Product School

I had a great experience at Product School, it was definitely worth the money. Our instructor Jeremy was very knowledgable, accessible (open to questions in and outside of class), and set up hands-on activities that you can't find in a book. Thanks again,... Read More guys!

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... Read More 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 definitely recommend Product School if you're looking for a place to start your career in product management. I've worked a lot with product managers in my previous experiences and I felt like I had a grasp of what they do, which is why I was very interested... Read More in taking this course. Even though I have an idea of what they do, I still felt like I wanted something formal to prepare me for a career in product management.

I completed the course in the first week of August. There were definitely concepts in the curriculum that felt like review, which is mostly because I have worked closely with product managers in the past. But I was also introduced to a lot of new tools and concepts. The reading assignments I did for homework were excellent in terms of preparing me for the upcoming lectures. Each chapter introduces a new concept and at the end of each chapter, you see how those concepts are applied to a mock company's idea to help them meet their business goal.

My instructor, Shendi Wang did a fantastic job in presenting the materials and answering the many questions I had. Her real life examples from her current role as a Director of Product Development and Innovation at Mastercard and her previous roles were invaluable to the class. She is a great network to have, very knowledgable in this space, and is able to give honest and constructive feedback on your work. I highly recommend Shendi if you have the opportunity to take a class that is taught by her.

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... Read More 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.

Attending the Product School has been one of the best decisions I've ever made!
I've always wanted to transition into tech and the PS helped me understand that I would be a great fit in Product - not only that but it helped me develop a technical skillset... Read More for the PM role as well.

My experience has definitely been amplified and enhanced thanks to my instructor - Joel Palathinkal. Joel's an amazing teacher and an all-round great person to learn from and he's a fantastic mentor to have from the PM world.

For anyone who are unsure of what to transition to or want to develop a fundamental understanding of Product Management whilst learning core skills and tools for the role - Product School is A MUST!

Looking to hone my unofficial product management skills, I enrolled in the Product Manager course at Product School. The course was well structured and delivered a concise plan to get students to the next step in becoming a PM. Through a combination of... Read More lectures and class exercises we learned and actually used techniques applicable to a job in product.

Shendi Wang was a great instructor. She was knowledgeable and passionate about product management and delivered the material in an easily digestible manner. Shendi leveraged her vast experience as a PM to give the class examples of what we can expect to encounter and how to approach challenges. Her classroom environment was encouraging and made you feel ok to venture out of your comfort zone.

I’m excited to now have the tools to take the next step in my career!

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... Read More 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.

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... Read More 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... Read More 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!