Product School

I just finished the 8 week​ Software Product Management course at the Product School in New York City. The course is highly recommended for those who are looking to advance/start their as PM.

I only have good things to say about my instructor Ravi Patel. He brings in with him a a great experience and definitely good knowledge about the subject. He made the class really fun by sharing is daily life experiences and making us work through practical use cases.

The course curriculum and study material was extensive. After completing the course you will have a very good understating of the duties of the PM role and how to steer your way to this career path.

Product School is a great place to build a solid foundation for a career in product management. As someone new to the discipline, I was interested in expanding my knowledge outside of work. I discovered them through their extremely intriguing weekly Meetups  and I am so glad that I did.

I conducted a lot of research across several institutions with similar courses, and what sold me about Product School was the single-minded focus on product management principles as well as its impressive, enthusiastic community. The course itself is intelligently planned out; the great balance of methodology and case studies really enable you to internalize the process. The readings and course work all lead up to the final project in an elegant, worth while way - one could definitely use this project as a portfolio piece.

My instructor is Dr. Joel Palathinkal. Although I chose my course session based on which would work best for my schedule (Saturdays), I am so thankful that I ended up in Joel's session! Simply put, he knows how to teach this stuff so that you get it and love it. He brings great enthusiasm, fantastic case studies, and helpful supplemental elements to the table in addition to the Product School curriculum. 

Having taken this course, I feel confident in product methodologies as well as my own instincts. If possible, I'm more excited about product management than I was when I began my course. I look forward to continuing to go to their weekly Meetups and the NY conference this summer.

After attending several Product School events and meetups in NYC, I said to myself that if the school can bring in good speakers, then it would have good instructors too. I'm thankful these days that I enrolled at the Product Management class with Dr. Joel Palathinkal as the instructor. Thanks to the lectures, case studies, videos, funny and philosophical commentaries, the Saturday classes did not have a dull moment. The class not only gave me a good perspective to be a better product manager, but also inspired me to start thinking of applying it on my personal interests as well.

I am glad that I chose to take the Product Management class with Ryan at Product School. 

First of all, it was very helpful how he planned the class to be more doing than seeing slides. I like when classes are well planned and when instructors had great timing. Each class, Ryan had with us a brief session of feedback, with that, he was able to adapt to our needs as students and class in general. So, the class was everything we expected and needed. 

Ryan shared everything he knew about everything, I find it very valuable that a person shares his knowledge. He shared all his tools which are incredibly helpful. When someone had a problem, he would shared his experience when solving that specific problem or otherwise his approach solving it. I enjoyed hearing his experiences. Every class, he shared events, books or new products to learn from. Also, he shared people from his networking with me, and he offered to do that with every student. 

With all of that, he was also very helpful during the class but even out of the class, during the week of even when the course was over. And, he gave us awesome feedback. 

I learned a lot from Ryan and I’m glad he’s willing to keep in contact for every matter.

I am probably a less typical student in that I had over three years experience as a product manager when I signed up for the course. Despite my background I found the class to be very valuable in that it exposes you to the best practices used at companies like Amazon, Google, and Spotify. Also our professor Nima Shafiee who has worked at Microsoft and was at the time the head of product management at Zoc Doc also wove in real world situations to the class which was so valuable. In addition Product School helps you prepare for the PM interview which is really critical in getting a job as a PM.

I also found the in class project a great learning experience and is especially valuable for someone who doesn’t have PM experience and is looking to create a portfolio piece. At the beginning of class you pick a company and a feature or product you want to design. You use this product feature and take it from conception to release. At the end of the class you do a presentation using all the skills and knowledge you have gained in the course. Not only is this a great practice but seeing other’s presentations is an awesome learning experience itself.

The product school classes are small - just over 10 students. You form a bound and network with both the professor and the students in the class.

The school also provides their text book, free access to Udemy classes, and Slack where you can network with other students and professors. They also have an awesome YouTube channel where almost every day the have a lecture from product managers from top companies.

What I think really makes the Product School stand out are their teachers. My teacher, Nima Shafiee, was at the time the director of Zoc Doc and had so much real world experience he brought to the class. Also because the class size is small we really got a one on one time with Nima. He was also able to give us lots of feedback on our assignments which I really appreciated.

If you are trying to enter into product management this class is a must. If you have some PM experience I would not shy away from this class - it will only make you a stronger and better PM.

I completed the Software Product Management Course with Product School and I would recommend it to anyone that is looking to transition to a PM role. Coming from a customer service background with little to no technical experience, Product School was the perfect place to learn the foundations of product management. I chose this school over others such as GA because of the focus and the amount of support that you receive such as the Slack channel and the weekly talks that they organize where you can network with existing PMs. The 8 weeks course had a small class size that included a lot of interactive group work. The instructors are PMs that have worked in the industry and provides as much theory and practical knowledge. My instructor was Nima Shafiee and he was the perfect instructor for me as he was able to provide valuable information to both the student with technical background and those that did not. Having worked in companies such as Microsoft and Zocdoc, he was able to give insights into industry practices. Along with the course materials and learning tools like Trello and Balsamiq, Nima directed us to other resources where we could expand our knowledge of the matter. He was very quick with feedback and was approachable both in class and through the Slack Channel and email. I left the course confident in the knowledge, tools, and resources that I received to become a PM.

Product School was an amazing place to start my career as a PM. The PM course has fantastic reading materials with important product management principles. Each chapter has plenty of applicable real-world examples. The lectures and in-class exercises were very helpful.

My instructor Shendi Wang did a terrific job delivering course concepts and referencing her experiences from the workplace; she is the Director of Product Management at Mastercard. I highly recommend enrolling in a cohort taught by Shendi. Not only does she know what she's talking about, she goes above and beyond by being a professional mentor for her students.

I highly recommend the Software Product Management course as an excellent baseline introduction for a Product Manager role. 

Our instructor, Rich Headley, Lead Product Manager at Cornerstone, ensured the class was engaging for the students; he varied the pace of the course at times and shared great examples from his professional experience and sample work product.

Each class includes small group exercises and presentations, which facilitate collaboration and feedback.  We built a strong camaraderie in our class; in fact, a few students offered to continue meeting (after the course ended) to explore enhancements for a consumer-facing product.

I gained insight into key success factors for product management and practice analyzing a company's vision, customers / persona, aligning product roadmap to the strategic goals and analyzing which features to develop or enhance next.   We practiced design sprints and used Balsamiq to create wireframe mockups of our product enhancements. 

A small bit of feedback to Product School is that some of the early exercises included features (bookmarks) which seemed basic; however, the focus of the course is not technical.  

Overall, I looked forward to the Tuesday & Thursday evening classes, learning about the latest tools and UX design best practices; it was a highly valuable and informative experience.

My path to Product School was inadvertent. Initially I was looking at product management as a transitional role to bring me closer to a dev role, since I believed a good PM would need to be technical to work with engineers. As I learned more about product management though I realized that this multifaceted role was actually exactly what I was looking for. I decided to enroll in Product School, and after some research and finding rave reviews I decided on Dr. Joel Palathinkal as my instructor (and I was not disappointed). Dr Joel brings his professional experience from a broad product background and this was most valuable for me in class. Anyone can learn product management from a book or online materials, but realistic case studies and insight into what a head of product looks for in a candidate when hiring was invaluable. He is an expert instructor able to weave his professional experience into the Product School curriculum, and resonate with students from diverse backgrounds. I hope I cross paths with Dr. Joel in the future and would recommend him as a product expert.