Product School

I took the Product School product management course in the spring of 2018 in NYC. I would definitely recommend this class to anyone new to a PM role, or trying to make the transition into a PM role.

I’m a failed startup founder now moving into a PM job. The product management experience I had building and launching my own product gave me insight into product strategy, but I was working mostly through intuition and on the fly. This class was a great place to get a more formal education on product management. It provided frameworks and a methodical approach to product. It can be very hard to break into product management and this class is a great resource on top of everything else one can do to prepare and build confidence for a PM job.

I chose my Product School course specifically for the instructor, Brian Crofts, and I was not disappointed. What a great teacher. He had experience launching new products for a hugely successful company famous for it’s product culture, was the head of product at a startup in NYC, and is now the CPO of his own startup. Besides his experience, his passion and personality added a lot to the class.

The class is a mix of lecture and workshop. I wish it was more focused on the workshop exercises. The book for the course is useful and well-written so more class time could have been spent on building skills through practice. Communication is a huge part of product management, especially because as a PM you don’t have much control, but you have a lot of influence. Performing at a high level around others and demonstrating leadership has been an extremely important part of my interviewing and finding a PM job. There is an opportunity to focus on these things in class during exercises, but there could have been more.

Overall, this class if a great resource to get educated in an area that many people don’t have a lot of visibility into. Product jobs are competitive and rigorous, and product school can you help you get a leg up.

I highly recommend the 8-week Product Management program for anyone looking to pursue a career in Product Management.

It was a comprehensive course that enhanced my product thinking despite being in the digital product development and management space. I attended this program for 2 reasons:

1. Intellectually Curiosity: I have an insatiable thirst for knowledge and always looking for ways to develop more innovative customer-centric products and solutions.
2. Networking: I recently started a non-profit organization for women in product management with the aim of creating a community of digital leaders in Toronto. Attending this program allowed me to learn from industry veterans, who shared best practices and nuggets of wisdom selflessly and willingly.

Best of all, the supportive network of successful PM professional that graduated from Product School means that I have an alumni that I could constantly brainstorm ideas, seek information and advice from.

If you are an aspiring PM or just looking for opportunities to fine-tune your PM skill set, I would highly recommend you to take this course. It will be worth every single penny invested because you will learn from THE BEST in the industry.

 

 

 

Background
I attended Product School's Toronto cohort from March to May 2018. I am a Chartered Professional Accountant and am seeking a transition into product management. Throughout my online research, and speaking with alumni, I found this course to be the best for my situation because of the following reasons. 

The Program
Product School offers an 8 week, intensive, workshop based program from 9 to 3pm every Saturday. It teaches the latest concepts of product management and their application in the real world. Each class had a specific focus, and a corresponding case study which reinforced those concepts. Throughout the 8 weeks, I was very engaged and my passion for product management grew tremendously. I found the topics and activities to be very appropriate for someone with my non-tech background. Ultimately, I think a lot of the success of this program had to do with the gentleman who led the class, and the diversity of the classmates. 

The Instructor
I was very fortunate to be taught by Michael Kitchen, a Product Management professional with 15+ years of experience in telecommunication, digital and technology products. There was no question about Mike's technical knowledge in product management. However, it was the way he taught and the way he shared his passion with the class that really made Product School a life-changing experience for me. 

Throughout the course, Mike's teaching continued to evolve. At first, I thought he was pretty good, in terms of sharing his knowledge and helping the class understand the application of PM concepts. In the third week, Mike upped his game and completely changed the way the class was taught. There were many more group activities, class participation, impromptu speeches, and many more that put student the student into real-life scenarios. This was phenomenal because he incorporated visual, auditory and experiential learning into the curriculum, which gave me the foundation and confidence to apply these product management concepts in my career. 

The Classmates
I had the best classmates. Some were already Product Managers and somewhere looking to get in the field. All of us shared the same passions, for innovation, creativity, technology and the pursuit of greatness. I am so happy to say that I have built life-long friendships due to the time I spent in this program. 

The Verdict 
Product School was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. As an accountant, this program expanded my horizons beyond what I thought I was capable. It taught me the skills I needed to secure a transition. It provided great mentorship through Mike's teachings and wisdom. It helped me build and expand my product management network. I would recommend this program to anyone looking to learn more about product management or interested in making a career switch. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions about the Product School program.

Dr. Joel Palathinkal’s class was extremely valuable towards advancing my knowledge and understanding of product management in the software and technology space.

Dr. Joel regularly shares his years of real world experiences in product management, and makes the lifecycle of product management extremely relatable. Regardless of your background, I am currently in account management, this course provides the basic building blocks+Dr. Joel’s years of experience, and creates a valuable learning experience for anyone looking to get in product management or just looking for something new to learn.

I would highly recommend this course to anyone interested. Especially Dr. Joel’s class. Looking forward to taking my new skill sets and applying them towards my current role.

I took Product School's Product Management intensive in Santa Monica and could not have been more impressed with the caliber of curriculum, instruction, and resources. At the conclusion of the 8-week program, I walked away with a mastery of the core principles, frameworks, and tools needed to be an effective PM. The exercises, group work, and projects were invaluable.   Much of the credit goes to our instructor, Rich Headley, a talented and passionate instructor with deep insights into both the technical and intangible elements of being a good PM. Apart from being a dynamic, engaging classroom leader, Rich excels at the delivery of keen, perceptive feedback that enables true growth and learning.   I highly recommend Product School to aspiring PMs, or anyone looking to gain a deeper understanding of product management.

Loved every minute of Product School Austin. My teacher is a Sr. Product Manager at Charles Schwab and a master at teaching us real & practical lessons to apply at work the very next day.

Towards the end of the course, you have to present on a final project. I did my project based on the product I currently manage. Since it was a real project for my own product, I had to present it to the CEO a few days before the final representation day. My teacher stayed with me until 11 pm to ensure that my slides and I were ready to present. Great teacher & class. Highly recommended.

PS is a great place to begin learning about PM. 
Sudha was my instructor and Sudha provides diverse and relevant examples to trigger thinking about concepts on PM. She went above and beyond to help me on preparing for the final presentation. I also received help for pursuing careers outside of my past experience. 
Sudha's has this great ability to think through product discovery part of PM, in turn making us think about applying most relevant product ideas to problem at hand. This is a great ability to have for PM.

Favorite experience is the complete and comprehensive attention payed to preparation of individual company project presentations and an opportunity to learn from others on PM experiences. 

I believe PS brand must be continuously improved to get into top league. Personally there is a lot of potential for PS to leverage and improve and be the go to place for product management education.

Great PM course if you are interested to build products that can improve customer experience. (Sudha Vetri) The instructor was highly educated and experienced, took her time to get to know the class students.
She constantly empathized the skills  that are highly required for a successful product manager role.
I would highly encourage the professionals who are interested to pursue PM as a career to take up this course.

Thank you Sudha for sharing your PM experience and Industry expectations from product managers. Course content is truly tailored to bring the students  up to speed on  skills required for playing a successful product manager

Took the Product Software Management T / TR course w/ Ryan Black. It was recommended I take this course from a few colleagues as my day to day job started to show early signs of the product development lifecycle, and that it would be beneficial for me to learn the framework. The class does just that and follows the process from ideation to launch, and takes a deep dive into the various stakeholders involved, and terminology needed to get your job done. After the class, and reflecting on the 8 weeks, it really forces you to become self aware and recognize where your strengths and weaknesses lie, which is exactly what I was looking for. Curriculum and in class activities were both solid, but the credibility behind those lies with our instructor's execution. The execution is what allowed the class to immerse themselves in real world situations, rather than just deal in hypotheticals. If you're looking to learn if the role is right for you, highly recommend the course. If you're looking to learn if the role is right, and determine what your next course of action is to get there, sign up to Ryan's class.

As someone who already has a full-time job in product management it was difficult to make a decision whether or not I should attend the course. I thought it would be really hard to combine it with my work, and I was definitely questioning the fact if I will learn something new. 

But these doubts were successfully gone after the first class. 

First of all the instructor- our cohort was I want to use the word blessed to have an instructor like Lenworth. Who was nothing but great. He has never left any of our questions unanswered, was always very respectful of everyone’s opinions and taught us not just everything that was included in the syllabus but shared also his own professional , practical experience. 

I would definitely recommend the course to both beginners and also professionals who are lucky to have a job in product management.

As a beginner you cannot think of a better start- you will learn a lot about product management, product cycle and everything you might need during your work. As a professional you will definitely learn how to look at already familiar processes from another angle, expand your network, in the worst case (if you feel like you knew everything already) get a validation that all you have been doing at your job was right. 

The Data Analytics for Product Managers is a great immersive program, regardless if you are a seasoned PM or if you are looking to learn more about the Product role.  I tool this class in San Francisco.  The course gave me a window into the larger world of data science, covered current topics but also provided me with new skills to develop my own queries. 

 The curriculum and exercises were challenging, but easy to follow and will provide a great reference for future ideas.  We had a great mix of videos, online tools, exercises, discussions which all led up to our final project.  Highly recommend this course if you are managing or developing new KPIs for your product.

I just finished the 8-week product management course and I have nothing but good things to say. My instructor - Saurabh - was absolutely top-notch. It was really impactful that he is a current PM at a respected tech company. He was able to provide us with insight and perspective that we wouldn't have had access to otherwise. The course material is good, but not exactly ground-breaking. For someone who reads a lot about startups and PM trends, the course served as a good refresher of concepts I had learned outside of the class. Lastly, I really enjoyed networking with my classmates. It was a really diverse group of people, each from different industries and varying levels of work experience. I think these connections will come in handy just as much as the course content. I would highly recommend anyone looking to make the switch to a career in product management to take this course!