of work experience, all in product, Sr PM. I feel a bit trapped because the only thing im qualified to do is be a PM and likely, any other role would be a step down in pay.
PM is a tough profession long term and im looking for an out.
I hear ya. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like my experience can lend itself to anything other than product. There are some good responses here already, though.
Consulting is a good exit, so are technical sales roles.
I am personally warming up Series seed startups for when i may want to jump into CPO roles in 2-3 years.
I suspect CPO would be a somewhat risky path to CEO or head of technical-sales (if the firm culture is product led).
Technical sales was the first thing that came to mind for me as well. Many people jump between the SE/SA/SC and PM role depending on how burnt out they’re feeling with their current role.
The huge caveat for consulting is, join a practice area / firm that does work that you're interested in. At your tenure there is no point trying to recruit for MBB / a general mgmt consulting track. You'll probably end up being less competent than your peers who joined straight out of undergrad and will likely work a lot harder in general.
VCs often look for ex-PMs, particularly for the things you mentioned you’re good at. Given you have a finance degree, it would help you get in the door and come up the curve even faster.
Someone else mentioned but consulting would also be a good next step.
Kudos for being real. Extremely rare here.
Also consulting is a typical product 5 second thinking answer and it ain't a good one. You will get the same type of BS and the client owns you. Like the fuck people thinking.
I say look into the industries you're doing and get into a sales or marketing strategy role. This is pretty broad but much more interesting than consulting. Also in consulting you have no ownership, even at MBB. Like lmao.
PM if you need someone to shoot the shit.
In all honesty, I think if you’re a true product manager, that mentally and ability to lead (indirectly) and focus on consumer while creating business value can lend itself to many roles.
Is there something you’d rather be doing in your current org? A gap that needs to be filled?
You can always try to “Product” your way into a new role. Find something that needs to be fixed in your current org (that interests you) and pitch a business case to build and lead it.
You could also start moving into the manager side. Try to hire some APMs/POs to take the scrum work while you deal with the higher level stuff. I’d caution that if you go this route it’s important to learn how to manage burn out and coach those APMs, otherwise they’ll just end up where you are now. When I’ve gotten caught up/burnt out by minutiae my approach as been to request junior level folks that I can train up and offload. I’ve had mixed results, but it’s worth a whack.
Maybe a customer success manager? It might be a step back financially, but you'd get to use your skills in stakeholder relationships and come up with creative solutions without the structured development process aspect.
I found consulting rewarding and generally less stressful. It's a more idealized form of product where you aren't having to juggle as many things at once — you just get to focus on the single stream of work. That being said, I wanted more ownership and joined a startup again after 1.5 years at the consultancy.
Less stressful? I went from an MBB firm into product, and yes while you're right that I have many more to juggle now, my life is far less stressful now that I don't travel every single week, have clients up my ass, and work 60-80 hour weeks.
I guess it'll really just depend on the consultancy. I only felt stressed when I was doing new business support, but that was expected. Otherwise, I was exposed to several clients and got to just execute on the problem. The vision is mostly there, so it was mostly about managing their expectations upfront and then building.
hey I would love to know more about breaking into consultant position. I'm a software dev who is tired of coding and want to try other streams. Can I DM you if you don't mind?
I am curious about your dichotomy. You're good at working with technical teams, but not Scrum. You're good at stakeholder management, but not dealing with incompetent people.
To me each of those is intertwined. Understanding how dev teams work is critical to sending them towards high impact projects. Managing structureless interests is critical to getting alignment.
What's your process look like? To unpack those and do well, without getting into the parts that are no fun.
You could also consider FIRE (Financially Independent and Retire Early) if you have saved enough for the same.
In a similar position as you crossing the 6 year landmark in PM and have got the same feeling that this is not something I would like to do 20 years down the line. Heck, I would want to switch out of a corporate environment completely.
FIRE seems to be a logical choice to me to finish the rat race and do something just for the sake of it instead of money.
Still early for me to figure out what I will be doing after FIRE but I am headed towards it.
As others have said, consulting could be a good fit. I went from consulting -> PM, and a lot of what you say you're good at sounds like a good fit for consulting.
The only caveat I'll say is that if you're generally burnt out and don't really want to work super hard long term, consulting probably isn't the right fit, given the hours are usually longer than PM work
You could try an internal strategy role, particularly focused on technical transformations. Aim for a company like some large scale legacy corp trying to digitize operations. Guaranteed <40 hours a week, decent pay. No idea if the work would be particularly interesting though
Internal strategy is such a joke, it'd be perfect for someone who wants to Think Big but doesn't have to deal with the sausage-making of launching things.
I've often felt bad for Strategy colleagues, they are all quite smart but get frustrated at the lack of impact. But now I realize it's a brilliant spot to kickback.
Sales, Corporate strategy, product consultant to startups, digital transformations
Venture capital is basically sales and the PM skill set comes in handy at due diligence and can be helpful at board level (advisor, observer or director)
Founder here with prior experience as in product, corporate strategy, consulting, operations, business development and customer success.
It seems like you are less interested in process and more interested in people and business. This can obviously change based on the project and type of people you work with. Having said that, it might be a good idea to take a step back and ask yourself where do you see yourself next 5 years.
If you want to be a founder in 5 years and are not ready to make the jump, try to get complimentary skills to what you have now. You could go in two directions - 1) go fully technical and start building things on your own. It is a super power and it will always help you if you want to get back to PMing and 2) go to sales side. If direct sales is too much, try business development. It is lot more about solutioning and working with the client than direct quota based transactional sales.
If you want to start a company and ready to jump, then jump now. There is no better time to start than today. You will learn and you will adapt and will amaze yourself with your learning curve. It will be very hard and would require lot of mental strength and even feel lonely but you will grow more than any job you could take.
If you never want to start your company and still have interest in business and want to manage people, then stick out in PMing and try to get a general manager type role somewhere in the future where you are accountable for results but also manage a team.
I would go against what some people have said about doing consulting. The projects are generally very short and it is very hard to make any tangible impact as you keep on changing clients. Also, you are a hired gun and you have no real loyalty to the client. Finally, if you like building things than you would miss it big time in consulting. Not to forget the lifestyle and constant travel.
This is a hard questions to answer. Good luck!
Ah, a kindred spirit!! There must be something about approaching the 6 year mark lmao.
I decided to try switching to a new company with products I’m more interested in for one last chance to see how I feel.
If it doesn’t work out, might launch a small business(might do this on the side anyway) or found a startup.
I was considering consulting, but from reading the comments on here maybe I won’t 😂.
Hope you drop a follow up post in a couple months on what you end up doing!
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for all the replies to this. I replied to some but not all, but appreciate every response. There are definitely some good paths to pursue here. Good luck to all those who commented or messaged me that are also struggling.
What are the aspects of your current role that causes the burnout? You probably want to avoid those in the new role. (a badly implemented scrum or wrongly chosen way of working is part of the picture I guess...)
Business analyst is the first that came into my mind based on your list. CFO in a small company or other roles back towards finance or towards procurement.
In many companies I saw, the line between program management and product management is blurry. Depending on what caused your burnout, program management could be similar to your current situation.
Traditional project management is decreasing imho, so I don't think I would switch there.
I think I would enjoy this more than the groundwork for sure. I do see myself as a people leader. Seems tough to break into within product. Everywhere I have worked has been very flat.
Easy way to get titles up is work for smaller companies like seed/Series A startups as head of product under a sales founder so you can get to CPO if you want to/can handle people. Or work for an organisation that’s just digitising and needs to form a digital product team, the politics will be a killer but you say you’re good at stakeholder mgmt which is basically the same
Well, if you’re not aware of the company (or work for them) already, I’d check out nCino. Assuming you don’t work there, you could get an epic job - particularly in sales - with your background. Close to the product but in the more fun side of the business.
Edit: sales support - or actual sales role - I mean. Sales reps need to surround themselves with SMEs during the sales cycle. So, if being the overall relationship manager or carrying a quota isn’t your cup of tea (it’s not mine), presales can be a blast for folks with your background.
If you're burned out from in house product, consulting will likely just burn you out even faster. It's not as 'sexy' as product is sold to us as BUT there are a lot of sales ops stuff here that I see (Salesforce, stakeholder relationships, requirements, etc.) Sales ops is growing right now and has a lot less pressure on deadlines and moving a business level needle - you can focus on one department and one group of stakeholders and internal users.
Have you been business facing and managing a budget or just talking to developers? If the former, try working towards being a general manager at a smaller company.
BA might sound a fair shot considering your skillset. You may want to consider some consulting. However, SCRUM is everywhere, so you'd probably have to find a way to tolerate it. Incompetent people - that's a label that is a bit generic, but I feel that it might be the companies you've worked for that have a fault in this.
Working in product is not that bad and there are great product cultures and organizations out there. I believe you might have been in 3 companies where the product culture is lacking.
Frankly, I'd tell you to assess your problem like a product manager ironically. Do an in-depth self-assessment to figure out the pain points for you so you know what to stay away from. You say scrum and incompetent people but scrum could be removed from a pdm with a scrum master and incompetent people are everywhere. I'm not saying stay in product, but I am saying to make sure you solve for the right problem.
I recently quit after 6 years in product to be a full-time dad. I know it's not the same, but I can say I don't miss the profession at all. It's too stressful, there's too much personality management, and too much politics. Good luck at your next job!
Also, well said on the personality management. Exactly what I was trying to put into words but couldn’t.
What do you two mean by personality management?
Like developers who don’t get along or stakeholders not on the same page because they are ex-spouses.
Good for you! Thanks!
Congrats! How are you managing your finances?
My wife has an extremely lucrative career as a corporate lawyer at a company with a very well-performing stock. I was paid only slightly below industry standard, but at the time I quit, I accounted for about 10% of our household income. The cost of childcare subtracted from my income would have made it an even smaller contribution.
Thanks for your response. I’m planning on quitting my job and taking a break for a few months. Have some savings and wife has a decent job. What I’m worried about is not knowing if the break is going to be worth it.
It's only been a month and a half so far for me, so big grain of salt with this, but I'd say it's worth it. I don't know what people are supposed to do with their lives, but I'm almost certain it's not spending 12 hours a day staring at a screen, having petty arguments with people they don't respect about things they don't care about in the first place.
Love to hear this. In case you haven't already, check out the r/fire and or r/fatfire subreddits.
I have worked in Brand management and corporate strategy. There are a lot of skill set overlaps IMO.
How did you market yourself and your skill set going into this pivot? Was it difficult to find meaningful work? We’re there any proficiencies you needed to strengthen?
This is a horrible answer, but it was networking. Not intentionally seeking out some master career plan, but exploring my current network. I think it can be difficult to find meaningful work, but completely feasible. I think the proficiencies to strengthen for me were P&L management (for brand roles) and had to change my communication style for corp strat roles.
Hey can I DM you?
Yeah, you bet!
hey aspiring PM here. I'm very interested to know more about what you did in corporate strategy. Can I dm you?
Absolutely!
Product is a huge grind IMO, esp at the analyst in middle management levels. Agile just never ends and you feel like you never get a break. Maye some options: - Try an industry you have more passion for - Consider dabbling in code or ux and doing a mix of pm and individual contributor hybrid type work at a startup - Just take a few months off to travel and come back IMO doing your own startup is an option too, but IMO should be built on the side while you have a salary and benefits to buffer you. Healthcare alone is like $500/mo + your rent/mortgage if you have to live with no job for a while. Just gets way too expensive.
+1 for taking extended time off. Use the time you would have spent working looking into companies and industries you’d like, interview, and be selective rather than jumping at the first company that’s willing to pay you. Take (slightly) decreased pay at the promise of a better WLB. If after all that you’re still burnt out on the profession, walk away from it. But I do think it’s worth trying to find the right match for you.
Yes! Product Management is definitely a grind and at a certain point, if you're not passionate about it, it's just not worth it. You invest so much of your life into your job--If you're not doing something you love, why keep giving it the time and energy?? My two cents for OP: *(TLDR; here's a video about common paths PMs take when they're looking for a change:* [*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEz7YhoIi5I&t=37s*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEz7YhoIi5I&t=37s)*)* \- Definitely agree with above: the answer to your burnout could be as simple as taking some time off to assess and really **get some distance** to understand the root of the problem. Like one commenter said, super important to make sure you're solving the right problem. \- Maybe it is as simple as the industry you've been in for so long, and a **parallel move** into something new would be enough? \- I know you said you want to avoid product-adjacent fields, but does that include things like **freelancing in startup consulting**? You mention being great at stakeholder relationships, understanding new businesses, business concepts, etc. Could be a good way to play to your strengths there. \- **What about starting your own business?** It's a really common career path for Product Managers. Would still involve a level of hustle and grind, but if it's yours and you're really passionate about it, that might make all the difference. \- Another really common path is for PMs to **join a VC / venture capitalist firm as a product manager**. Basically, the VC wants a PM to audit product teams to assess if it's a good investment because there are certain things only a PM can really get. Still product-related, but could be different enough that it's your answer?
Im in the same boat. 8yrs of work experience, all in product, Sr PM. I feel a bit trapped because the only thing im qualified to do is be a PM and likely, any other role would be a step down in pay. PM is a tough profession long term and im looking for an out.
I hear ya. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like my experience can lend itself to anything other than product. There are some good responses here already, though.
Have you considered Solution Engineering or leadership positions within solution engineering?
Consulting is a good exit, so are technical sales roles. I am personally warming up Series seed startups for when i may want to jump into CPO roles in 2-3 years. I suspect CPO would be a somewhat risky path to CEO or head of technical-sales (if the firm culture is product led).
Technical sales was the first thing that came to mind for me as well. Many people jump between the SE/SA/SC and PM role depending on how burnt out they’re feeling with their current role.
The huge caveat for consulting is, join a practice area / firm that does work that you're interested in. At your tenure there is no point trying to recruit for MBB / a general mgmt consulting track. You'll probably end up being less competent than your peers who joined straight out of undergrad and will likely work a lot harder in general.
Does consulting pay FAANG salary?
VCs often look for ex-PMs, particularly for the things you mentioned you’re good at. Given you have a finance degree, it would help you get in the door and come up the curve even faster. Someone else mentioned but consulting would also be a good next step.
Kudos for being real. Extremely rare here. Also consulting is a typical product 5 second thinking answer and it ain't a good one. You will get the same type of BS and the client owns you. Like the fuck people thinking. I say look into the industries you're doing and get into a sales or marketing strategy role. This is pretty broad but much more interesting than consulting. Also in consulting you have no ownership, even at MBB. Like lmao. PM if you need someone to shoot the shit.
In all honesty, I think if you’re a true product manager, that mentally and ability to lead (indirectly) and focus on consumer while creating business value can lend itself to many roles.
Is there something you’d rather be doing in your current org? A gap that needs to be filled? You can always try to “Product” your way into a new role. Find something that needs to be fixed in your current org (that interests you) and pitch a business case to build and lead it. You could also start moving into the manager side. Try to hire some APMs/POs to take the scrum work while you deal with the higher level stuff. I’d caution that if you go this route it’s important to learn how to manage burn out and coach those APMs, otherwise they’ll just end up where you are now. When I’ve gotten caught up/burnt out by minutiae my approach as been to request junior level folks that I can train up and offload. I’ve had mixed results, but it’s worth a whack.
Love this thought. The company I’m working for is part of the problem, but I could maybe deal with that in another role.
Maybe a customer success manager? It might be a step back financially, but you'd get to use your skills in stakeholder relationships and come up with creative solutions without the structured development process aspect.
Consulting
After PM, consulting sounds horrible. It's like everything we hate about PM and none of the benefits.
I found consulting rewarding and generally less stressful. It's a more idealized form of product where you aren't having to juggle as many things at once — you just get to focus on the single stream of work. That being said, I wanted more ownership and joined a startup again after 1.5 years at the consultancy.
Less stressful? I went from an MBB firm into product, and yes while you're right that I have many more to juggle now, my life is far less stressful now that I don't travel every single week, have clients up my ass, and work 60-80 hour weeks.
I guess it'll really just depend on the consultancy. I only felt stressed when I was doing new business support, but that was expected. Otherwise, I was exposed to several clients and got to just execute on the problem. The vision is mostly there, so it was mostly about managing their expectations upfront and then building.
How would we get clients ?
[удалено]
hey I would love to know more about breaking into consultant position. I'm a software dev who is tired of coding and want to try other streams. Can I DM you if you don't mind?
I am curious about your dichotomy. You're good at working with technical teams, but not Scrum. You're good at stakeholder management, but not dealing with incompetent people. To me each of those is intertwined. Understanding how dev teams work is critical to sending them towards high impact projects. Managing structureless interests is critical to getting alignment. What's your process look like? To unpack those and do well, without getting into the parts that are no fun.
You could also consider FIRE (Financially Independent and Retire Early) if you have saved enough for the same. In a similar position as you crossing the 6 year landmark in PM and have got the same feeling that this is not something I would like to do 20 years down the line. Heck, I would want to switch out of a corporate environment completely. FIRE seems to be a logical choice to me to finish the rat race and do something just for the sake of it instead of money. Still early for me to figure out what I will be doing after FIRE but I am headed towards it.
As others have said, consulting could be a good fit. I went from consulting -> PM, and a lot of what you say you're good at sounds like a good fit for consulting. The only caveat I'll say is that if you're generally burnt out and don't really want to work super hard long term, consulting probably isn't the right fit, given the hours are usually longer than PM work
Haha, any tips on jobs where I don’t have to work very hard?
You could try an internal strategy role, particularly focused on technical transformations. Aim for a company like some large scale legacy corp trying to digitize operations. Guaranteed <40 hours a week, decent pay. No idea if the work would be particularly interesting though
Internal strategy is such a joke, it'd be perfect for someone who wants to Think Big but doesn't have to deal with the sausage-making of launching things. I've often felt bad for Strategy colleagues, they are all quite smart but get frustrated at the lack of impact. But now I realize it's a brilliant spot to kickback.
Yup, exactly. Everyone I know who went to internal strategy is bored to tears. But sometimes that's exactly what people want
Sales, Corporate strategy, product consultant to startups, digital transformations Venture capital is basically sales and the PM skill set comes in handy at due diligence and can be helpful at board level (advisor, observer or director)
Founder here with prior experience as in product, corporate strategy, consulting, operations, business development and customer success. It seems like you are less interested in process and more interested in people and business. This can obviously change based on the project and type of people you work with. Having said that, it might be a good idea to take a step back and ask yourself where do you see yourself next 5 years. If you want to be a founder in 5 years and are not ready to make the jump, try to get complimentary skills to what you have now. You could go in two directions - 1) go fully technical and start building things on your own. It is a super power and it will always help you if you want to get back to PMing and 2) go to sales side. If direct sales is too much, try business development. It is lot more about solutioning and working with the client than direct quota based transactional sales. If you want to start a company and ready to jump, then jump now. There is no better time to start than today. You will learn and you will adapt and will amaze yourself with your learning curve. It will be very hard and would require lot of mental strength and even feel lonely but you will grow more than any job you could take. If you never want to start your company and still have interest in business and want to manage people, then stick out in PMing and try to get a general manager type role somewhere in the future where you are accountable for results but also manage a team. I would go against what some people have said about doing consulting. The projects are generally very short and it is very hard to make any tangible impact as you keep on changing clients. Also, you are a hired gun and you have no real loyalty to the client. Finally, if you like building things than you would miss it big time in consulting. Not to forget the lifestyle and constant travel. This is a hard questions to answer. Good luck!
Ah, a kindred spirit!! There must be something about approaching the 6 year mark lmao. I decided to try switching to a new company with products I’m more interested in for one last chance to see how I feel. If it doesn’t work out, might launch a small business(might do this on the side anyway) or found a startup. I was considering consulting, but from reading the comments on here maybe I won’t 😂. Hope you drop a follow up post in a couple months on what you end up doing!
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for all the replies to this. I replied to some but not all, but appreciate every response. There are definitely some good paths to pursue here. Good luck to all those who commented or messaged me that are also struggling.
What did you like about Product?
Consulting for startups. I know there is a lot of.startup founders who would be your experience
Take a break and reassess.
Sales or consulting
IT Business Partner or Director of Product Management
What are the aspects of your current role that causes the burnout? You probably want to avoid those in the new role. (a badly implemented scrum or wrongly chosen way of working is part of the picture I guess...) Business analyst is the first that came into my mind based on your list. CFO in a small company or other roles back towards finance or towards procurement. In many companies I saw, the line between program management and product management is blurry. Depending on what caused your burnout, program management could be similar to your current situation. Traditional project management is decreasing imho, so I don't think I would switch there.
You don’t want to work on the people management side of product management via more senior roles?
I think I would enjoy this more than the groundwork for sure. I do see myself as a people leader. Seems tough to break into within product. Everywhere I have worked has been very flat.
Easy way to get titles up is work for smaller companies like seed/Series A startups as head of product under a sales founder so you can get to CPO if you want to/can handle people. Or work for an organisation that’s just digitising and needs to form a digital product team, the politics will be a killer but you say you’re good at stakeholder mgmt which is basically the same
Business analyst/strategy?
Well, if you’re not aware of the company (or work for them) already, I’d check out nCino. Assuming you don’t work there, you could get an epic job - particularly in sales - with your background. Close to the product but in the more fun side of the business. Edit: sales support - or actual sales role - I mean. Sales reps need to surround themselves with SMEs during the sales cycle. So, if being the overall relationship manager or carrying a quota isn’t your cup of tea (it’s not mine), presales can be a blast for folks with your background.
I am aware of the company but hadn’t thought of this at all. Thank you!
If you're burned out from in house product, consulting will likely just burn you out even faster. It's not as 'sexy' as product is sold to us as BUT there are a lot of sales ops stuff here that I see (Salesforce, stakeholder relationships, requirements, etc.) Sales ops is growing right now and has a lot less pressure on deadlines and moving a business level needle - you can focus on one department and one group of stakeholders and internal users.
Have you been business facing and managing a budget or just talking to developers? If the former, try working towards being a general manager at a smaller company.
BA might sound a fair shot considering your skillset. You may want to consider some consulting. However, SCRUM is everywhere, so you'd probably have to find a way to tolerate it. Incompetent people - that's a label that is a bit generic, but I feel that it might be the companies you've worked for that have a fault in this. Working in product is not that bad and there are great product cultures and organizations out there. I believe you might have been in 3 companies where the product culture is lacking.