I spent $4500 on the Product Manager Certificate course from “Product School” and here is my review!
I completed the live instructor lead Product Manager Certificate course conducted by Product School from Nov 2020 to Jan 2021 and here is my review.
I think it is good for you to know a little about me to understand my point of view before you read the review —
What am I now?
I am currently a Senior Tech Consultant at one of the Big Four Consulting Firms and I do perform some product management stuff although my title does not say so and I am currently looking for a promotion in the near future.
What have I done before?
I started my career in the year 2011 as a Software Engineer in one of the top IT companies in India and in 2014, I quit my job to build my own product called Parallelo App along with my friend Kiran who is a serial entrepreneur. Together we built a great product and had an amazing learning experience but unfortunately, we had to shut it down after a year due to various reasons.
Why did I want to learn about Product Management?
I love building products and wanted to learn the product building and management process formally from a mentor and also to analyze the product which I built previously to know what I could have done right to make it worthy to millions of users. Another reason is that I also want to progress in my career right now.
What other options did I consider before joining Product School?
Generally, I spend a lot of time learning about products and business from YouTube Channels of Y-Combinator and others, blogs on Medium, etc. So this led me to think about signing up for the best available online course which is on Udemy: Become a Product Manager and I did sign up for this course but I felt the need for a live instructor teaching the course to whom I could ask lots of questions and get my answers. Hence I considered, product management courses offered by eCornell and Kellog. I have heard these are great but I was drawn more towards “Product School” because it was taught by Product Managers who are currently working at top companies of the world, therefore, I decided this would be the right place for me as I could learn a lot from their real-time experiences.
How much does the course cost?
Product Managers Certificate Course costs $4,199 plus additional $250 (Non-refundable fee). They do have financing options to pay the fee in installments.
Curriculum
The syllabus includes the following topics — Assessing Target Opportunities, Defining target customers, Define-Design-Build-Launch-Measure-Iteration process for a Product. It also covered Public Speaking, Creating Pitch Decks.
Every class had one or two group exercises which enforce us to use what we learn. For these exercises, usually, we were given real data and real examples from one or two companies to work on.
Final Presentation: From the first class we must start working on a product or a feature of a product and perfect it along the course and present our final pitch at the end of the course. This is the most powerful part of the course.
Amazing Instructor
My cohort (Nov 2020 to Jan 2021) was taught by Alex Alwan who is a Sr Product Manager, at Fox. He manages the apps used by millions. He comes with great product experience. All the classes he taught were full of knowledge, he gave us many great advice from his personal experience, tips & tricks, taught us about small but important aspects of product building and so many insights. Everything was taught in a very calm and lively atmosphere.
Students from a diverse background
My class was full of incredible people who worked at various companies like Instagram, Tinder, Snapchat, Sysdig, Adobe, MadeComfy, Deloitte, Cognizant, Accenture, United Health Group, Curology, Sensentia, and also a grad student from Chicago Booth.
It was a great learning atmosphere in the class with each one having a unique perspective because of the diverse professional background and we were able to interact and learn from each other on so many topics.
Product School Community
When you sign up for the course you will also be included in the Product School Slack community which is very active and helpful. They conduct AMA sessions with lots of product managers from top companies in the world and we get a chance to interact with them.
Most of the people in the community are Product Managers and it is a great place to be if you are aspiring to be one.
Overall
I would say, I had a wonderful overall learning experience and I was able to make great connections. I enjoyed learning in every class and I totally recommend it without a second thought.
If you have any more questions, do drop a comment and I will try to answer them as much as possible from my point of view.
