Continuing education plays a crucial role in long-term career success in just about any profession, including a field already as competitive as product management. In this article, we’ll be sharing the top product management training courses, certifications, boot camps, and university programs you can attain in this year.
Product management profession outlook
Product management has always been at the heart of the entrepreneurial endeavor. Making sure that a product takes off, continues to provide value both to the business and its stakeholders, and effectively orchestrate the numerous working parts of a progressive company all require exceptional ability and a wide variety of skills– things that are considered prerequisites for product managers.
The difficulty of the profession reflects on its more than 3,000 job listings worldwide with an average pay of $100,000 per year. The demand for the job, therefore, is increasing at exponential rates and the compensation for attracting a highly skilled product manager is also keeping abreast.
Traditionally, getting into the field is a matter of either luck or networks, as the discipline in itself isn’t really formalized. Due to the increasing demand, however, more and more educational institutions are formulating concrete curricula in order to equip those that either want to pursue the profession or continue learning and improving as professionals.
Why continuous training is important
● Entry-Level (0-2 years)
At such an early level in your career, you’re bound to lack either the insight or technical skills, or some combination of both, regarding your position. Thus, guidance from more experienced professionals and industry leaders can significantly close this gap which will eventually allow you to progress to further heights in your career.
● Mid-Level (2-5 years)
By this stage, you are expected to foresee most of the common problems as well as their corresponding solutions in your field. This, however, does not guarantee that those sets of solutions will always work given how rapidly the market evolves and how drastically trends can vary from quarter to quarter. Further training and education will insulate you from shocks that may paralyze or completely cripple those less equipped.
● Senior-Level (5+ years)
With seniority comes a certain level of assurance in both your abilities and the ecology around you. You have weathered several disasters in your field by now and have successfully piloted several programs and endeavors. These are all well and good, but the main concern at this stage of your career is complacency. Again, trends can shift rather wildly and quickly, and the sets of tools and practices that you have been using with success may not always deliver the same results later on. Keeping yourself in top shape through education and continued training will ensure that you are always equipped with the best practices, strategies, and frameworks.
Best of the best
Below is the list of the best product management courses, boot camps, and certifications and programs that you can attend to further enhance your skills.
Online courses:
Become a Product Manager Course — Learn the Skills & Get the Job on Udemy
This is the most updated Product Management Course Udemy has to offer. It Is accessible and requires little to no prerequisite knowledge as it touts a fundamentals-oriented brief curriculum. The course covers the basics of Product Management, how to advance yourself further in the field, and how to maximize your probability of actually landing high paying jobs.
The course will be taught by Coel Mercer, Senior Product Manager of Bonobos, Mass Relevance and Sound Cloud, and Evan Kimbrell, a top Udemy Entrepreneurship instructor.
● Duration: 144 lectures (12h 49m total length)
● Cost: $129.99
Product Management 101 on Udemy
Product Management 101 is an accessible course that condenses the essentials of Product Management into 66 lectures. Its focus lies in strategy, product development, market intelligence, and product marketing.
● Duration: 66 lectures (5h 0m total length)
● Cost: $19.99
Brand and Product Management Certification Course on Coursera
Brand and Product Management Certification Course is a brief course on product management and the first of five courses in Courser’s larger Marketing Mix Implementation Specialization. The course focuses on product development and brand strategy both for short-term gains as well as long-term value. The course outcome is for you to be able to effectively develop metrics for success on your brand’s product implementation using a test and learn methodology. The course also offers interviews with various industry professionals on brand strategy.
The course is offered by the IE Business School, an institution with 40 years of experience under its belt, and is taught by Luis Rodriquez Baptista, a professor of the School as well as its Marketing Consultant.
● Duration: ~ 14 hrs total length
● Cost: Free (As of Feb 13, 2021) ration: ~ 14 hrs total length
Schools:
Advanced Product Management Course by Product Faculty
The Advanced Product Management Course by Product Faculty is a seven-week course that offers live online classes and targets Intermediate to Advanced Product Managers. The course is subdivided into three major phases, namely: Growth and Optimization, Discovery, and Foundation. Collectively, these phases offer insight and training on how to adopt and properly implement long-term, exponential business strategies.
The course will be taught by Rahim Daya (Head of Product in Pinterest), Cameron Moore (fmr Chief Product Officer of Kijiji), Eric Weber (Head of Experimentation & Metrics in Yelp), Katie Cerar (Head of Product, Analytics, in Shopify), and Moe Ali (Founder and CEO of Product Faculty).
● Duration: 7 Weeks
● Cost: $ 2, 995
Want to learn more about Product Faculty’s Advanced Product Management Course? Click here.
Product Management Certification Programs by Product School
The Product Management Certification Programs by Product School is a three-part Product Management training and certification program. The first part, which is considered the entry-level course of the three, is the Product Manager Certificate program, followed by the Product Leader and Product Executive programs respectively.
The course features live, online lectures subdivided either in a two-month interval or an intensive five-day marathon. The featured instructors in the course are Jonathan Graham (Sr Product Manager of Apple), Charles Fletcher (Director of Product in Paypal), and Ria Sankar (Director of Product in Microsoft), as well as others.
● Duration: 40 hrs total length
● Cost: $ 4, 199
Professional Scrum Foundations Training by Scrum.org
The Professional Scrum Foundations Training by Scrum.org uses a Steward-Model, wherein each course is assigned to 2 stewards who are required to compile, comment, and review the inputs submitted. Each course is available in GitHUb, which allows for an easier and more flexible feedback system.
● Duration: details available upon application
● Cost: details available upon application
Product Management Certification by Pragmatic Institute
Pragmatic Institute offers in its Product Management Certification training a suite of entrepreneurial tools and practices to help your business or company advance further. Their course guide offers individuated courses that are geared for roles in a product’s, Foundation, Focus, Design, Build, Market, Launch, and Price as well as a complementary curse on Data Science. Admission will also feature a bonus 1-year membership in the Pragmatic Institute Community and access to its various educational resources.
● Duration: details available upon application
● Cost: $1,185
AIPMM Certified Product Manager Credential by 280 Group
The AIPMM certifications take pride in its respectability and adherence to industry standards. A certification on this will thus differentiate you from the various others eyeing the same role. The certifications are ANSI/ISO compliant, which adds a layer of credibility to it, and its assessments are administered by a neutral third-party, AIPMM, not the canonization that delivers the actual training.
● Duration: 24hrs in total (lecture) and 3-6 hrs (homework)
● Cost: $1,495
New Product Development Certification by Product Development and Management Association’s (PDMA)
NPD Professional Certification promises to aid you in building a network of important connections within the industry to further your career. The credibility that its certification offers derives from the NPDP Certification being differentiated as a not-for-profit organization that is recognized worldwide for its host of knowledge in the fields of product development, inactivation, and management.
● Duration: details available upon application
● Cost: details available upon application
One Week PM by PMHQ
The One Week PM course offers just that – a one-week interactive course on the fundamentals of Product Management. After completion of the course, you will also be admitted to their slack, the largest Product Manager community in the world, where you can learn and build a solid network with like-minded individuals. The following are the curricular summaries for each day:
Day 1: Fundamental roles and ideal skill-sets of a Product Manager.
Day 2: Crafting appropriate user research & interviews
Day 3: Fundamentals on drafting product specs and estimating development timelines
Day 4: Training on prototyping, wireframing, and delivering usability tests
Day 5: Handling product backlogs and constructing a product roadmap
Day 6: Lecture on core technology concepts for product managers
Day 7: A run-down on Product Manager interviews and insider tips on landing job offers.
● Duration: 7 Days
● Cost: $197
Certified Product Manager Credentials (CPM) by AIPMM
The Certified Product Manager Credentials (CPM) by the Association of International Product Marketing & Management (AIPMM) focuses on holistic training, education, and certification for product managers. Some of the key competencies that it endorses are market planning, competitive analysis, phase-gate process modeling,, product life cycle project modeling, and creating case studies, to name a few.
● Duration: details available upon application
● Cost: $2,995
Universities
Product Management Certification by Cornell
Cornell University’s Product Management certification training offers valuable skills and methodologies geared towards advancing your business or company. You’ll learn the various facets of building product roadmaps and prototypes through partnering with designers and other relevant professionals. Their focus lies in comparing progress with actual objectives and applying learned skills to ensure your product’s life-cycle in a vastly increasing market.
● Duration: 3 months
● Cost: details available upon application
Product Strategy by Northwestern
Northwestern’s Product Strategy training arises from its observed need for companies to develop a differentiating product strategy in order to remain competitive and retain market value. Their take on a comprehensive product strategy involves all stakeholders within the ecosystem and centralizes it as the anchor towards a product’s eventual success. The following are the key Modules delivered by the program:
Module 1: Understanding Product Strategy
Module 2: Analyzing Product Opportunities
Module 3: Discovery and Requirements Definition
Module 4: Designing the Business Model
Module 5: Agile Product Development
Module 6: Taking Products to Market
Module 7: Managing the Partner Ecosystem
Module 8: Managing Product Evolution and Growth
● Duration: 2 months
● Cost: $2,600
MS in Product Management by Carnegie Mellon
The Master of Science in Product Management is a brainchild of Carnegie Mellon University's top-ranked School of Computer Science and Tepper School of Business. The main pitch of the program is its STEM-oriented design which intends to hone your skills in a specialized curriculum within the span of a year.
● Duration: 12 months
● Cost: details available upon application (application requires a $1,500 non-refundable deposit)
Product Management Program by Berkeley Executive Education
The Product Management Certificate Program by Berkeley Executive Education is a five-day in-person training with a six-week online preparation prior to the in-person meetings. The preparation includes video lectures, readings, surveys, simulation games, and more.
The program is an amalgam between the Design Thinking Model and the principles of the Berkeley Haas MBA program, aiming to help you in your role in interpersonal endeavors within your company and its general ecosystem. Some of the skills that the training offers are business model generation, design thinking, pricing, and customer-focused design and insights, among others.
● Duration: 5 days in-person w/6-week prior online component
● Cost: $7,950
What’s typically covered in a training program?
Most training programs, while definitely employing a variety of core skills and lessons, will bound to offer the following fundamentals:
- Product Management Fundamentals
This will range from key interpersonal skills to established marketing strategies for product retention and trade-offs.
- Roadmap-Building, Product Fitness, Design, and Discovery
This tackles the starting phase of a product and answers critical questions such as the compatibility of the product with the given market’s demand, strategies on managing efficient research and development, and most likely covers key concepts and strategies on Agile product management.
- Key Metrics, Product Growth, and User Psychology
These three elements combine to form the core of product improvement and longevity. Strategies focusing on long-term, exponential product growth are discussed here as well as UX designs and the experimentation process that goes in to tailoring the product to its user base’s psychology and needs.
- Key Technical Skills and Concepts
In this area, you’ll be taught about the most pervasive technical components and technologies relevant to a product manager.
Benefits of joining a training program?
Training programs, apart from their intrinsic educational value in equipping and updating you with key product management competencies, are also prime avenues for expanding your social and professional networks. In a lot of cases, these programs are attended by people already within the field and are well entrenched in their respective companies, so having the chance to interact with them on a first-name basis can potentially open a lot of doors for you.
Additionally, these programs are provided and are often taught by industry leaders, so apart from the elevating effect of a credible certification to your career, you will also have the opportunity to meet, talk, and learn from these already well-established individuals.
Conclusion
In conclusion, product management as a career path has risen to prominence in the past years, and as more and more companies seek out the necessary expertise provided by this field, educational institutions try to keep abreast with developing curricula that will serve those that are either on the path to becoming a product manager, or equipping those already in the position with updated practices and key technical skills.
Additionally, these programs can expand your network and potentially contribute to your career advancement through both learning from established product managers and associating with them.
