Product School

Going to the 8 week course at Product School in NYC was one of the best decisions I could've made. I've worked with the product team for two years at my current job, but needed experience with the product development process. While I've worked on many releases, I didn't know all the in's-and-out's of how to build and launch a product. This course will help lay a great foundation for you to cover what you need to know to make the jump into product. It has a well thought out curriculum. The optional homework assignments give you a chance to apply what you are learning and provide a good challenge. You also get to bring the work to life through team exercises. They help you use your new skills quickly on-the-spot, while collaborating with others. By the end of the course, you'll know how to take a product from ideation/validation through design, and bring it to market. You get to present a full product plan that you built over the course of the class. It's also an excellent piece to put in your portfolio for future interviews. 

The instructors are fantastic and well versed in product. For our course, it was Chris Maliwat (former Netflix, Facebook, eBay, Warby Paker). His presentations were very insightful, as he often referenced real world experience to bring topics to life. He even brought in colleagues from other companies to give small talks. He was extremely enthusiastic about all topics and answered any questions very thoughtfully. He made you want to grow and do your best in each class. His input to all homework assignments is valuable to help you understand where you can improve. He also was open to taking a second look at homework after you made updates. Additionally, he provides individual attention. He went the extra mile to meet with you outside of class for anything you want to discuss further. For me, that was help with prepping from resume to apply for product positions. 

Pros
Great curriculum and product school book
Experienced and well versed instructors 
Engaged students
Challenging homework assignments
Hands on team exercises
Outside learnings/readings from instructor 
Outside speakers

Areas For Improvement
Time to complete and get feedback on team exercises
Additional outside reading suggestions
Better learning management system that houses course content

Product School was an amazing experience, especially since I had little to no product management experience when I enrolled in the course. The course itself truly takes you through every step of the product life cycle from ideation to iteration and everything in between. The lectures were informative, the notes provided excellent context, and the readings offered a fantastic in-depth foundation for everything learned in person. My instructor, Chris Maliwat, is a true product management veteran, having worked as a PM at some of the world's top companies. He was a fantastic teacher and provided excellent advice through lectures, hands-on projects, and interview/career prep. If you are seeking a career transition into Product Management, this course is for you. The tools to become a PM are truly at your disposal!

It was good experience to be part of product school. The best part was guidance provided by the lecturer, resume review. The area where I feel it could be enhanced are

a) Revisit lectures ( recordings) if possible.

b) Increase number of hours as mostly class cover is definitions, a brief intro of terminology/jargon which basically force you to google to read more about it and sometimes connect with what's taught in lectures. 

c) it's a course to enhance and make professional ready for product management role. So I think assignment should have ample time for completion in order for the student to learn properly, understand and complete it. It might be wrong not precise but the student should understand rather than just try to complete as time line to complete is less. This does not help much as by the time one student complete assignment and g t reviews which he think to work on further another class comes up which just pile up work of revisiting assignments.

I took the Product Management class offered by Product School this spring. The course was comprehensive and touched upon all the phases needed to build a product. It was further enriched by our instructor Nima Shafiee's (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nimas/) personal anecdotes, tips and advices. His vast experience in the field of product management and across various industries helped the students enormously. Nima was always encouraging, ready to respond to the students' queries and giving constructive feedback. After taking the class, the students came out with a holistic idea about the product management and more confident to make a career switch to product management. 

The course curriculum could have been better if we had more material on data analytics and how it influences the product success strategy, feature prioritization etc. I also wished we had more sessions on mock interviews and design sprints. 

I am half way through the 8 week Product Management course with Product School. It’s been a great journey so far, learning a lot and formalizing the product management knowledge from the materials presented and most importantly through the expertise of the course instructor Dr. Joel Palathinkal.  In addition to having already taught a number of the Product Management courses at the Product School, Joel has extensive work experience in Product Management having served as a PM in diverse industries.  Joel is extremely responsive to all the students in and outside of the classroom.  He is able to connect concepts and frameworks to real examples.  He is very familiar with all the current trends and products in technology, financial services and start-ups. 

Attending the class provides a unique experience to learn from real PM experts in the field.  Joel invites other PM speakers and professionals to class and that allows us to expand our understanding of what the different companies and hiring managers are looking for in Product Managers.  The class is great for both the new entrepreneurs and those interested to formally transition to PM field.  Joel is mindful in that he tries to create a class environment where every student is able to gain and be exposed to the experience they are looking for in obtaining as part of the class.  Look forward to continue through the next 4 weeks of the class as well sharpening my PM skills and knowledge.

Product School is exactly the program I was looking for, at just the right price and timeframe. I’ve been in product marketing for over 10 years in the fintech industry and now want to be more involved in building the product and not only the go-to-market strategy. The PM role sits at a unique intersection with designers, developers, sales/marketers, which fits my personality as a translator or diplomat that can bring together a team who can drive product strategy on behalf of the user. I came across Product School because I was looking for a quick way to build on my existing skill set (instead of going back to an academic program). Product School is perfect for mid-career pivots. The curriculum teaches the fundamentals of a PM role such as writing product roadmaps, wire framing, prototyping, identifying personas and user stories, writing engineering requirements, pricing/revenue mapping, etc. which are all the skills you need to start a career as a PM. I took the course in NYC and had Joel Palathinkal who is a great teacher. He’s very attentive to each student’s background, detailed in his lesson notes and brings a lot of field experience having worked as a PM across various industries. Best parts of class are the open discussions and case studies of real world examples. Included in the tuition is the added benefit of mock interviews and resume prep. That’s exactly what I need if I want to transition into a new role, and it’s great to lean on the network of PMs that Product School has built. They host weekly Meetups and AMAs so you can hear from PMs at some of the best startups in the industry. I highly recommend Product School for anyone looking to make the jump into Product Management. Course is targeted for the role, affordable, and has all the extra benefits to help you get a job. 

I spent a reasonable amount of time comparing General Assembly and Product School for the Product Management course including Instrucutors, course content, etc. and am I glad that I chose Product School!  Based on other reviews for Joel, I decided to sign-up for the weekend classes (since he was teaching that cohort only), even though it wasnt the most convenient time for me, but again, so glad I decided to do that.

Joel is very personable and goes out of his way to spend one on one time with the students, he supports all course content with real world examples (which are abundant given his experience) and does a great job of trying to cover anything there is to know to get ur career started as a PM. Cherry on the cake is that he even invites experienced PMs to class sometimes (during lunch) to talk to us and share their experiences with us