Product Management

The demand for skilled product managers is growing like never before as more companies realize the power of product-led growth, with 43% of companies hiring for the role. This has translated into lucrative career opportunities for skilled professionals from diverse backgrounds.

If you are a problem solver who wants to venture into this dynamic field, enrolling in a product management course is the best way forward.

Top Product Management Schools

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The benefits of enrolling in a Product Management course

A product management course will equip you with the knowledge, skills, and capabilities necessary to advance your career in this lucrative, ever-evolving field.

Diverse Career Opportunities

With a product management course, you can unlock unlimited opportunities across diverse industries—from IT, e-commerce and manufacturing, to finance, healthcare and aerospace.

Develop a Product Mindset

The best product management courses enable you to develop the mindset necessary to build successful products. They enable you to effectively manage the product life cycle by offering a deep understanding of everything from idea to launch to future iteration.

Learn In-Demand Skills in Product Management

Product management courses help you thrive in your career by arming you with in-demand core skills such as ideation, market research, prototyping, metrics, and user stories. They also equip you with soft skills such as communication, leadership, and interviewing, as well as hands-on training in the application of agile methodologies.

Learn How to Use the Latest Tools

Product management tools augment product managers to do their multiple tasks more efficiently and effectively. The best Product Management courses offer hands-on training in using the latest and most popular tools used in road mapping, user tracking and analytics, data visualization, customer surveys, and feature flagging, among other applications. 

Solid Career Growth Prospects

Skilled product managers get offered competitive compensation and executive leadership roles. In fact, product managers are 149% more likely to get a promotion than any other role. By enrolling in a product management course, not only will you be equipped with the skills, insights, and confidence to fast-track your career, but you can also maximize your earning potential and even start your own enterprise.

Featured Product Management Courses on Skill Upgrade

All You Need to Know About Product Management

What is Product Management?

Product management is an organizational function that takes a customer-centric approach to strategically drive the design, development, launch, and future iteration of products. It includes everything from market research, ideation, development and prototyping, to positioning, pricing, launching, and continuous improvement of the product.  

Product management is critical for every organization today as it essentially tells the organization what sells and what doesn’t by highlighting and addressing their pain points.

    What Does a Product Manager Do?

    Product managers are cross-functional experts who bring together and lead siloed departments within the organization to build successful products that reflect the customers’ needs. While a majority of their efforts are focused on design, go-to-market and iteration, they must also be able to easily change gears to support other activities such as coaching, mentoring, collaboration, partner management, and customer engagement.

      Product Management Career Trends

      The Rise of Product-Led Growth

      Product-led growth, which was once a tactic for product optimization, is now an organizational mindset. This means that, to drive competitive advantages and growth, customer engagement at the product level must be a shared responsibility of all teams. This paradigm shift has led to a rise in the demand for skilled product managers.

      Changing Job Requirements

      There is a growing demand for generalists in product management, not just technical and product experts. In fact, 50% of product managers today have non-product backgrounds. With their cross-functional skills, generalists are better equipped to handle the challenges arising from the dynamism of the digital landscape.

      Shifting Job Expectations

      Nearly 30% of product managers value flexible work. They are willing to switch jobs to move to organizations that offer flexi-work options even if the pay scale isn’t much higher. Furthermore, product managers are seeking more independence and room to innovate. If the company culture does not allow this, they are willing to shift to another organization that does.

      Strong Earning Potential

      Entry-level jobs in product management pay between $61,000 to $90,000 per annum in the US, and nearly 29% of product managers earn between $90,000 to $120,000. Retail, manufacturing, finance, e-commerce, travel, ed-tech, IT and healthcare are some of the industries that pay the best product manager salaries.

        Why Should I Enroll In An Online Product Management Course?

        Suited for Busy Working Professionals

        Busy working professionals don’t have to quit their job or take a sabbatical to upskill themselves. Most online courses include self-paced modules, tests and projects that are flexibly scheduled by the learner. The scheduling of live components (live lectures, tutorials, guest lectures, etc.) can accommodate the packed schedules of working professionals.

        Short, Affordable Courses

        Online product management courses can be completed in days or weeks, unlike traditional degrees or MBA specializations that require 1-3 years to complete. Despite the shorter duration, the best online programs do not compromise on the intensity or rigor of university degrees. Furthermore, online product management is more affordable.

        Learn Sought-After Skills

        The product management landscape is dynamic and ever-evolving. To thrive in the field, you need to keep learning and expanding your skills and knowledge. Online product management courses are perfect because of their constantly evolving curricula, shorter course durations, and affordable fee structures.

        Technology-Led Learning

        Most online product management courses leverage advanced tech tools that ensure personalized and effective learning. They include hands-on use and learning of popular PM tools, offer personalized content recommendations, and leverage gamification and analytics to improve learning outcomes.

        What Should I Expect From An Online Product Management Course?

        Structure and Format

        Online product management courses vary widely in structure and format, from cohort-based courses to self-paced programs with live discussions to MOOCs. While product management MOOCs typically have pre-recorded videos and self-learning course materials, the best online courses incorporate interactive live sessions with the faculty and the global cohort.

        Learning Goals

        The best online product management courses always have clearly defined goals, expectations, and measurable learning outcomes. They often leverage quizzes, self-assessments, projects and other assignments for outcome assessment.

        Schedule

        The self-paced components of online product management programs – reading materials, video modules, case studies, etc. – extend a great degree of flexibility and freedom to learners. The live components, such as  interactive lectures, networking events, and tutorials, are scheduled with working professionals in mind. Most courses require you to allocate a few hours every week.

        Nature of Course Content

        Most courses usually provide short, bite-sized videos, quizzes, learning materials, references, and other engaging content for the self-study component. The best courses regularly refresh and upgrade the content to keep pace with the product management and business landscape. The best courses also provide hands-on access to popular product management tools.

        Technical Support

        All good online product management courses offer 24/7 technical support to learners to ensure a seamless learning experience. Some of the e-learning platforms have extensive documentation and active online support forums to help students out.

        What You’ll Need to Get into Product Management

        Here are the key skills and capabilities necessary for the product managers of today.

        Strategic Thinking and an Agile Mindset

        From forecasting trends to setting realistic goals, product managers need to be strategic thinkers. They need to be agile to  preempt and respond quickly to the fast-changing market trends, driving competitive advantages to the organization. 

        Customer Experience Grounding

        Product-led growth requires high levels of customer focus. This means that product managers must have a solid foundation in building rich customer experiences that reflect the changing customer needs and behavior. Those in the IT/ tech sector must have at least a working knowledge of design and UX.

        Business Acumen

        Business acumen is non-negotiable for product managers. They need to understand how the company works and how different events have a bearing on the product, product development, and costs. They also need to know basic business skills such as pricing, marketing, and performance tracking.

        Technical Skills

        For agility and efficiency, product management leverages a range of tools and technology. Product managers must know how to use  their tech stack and understand  analytics, AI & ML, market research, data visualization, UX, and other technical skills.

        Soft skills

        Since their role involves understanding customers and cross-functional collaboration, Product managers need to have soft skills such as empathy, communication, storytelling, negotiation, leadership, presentation, creative problem-solving, and active listening.

        Choosing A Product Management School

        University Certificate Programs: Pros and Cons

        Pros

        Cons

        • The university’s brand and certificate add value to your resume
        • Direct access and face-to-face time with the faculty
        • Networking opportunities with the cohort, guest faculty, and industry experts
        • Plenty of career growth opportunities, including internships and placements
        • Hands-on access to PM tools
        • May have to take a sabbatical or break from work to gain the certificate / degree
        • Higher tuition fees – you may have to take student loans
        • Additional costs of relocation, accommodation, and conveyance

         

         

        Online Courses, Nanodegrees, Micro-Credentials and Bootcamps: Pros and Cons

        Pros

        Cons

        • Intensive, focused training in specific product management skills
        • Suitable even for busy working professionals
        • Affordable tuition fees and no additional costs for relocation, accommodation, etc.
        • Flexible and self-paced learning, often with live access to the faculty and a diverse, global cohort
        • Short course duration ranging from a few days to months
        • Technology-led courses that enhance the learning experience and outcomes
        • May not be as prestigious as a university-issued certificate and often doesn’t count toward a university degree
        • May not be accepted by all employers
        • Several courses are simply recorded videos without any live sessions or personal touch
        • Fewer networking opportunities with the cohort and the faculty
        • Not all online courses offer hands-on access to product management tools

         

         

        How Much Would It Cost To Study Product Management Online?

        Here are a few sample costs from different kinds of online product management courses.

          Cost of an Online Product Management Course/ Program Offered by An Ivy League University

          The Product Management Certificate Program from Cornell University is a 3-month-long certificate program with 6 courses. With a cohort of under 35 students, this is an instructor-led program that requires 3-5 hours per week. The cost of the program is $3,900 (determine your schedule) or $700 per month for 6 months (learn and pay as you go model).

          Cost Of a Product Management Course/Program Offered by An Online School

          The Product Management Nanodegree from Udacity is a 4-month-long online course. It is a self-paced program that can be pursued by anyone since it doesn’t have any prerequisites. This Nanodegree costs $399 per month or $ 1436 for 4-month access.

          Cost Of Product Management Certifications Offered by Companies

          The Product Manager Certification from Product School is an 8-week-long (part-time)/ 5-day-long (full-time) course. It is an online, instructor-led program with a cohort size of 14 that gives free access to popular PM tools and 2-year access to course materials. It costs $ 4,499 when paid upfront or $ $1,599.50 per month for 3 months.

          Top Jobs Available And Salaries For Product Management Graduates

          The demand for product management experts is skyrocketing, with more companies looking toward product-led growth to drive their competitive advantage. And this demand will only keep growing.

          Given the advent of increasingly complex organizations and the increasing dynamism required by multiple product lines, there is a need for product managers with wide-ranging, cross-functional skills.

          Entry-Level Roles Mid-Level Roles Senior / Executive Roles

          Junior Product Manager: $70,471

          Associate Product Manager: $82,473

          Technical Product Manager: $123,365

          B2B Product Manager: $111,955

          Chief Product Officer: $204,264

          Head of Product: $165,780

          How SkillUpgrade Can Help You In Your Product Management Career

          SkillUpgrade helps you find the best online product management courses, enabling you to launch and accelerate your product management career. Leveraging our 15+ years of experience in online education, we find and review courses that offer real human interaction, hands-on, immersive training, and opportunities to upskill yourself to build a thriving product management career.

          We don’t review courses unless we have taken them ourselves. We interview at least two students who have taken the program before writing our professional course reviews.

          There are hundreds and thousands of product management courses out there and identifying the right one takes lots of research and thought. With SkillUpgrade, you can effortlessly wade through the clutter of impersonal and generic product management courses to find an online course that is perfect for you.

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