Latest / The Internal Move Podcast with Fexingo: Lateral Roles, Internal Transfers, and Staying at Your Company / How to Use an Internal Transfer to Test a New Function Before Committing
Transcript
- Lucas: You know the moment when you're two years into a role, you're good at it, but you keep glancing at a different team — maybe product, maybe data, maybe strategy — and you think, 'I wonder if I'd like that more?' That curiosity is the exact moment this episode is for. Luna: Because the default move is either to stay put or to apply for a full transfer — and both feel like a big gamble. Lucas: Right. A full transfer is a leap. You don't really know what the day-to-day is like until you're in it. And once you're in, reversing course can be awkward. So today I want to talk about a middle path: using a short-term project assignment as a trial run for a new function. Not a shadow day, not a coffee chat — a real, two-month pilot where you do actual work in the new role while keeping one foot in your current one. Luna: I love this. I've seen it work — but it requires a very specific conversation with your manager. What does that conversation actually sound like? Lucas: Let me give you a real case. I spoke with a marketing manager at a large consumer goods company — I'll call her Priya. She'd been in brand marketing for about four years and was increasingly interested in product management. But she had no PM experience, and the product team was skeptical. So instead of applying for an open PM role, she went to her marketing director and said: 'I want to explore product, but I don't want to leave the team hanging. What if I spend 30 percent of my time on a product project for two months? You keep 70 percent of my capacity, the product team gets a trial run with me, and if it doesn't work, I'm back full-time without any disruption.' Luna: Wow. That's a really clean framing. She's solving the manager's biggest fear — losing a good performer entirely. Lucas: Exactly. The manager's fear is: 'If I let you explore, I might lose you anyway.' Priya's proposal actually reduced that risk. She committed to staying on the marketing team for the majority of her time, and the pilot had a fixed end date. Her director agreed. Then she had to go pitch the product VP on giving her a real project — not busywork, but something that would actually deliver value. Luna: And that's the second hurdle. The product VP has to see this as a net gain, not a favor. Lucas: Right. Priya came to the product VP with a specific pain point: the team was about to launch a new feature, and they needed someone to write customer-facing content and gather early user feedback. That was squarely in Priya's marketing skill set. She said: 'I can do this for you for two months, part-time, no cost to your budget — you just have to let me sit in your stand-ups and work alongside your PM.' The VP said yes. And that's the key — she found a real, time-boxed need that matched her existing skills. Luna: So the pilot wasn't just 'I'll learn product.' It was 'I'll do a specific thing that helps you.' Lucas: Exactly. And that made it low-risk for both sides. Now, let's talk about what actually happened during those two months. Priya spent three days a week on marketing, two days on the product project. She attended product stand-ups, wrote user stories with the PM, sat in on customer interviews. She said the biggest surprise was how much time product managers spend on stakeholder alignment — more than she expected. Luna: That's the kind of thing you can't learn from a job description. And if she'd hated that part, she'd have known before making a permanent move. Lucas: Precisely. The pilot is as much about ruling out a function as ruling it in. At the end of two months, Priya had a concrete list of what she liked and what she didn't. She realized she missed the creative side of marketing more than she thought, but she also loved the strategic ownership of product. So she and the product VP agreed on a six-month rotation where she'd split her time 50-50 — and eventually she transitioned fully. Luna: That's a great outcome. But not everyone gets that. What about when the pilot reveals it's not a fit? Lucas: Then you've saved yourself a failed transfer. I've seen people do a pilot in data analytics and realize they hated working in isolation. They went back to their client-facing role with more clarity and no burned bridges. The pilot actually strengthened their relationship with their manager because they felt heard. Luna: Let me ask about the logistics. How do you actually split your time without dropping balls? That sounds like a recipe for burnout. Lucas: It can be, if you don't set boundaries. Priya was very explicit: she blocked her marketing days for marketing, and her product days for product. She didn't check email from the other role during those blocks. She also had a weekly check-in with both managers to re-prioritize. And importantly, she made sure her marketing director understood that during her product days, she was not available for urgent marketing requests unless it was a true emergency. Luna: That requires a lot of trust. Did she have to build that trust first? Lucas: Yes and no. She had a strong track record in marketing — she'd delivered on a major campaign the quarter before. So her director knew she was reliable. But the director also saw this as an investment in retention. If the pilot went well, she'd stay at the company in a new role. If it didn't, she'd stay in marketing. Either way, the company keeps a good employee. Luna: That's a compelling argument for any manager. It reframes the pilot as a retention tool. Lucas: Absolutely. And I think that's the core of this strategy. You're not asking for a favor; you're proposing an experiment that benefits everyone. The key is to make it time-boxed, skill-matched, and low-cost to the receiving team. If you can do that, you'd be surprised how many managers say yes. Luna: So for someone listening who's thinking about a new function, what's the first step? Do they just go talk to their manager? Lucas: No. First, they need to identify a specific need in the target team. Go have coffee chats with people in that function. Ask: 'What's a project you wish you had help with but can't justify a full headcount for?' That's your opening. Then you craft a proposal that solves that need, using skills you already have. Then you take that proposal to your manager. Luna: I think that's the part people skip. They go to their manager with 'I want to explore' without a concrete plan. And the manager says no because it's too vague. Lucas: Exactly. You have to do the homework first. The best pilots are ones where the receiving team already has a pain point you can solve. And you have to be honest with yourself about whether your skills actually transfer. If you're in finance and you want to try engineering, a two-month pilot probably isn't realistic unless you already know how to code. But if you're in marketing and want to try product, or in HR and want to try operations, there's usually enough overlap. Luna: So what's your advice for someone whose skills don't neatly overlap? Say they're in legal and want to try business development? Lucas: Then the pilot might be more about learning than contributing. You could propose a 20 percent time arrangement where you attend meetings, do research, and take on small tasks. It's a slower ramp, but it's still better than a blind jump. The key is to manage expectations: you're there to learn, not to deliver at full capacity. Some managers will say yes to that if they see it as a long-term investment. Luna: I think one of the hardest parts is the emotional side. Once you start exploring, your current team might feel like you're checked out. Lucas: That's real. And it's why transparency matters. Priya was open with her marketing team from the start. She said: 'I'm exploring product, but I'm still committed to our goals. Here's how I'll manage my time.' Most people respected that. And when she eventually moved, there was no bitterness because everyone saw it coming. Luna: What about the risk that the pilot fails — the product team decides they don't want you, and you're stuck back in your old role feeling rejected? Lucas: That can happen. But I'd argue it's better to find out during a two-month pilot than six months into a full transfer. And if the pilot ends without a transition, you still have a stronger relationship with that team — and a clearer sense of what you want. Plus, you've built a reputation as someone who takes initiative. Luna: Speaking of initiative — this episode is the kind of thing that makes people think differently about their career. And if that's valuable to you, we have a small ask. You know the saying 'if it was worth a coffee'? We keep this podcast ad-free and entirely listener-supported. So if today's episode gave you a concrete idea you can use, you can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah, it's the smallest thing. A coffee's worth. And it genuinely helps us keep making episodes like this one. No pressure, but if it felt useful, that link is there. Luna: Okay, back to the strategy. One thing I want to dig into: how do you measure success during the pilot? Lucas: Great question. I think there are two levels. First, are you delivering value to the receiving team? That's measured by the project milestones you agreed on upfront. Second, are you learning what you need to decide? That's more subjective. I recommend keeping a simple journal: each week, write down one thing you loved and one thing you found frustrating. After two months, patterns will emerge. Luna: I like that. It forces you to be honest with yourself. Because it's easy to romanticize a role from the outside. Lucas: Exactly. And the journal also helps when you have the end of pilot conversation with both managers. You can say: 'I learned X, I contributed Y, and I think I'd be most effective in Z.' That data is much more powerful than just saying 'I think I want to move.' Luna: So to wrap up: if you're curious about a new function, don't just apply for a transfer. Find a pain point in the target team, propose a time-boxed pilot, and use it to gather real data about whether the role fits you. It's lower risk, higher information, and it builds relationships. Lucas: That's it. And if you're already in a company that has a formal internal mobility program, even better — but this works even without one. The pilot is something you can initiate yourself. You just need the courage to ask and the discipline to execute. Luna: I think that's a great note to end on. Next episode, we'll talk about how to handle the emotional side of leaving a team you actually like — even for a great opportunity. Lucas: That's a tough one. Looking forward to it. Thanks for listening.