Product School

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.... Read More 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... Read More 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.

Taking this class was the best decision I made all year as it was a career-defining choice for me. From start to finish, my experience at Product School was top notch. The staff members (Lichota, Arsh in particular) were always helpful as well and they... Read More were great in answering my questions in a timely manner. My instructor Emad Radwan was also amazing and he was great at teaching the course. He always made himself available to us when we needed assistance and explained the concepts so easily with passion! The skills they teach us in class has helped me gain confidence to be ready for a Product Manager role in the near future. I would recommend Product School to anyone trying to switch to Product, they won't regret it! Thank you, Product School for all you do! I'm so thankful I found my passion through taking your Software Product Management course

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... Read More 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 attended the Product Management class taught by Dr. Joel Palathinkal at the NYC Product School in October-November 2017. Overall, the 8-week course was very good.

Joel is an excellent instructor. He is very knowledgeable, professional and courteous.... Read More I found his style of teaching very effective. The class format was very interactive and dynamic, especially when we did case studies. I really enjoyed the classroom discussions. In addition, he consistently made himself available outside of class hours to provide input and feedback on the class assignments, as well as career-related items (e.g. resume feedback).

I feel that the course has provided me with the tools and knowledge to transition into a Product role in the near future. Product School also seems to have a strong network which I plan to tap into. I definitely recommend this course for people interested in pursuing a career in Product Management.

Collaborating with coders is an important stage if you need to understand language and culture of creating a mobile application or a website. The course of coding of Product Management School is detailed and based on the curriculum of different coding... Read More platforms. The key and the core issue is the new skills and new practical approaches that could help to understand the coders. The coding classes of any platform are helpful to look around, interact, test some ideas and what is the most important to know others who are in this stream. Vitaliy gave a lot of support to the teams and contributed to teambuilding, he explained the features of different products and the interconnectivity between different products, services, digital issues etc. I provided my feedback on the teams' collaboration etc. The approaches were tested and updated from scratch that worked well. If you plan to become a coder you need to continue further training.

Just wrapped up the weekend Product Management course in NY, and it was awesome.

Bit of background - I’ve had close to a year of Associate PM experience and a 2+ years of entrepreneurial experience. I went into this course with very specific goals

Validate... Read More some of the things I learnt in the last 3 years of my career in Product.
Learn new and best practices of Product Management and Product Thinking.
Pick my mentor’s brain
Having attended other bootcamps/workshops, I think the 3rd point is what is going to make or break your experience. As much as the curriculum, content, etc might matter, it’s the mentor that adds value to the course through her/his experience.

Pick a mentor that aligns with your interests and goals. Also figure out what kind of products you would love to work on, and check if your mentor has worked on similar products.

My mentor, Kevin Gu, is a current Staff PM at Etsy, ex-LinkedIn and ex-Microsoft PM. After having interacted with tons of PM’s on my quest to become one, what I really liked about him was his honesty.

He wouldn’t sugar coat anything, and always gave us honest and valuable feedback.

He was also very unique in the sense that he’s one of the only PMs i’ve interacted with that started their career in product management. And as a result, he doesn’t have any functional biases - Software, Design, UX, Marketing, etc.

He truly understood (and strongly encouraged) that PM’s are facilitators and enablers, and should trust the rest of the product team figure out “how” to build something, while you spend time on “the why” and “the what”.

Another equally important aspect of the course is your cohort. The diversity of thought and experience that comes from people of various backgrounds was great.

In short, you’ll get the most value if you

Do your research and pick a mentor that aligns with your interests and goals
Ask questions every chance you get.
Interact with your cohort.
Ask for feedback

The value chain proposition of the Product Manager (PM) School is unique. Why? It is the networking platform for your future job and at the same time the swift journey to the essence of the PM daily job responsibilities. They teach you how to use the... Read More same language as Google, Microsoft and other companies use. If you are clever enough you will be enrolled immediately after the course. 
The Product Managers who acts as a coach has a lot of experience that is shared through well designed content. The delivery of the course such as teamwork, profiling and assignments allocation could be improved but at the same time the course is already well equipped with the step-by-step manual to develop yourself as a PM or to learn how to develop your own product or service. 

I am a Technical Product Manager and I had the pleasure of learning and honing my skills in Product Management with help from Vivek at Product School in Silicon Valley. Vivek has in-depth knowledge of each and every aspect of Product Management. His ability... Read More to connect with students and his talent at teaching simple concepts, as well as more advanced topics, are both truly superior. He is willing to share real world scenarios and actual stories from his experience as PM at companies like Google, Instagram, Linkedin etc. I have seen a marked improvement in myself over the 3 months under Vivek's guidance with a general improvement in my current work, job search, and interviews. I have no doubt that Vivek is one of the most outstanding Product trainers around, and it's a pleasure to learn from him and to have him as a mentor. I would encourage you to take his class.

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... Read More 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.