Product School Reviews
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Francesco Pugliano
Exceeded my expectations!
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I took the class in July/August 2016. What I liked the most about this solid and ambitious course, is the fact that you will not just learn how to land a Product Manager job. You will also learn or brush up on so many skills that will be very useful whatever it is the next thing that you want to do in your career. Public speaking, presentation skills, breaking down complex problems, doing estimations, analytics, choosing the right KPIs are all skills that will serve you well in a variety or roles in any company. And you will also learn the tricks of the trade from instructors who are currently working as Product Managers. I was lucky to have Mohammad Musa as instructor, and Fred Radford for one day covering for Moh. Both very professional and very passionate about the subject, they offered invaluable insights. The classmates were also great. People coming from an engineering, marketing or program management backgrounds, and even entrepreneurs with their own startups. Very diverse, and very fun. I have no reservations in recomending ProductSchool. -
Jodi Kumar
Experience at Product School
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If you’d like to learn product management, your search is over. Product School is amazing! The curriculum really walks you through the full product management cycle - from understanding company vision to identifying metrics to implementing design. The best aspect of the curriculum is that it is hands on (not just a bunch of theoretical information anyone can get from booking up a book). You really get to play PM.
I took the June Saturday cohort with JP Park. If you want someone to keep it real, JP is your guy. He provides a lot of inside perspective of the industry that is hard to get. He was also kind enough to take out time from his schedule to meet with everyone to resolve any concerns they were having. He really cares about our success and that is also hard to find in any institution.
At Product School, you’re given the personal attention you need. Even after graduation, the community is there for you to utilize. Do it. :)
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Madhumita Mantri
Looking for your next play as Product Manager? If answer is yes then without further due ENROLL to Product School!
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Why Product School?
- Hands on experience
- Case-based teaching, Get to brainstorm with real-life experience
- Have an idea? Want to learn how to validate, monetize and ship it? Class-framework is well designed to support this.
- Learn your super-power and see what is needed to pivot to Product Manager role
What it takes and ROI?
- Prep work: Go with an idea, feature enhancement for a company where you are dreaming to kick start your product management career!
- Be committed! The value you get is un-explainable in words!
- About 6-8 hours per week of time commitment for 8 weeks. The time commitment is neglible in comparision of what class delivers. Almost felt like going to a crash course business school.
- Teachning professionals are strong Product Leaders from well known industries. They are very committed to your success you get from the class, up-leveling your skills, great mentorship!
- Grear networking and learn from experience within a short period of time.
Highly recommended!
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Terrence
Want to break into Product School? Try Product School!
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Product School was an amazing experience. I took the 6 hour Saturday session in NYC, and it was reassuring to see all the other aspiring product managers looking to break into the industry. Everyone came from different points in their career, different walks of life, and different industries.
The most valuable aspects of PS is the network and curriculum. JP Park was an amazing instructor that did a great job breaking down the product lifecycle and sharing the realities of the role that you can't find in a Google search or Udemy course. The PS network on Slack is incredibly strong and active. There are channels for job opportunities, industry news, and general insights. People are always willing to help with market research or job referrals. In fact, I was able to secure a short term internship at a fintech startup that helped me apply what I learned in class in real world situations. It was a great opportunity that further confirmed that product is the right track for me. If you are looking for a well organized program and an engaged community of savvy product professionals, Product School is the best move for you. -
Roopa
Product School - SFO
This is an amazing start for anyone looking to transition into Product Management from any other domain. This course is well thought out and is more about being collaborative/interactive with a lot of talking/discussions rather than the generic lectures. You will get to meet a lot of amazing people. By the end of this course you will be confident enough to apply for a product manager's job.
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Shreya Bhushan
Great learning experience
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I recently finished my course at Product School and it was a very enriching learning experience for me. The combination of experienced faculty members (Working Product Managers) and enthusiastic peers makes learning a lot more fun. The curriculum provides you a well rounded knowledge of both theoretical and hand-on knowledge.
You have to finish a project by the end of 8 weeks of course, wherein you go through the entire lifecycle of Product Management right from distinguishing your customers to creating the best-fit product for them.
Overall a great experience. -
mike reilly
Great way to transition with structured approach to PM-ing
The course was absolutely the best way I could have transitioned from business to product management. Before the class, I only had the desire to move into software with none of the tools; this class gave me the tools, network, language and concepts to successfully transition from a materials and BusDev background to one in Software Product Management. Thanks Product School!
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Jamie Scanu
Great course
The Product Management course was a good experience especially, learning from an instructor with real life examples. Working with other people and going through the process together was very encouraging. The course was so informative that I wish it lasted longer.
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Arthur Castro
Immersive Experience!
Excellent! As the first international student and was really good to understand more about Product Management and sharing experiences. Immersive experience and a lot of new things and tools.
Also, every Wednesday have meetups with PM's that are the reference on the market and is a good way to networking and learn more. And the review of the resume with experts is excellent too. -
Lili Maria Lau
PS NYC campus review - Saturday classes
PM course has well-mixed classmates with backgrounds in PM, entrepreneurship, engineer, design, marketing, and sales. The instructors have deep practical expertise. It also offers a very valuable network PM community in Slack. In summary, the course is good accelerator program for your PM career inside a startup.
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Morris
Student
Product School provides the right mix of hands on learning and genuinely engaging classroom discussion about PM topics. My Product School experience has increased my confidence in my Product Manager capabilities. Best of all, I am happy to be connected with a growing Product Manager community between alumni, instructors, and mentors.
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Thomas Rand-Nash
Product School is a great investment for aspiring PMs period.
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Product School was a great investment in my future as a PM. My background is in startups as a founder. Although I was designing and building products with my teams at these startups, it was very much “seat of the pants” building. I joined Product School in San Francisco to learn how product management is done correctly and to learn best practices. I got everything I signed up for and more. Our cohort was taught by Carlos, the founder of Product School, with a couple other experienced PMs brought in for specific lessons. Carlos is not only extremely knowledgeable, but his enthusiasm for teaching really makes learning fun.
There are other choices out there for PM schools; however, the small class size and emphasis on learning and employing real-world tools sets this course apart. I would recommend Product School for anyone who has some experience in startups, marketing or engineering and wants to understand the process by which successful products are conceived, built and shipped. The support from the Product School community is amazing and continues after graduation. Many graduates have gone on to successful PM roles at top companies and continue to provide insights, guidance and feedback to current and former students on everything from tools to resume advice to job hunting and interview tips.
The take away: Product School is a great investment for aspiring PMs period.
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Frank Yang
Good investment of time and money
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★★★★★
Took this 8-week course starting Feb, 2016 and finished in Apr, 2016. I want to rate this experience as a five star and here's my explanation.
In my opinion, when I was choosing a training program, I want to look at three aspects:
- Takeaway
- Input
- Accessibility
Let me elaborate on each one of this points for Product School:
1 Takeaway
- a product mindset -- from a product's starting point, to user research, and analysis framework
- hands-on knowledge of a full stack product manager's job scope -- user study, marketing/strategy analysis, product metric analysis, development cycle, product marketing, and presentation/ negotiation.
- Course materials include well-designed notes, and some practice materials are real PM job assignments from real tech companies
- A network of PMs or PM wannabes
2 Input
- (2.5 hours every Tuesday/Thursday or 5 hours on Saturday + 2-3 hours after class) = 8 hours x 8 weeks
- $3500 tuition
3 Accessibility
- I live in Bay Area, the fact that they have class open in Mountain View and SF make it really convenient for me.
I believe this is a worthy investment for those who want to be a product manager
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Jen
Great starting point to your product management journey
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This review is based on my experience going through this program early last year. I was in the 2nd "cohort" or the 2nd session Product School had. Since the program was fairly new at the time, I was a bit wary going into it, but it turned out great!
These were my observations (in no particular order), but do keep in mind that they were from an earlier "iteration" of this program, so things may be different by now:
• The first 1-2 classes were pretty fast paced. The reason for that was that there's just a lot of information to cover in the limited time that we had. I think any newbies who were not previously familiar with some concepts of PM, MVP, UX, or marketing may have felt quite overwhelmed. Just be prepare to take the info all in, but to digest and absorb it on your own time. You can always ask the instructors to explain more if you don't understand something either during class or during the breaks. Since the class is small enough, you won't have any trouble getting the time from the instructor.
• Each instructor made up their own content and slides, so some had good visuals, some could be improved. Perhaps at least a more consistent/uniform look and feel of the slides among the different instructors would help the curriculum feel more professional and polished.
• Relevant content. Because the instructors were actual working product managers, their content was relevant and based on real experiences. They provided guidance in terms of what worked for them, what didn’t and why.
• Smaller classes. Sometimes only a few showed for the weekday course, which isn’t as great because there would be less interaction and learning among the students. However, if you were just interested in the time you get with the instructor, then you definitely will get that.
• Flexible weekday/weekend course. Those who were enrolled in the weekday course, but couldn't make it could can catch up by attending the weekend course. This was a great perk of the program, especially for those whose work schedule is a bit more demanding. Fortunately, the weekend course remained small even though the weekday students were allowed to attend. There were usually ~10 students during the weekend, which I thought was just right - just enough to get good interaction among the students, but small enough to still get attention from the instructor. Also, the small number of students makes for a great and manageable support group post program.
• Quality instructors. All of the instructors were not only knowledgeable, but passionate as well. Passion is key. They really want to help you be successful. They take the time to explain things and to be personally available. Any criticism from them is meant for you to improve, so don't take things personally.
• Food is provided. Another great perk and more importantly time saver.
• Access to various PM/UX related tools and networking opportunities.
• Unlimited opportunities during your session and after to attend interesting speaker sessions, which serves as additional networking opportunities for you.
Hope this helps give more insight. Don't forget - learning is a journey. Your enrollment in this program or any other is part of that journey. Learn, connect and enjoy! -
Vijith
Concepts put into action - Product School, Silicon Valley Campus
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I have known for well over a year now that Product Management is what excites me and interests me the most. However I had not taken any action towards pursuing that goal. So when I started this course, I had a clear goal of actively studying and pursuing Product Management in my career. Now that I have completed the course, I can definitely say that I am in the right direction.
Product school has designed an eight weeks course on product management, where students get to not only learn the theoretical concepts that a product manager should know but also apply them to one of their personal projects.Things that worked for me:
- I had a very good instructor, a senior PM in one of the top tech companies. He was very approachable to get feedbacks and was brutally honest with his reviews.
- My classmates were intelligent and brought some very interesting perspectives to the class discussions.
- The course introduced me to solid frameworks that I can bank upon and also tools like balsamic and Proto.io which I can use for future projects
- Product School has built a solid alumni network, and has an active slack community. It’s an engaging community where people share interesting articles, get user surveys done, create study groups, get their project reviews done, get introductions and get help in mock interviews.
- Product School has weekly meetups, where industry professionals share their expertise and experience with the community. This is probably one of the highlights of the course that helps in useful professional networking.
What you should be aware of:
- You aren’t graded for your efforts here and hence if you aren’t self-motivated you will not get anything out of the course.
- 8 weeks in fact is a very short time, so starting off early with your project is really crucial or else you will always be in the catch up mode.
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Anonymous
Great Resource for Those Looking to Break Into Product Management
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As a recent graduate of the Product School product management certification course, I can say confidently that it was a great experience! If you're already in the software industry and looking to transition into product or if you're looking to break into it from the outside like myself, there's a lot here for you.
Pros:
Lots of really informative content.
Knowledgable and helpful instructors.
Useful projects and exercises to build your knowledge and confidence in real-world product management.
You work on a project that gives you something to show to potential employers, building your product experience before you even get your first job!
Resume workshops and mock interviews to prepare you for the job search.
Cons:
Lots of material and exercises but not always enough time to cover it. Some topics get rushed through and you have to look over them on your own later.
Most of the focus on how to actually get the PM job comes towards the end of the course. Considering this is the trickiest part, it would be good to have more material or practice on this.
Overall, Product School is a great resource for anyone who wants to learn more about product management to see if it's the right role for him or her, as well as those who know they want to break into it but just don't know how!!
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Nathan Kwadade
Concise Product Management Course
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In mid-2014 I was being considered for a Product Manager role at Facebook and I had made it quite far in the process; having visited the headquarters and met up with a senior PM and being invited to a closed PM mixer by my recruiter, however, I couldn’t believe how far I had come but deep at the back of my mind I had this impostor syndrome. I just didn’t feel confident enough. I felt there were some holes in my Product management skillset: analytics, metrics, scrum, etc.
My search for a solution led me to discover Product School. I enrolled in the inaugural cohort of the Product School in New York City in the fall of 2015.
What sets Product School apart from the competition is that it places a premium on high quality tuition and as such is very thorough in its selection of instructors.
All instructors currently work in the industry and are very well versed in the genre and thus bring a fresh industry perspective to augment the course syllabus. Their passion for the subject matter was clearly evidenced as instruction at Product School was top notch and very well paced. Instructors adequately accommodated student’s needs by adjusting their speed and mode of instruction.
Unlike your often run of the mill lectures and information overload instruction, I really enjoyed the hands on project based teaching approach by the instructors.
The project based course also had numerous assignments given to further reinforce the material covered in class. For once in my life I actually enjoyed doing homework and looked forward in anticipation to the next class session. Wish College courses was this engaging and relevant.
The Student to faculty ratio was optimal. Class size was kept to a minimum and was very diverse with people from all walks of life: bankers, IT personnel, UX Designers It also had a good female representation too.
Product school is also very flexible as it offers weeknight courses or weekend long courses. Such flexibility in scheduling affords students a lot of options. I had originally signed up to the weekend long session but during the course I had to switch to the evening session. This was achieved in a cinch.
Product School doesn’t only instruct you in just the hard skills but also gently infuses key soft skills such as presentation and public speaking which are essential to becoming a successful PM.
I was also introduced to several tools and Product Management industry specific software such as Intercom, Trello, InVision, etc.
Product school also provides its students with great support and timely response. There is a sense of belonging and community which is facilitated by a dedicated Product School Slack channel where currently enrolled cohorts and alumni maintain communication during and post-graduation.
This course covers everything you need to know about Product Management to jumpstart your PM career. The class highlights exactly what it takes to become a great PM, helping you figure out what strengths and experiences you can leverage. Product School delivers clarity of thought, a strong community, and the confidence to execute on your PM vision.
Armed with the skillsets and the PM toolkit I now feel very confident to take on the challenge of becoming a great Product manager.
Post product school, I have received several unsolicited job requisitions via LinkedIn from recruiters. What stood out to me was that each recruited specifically stated that I was being considered for these Product management positions because of my affiliation with the Product School.To me this a stamp of approval, a validation of sorts and attests to the quality and klout that Product School commands in the industry.
I recommend Product School enthusiastically without any reservation.
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Anonymous
Product School -NY Review
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Product School offers an amazing platform to learn and practice the tools required to be a successful product manager. I was a student of Product School, New York and it helped me immensely in understanding the nuances of product management. Although I had experience as a product manager in India before I joined the program, the course contributed substantially in enhancing my knowledge.
The final project that each student needs to create, helps everyone to understand and execute the steps required to create a successful product. I thoroughly enjoyed working on the final project and getting weekly feedback from Jerome, a seasoned PM and a cool instructor who used to call us Product Ninjas...
In addition to the tools that one must know to be a product manger the course teaches one of the most important facet of product management- soft skills. Having experience in product management, I can admit that substantial chunk of time for a product manager is invested in coordinating and collaborating with different teams such as engineering, design or marketing and it is extremely important for a product manager to know what to communicate and when to communicate. The course helps you in gaining these skills
Product School offers a strong network of seasoned as well as aspiring product mangers which keeps me connected to the latest trends in product management. If anyone is looking to change their career to PM, improve their skills as PM or start their own startup, I would recommend joining product school.
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Anonymous
SF Product School
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Product School is a great fit whether you have zero product management experience and want to make a career shift or you've recently started your PM journey and need some guidance. You will leave this course knowing how to ship a product that makes your users awesome.
The Curriculum:
You can view the curriculum on the site, so I won't go into everything it covers. What I enjoyed about the curriculum is it gave me a blue print to follow that I can always refer back to. During the class, you have the opportunity to test the blue print out while building your final project. Along the way, you have the opportunity to bounce ideas off of your classmates and get advice from your instructor. Expect about 3 hours of homework a week.The Instructor:
The instructor is the key to this course. If you scour enough sites and sign up for enough tools, you can probably put together your own curriculum, but you won't have a dedicated instructor. Our instructor was Ji Kim. He talked about all the methods and strategies that can be used, but he also taught an attitude and philosophy about how to approach the PM role. The feedback on our assignments was detailed, thoughtful, and actionable. Ji brought a lot of experience to the table and lessons in the form of stories from all his PM positions.The class ends giving the tools you'll need as product manager and skills on how to land a PM role with resume reviews and interview advice.
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Dipesh Goel
Great Product Management Learning Experience
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Situation
- Took the Dec 2015 to Feb 2016 Saturday classPros
- Learned a great deal on Product Management
- The final project presentations were reviewed appropriately
- The teacher of the class had great knowledge
- The resume session was very helpful
- Using Slack was a great way to communicate with the other students the teacherCons
- It would have been nice to have gone over the project in more detail in each class -
Kruti Patel
SF - Product School Review
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I'm reviewing for the SF Jan 2016 course.
Pros:
Product School has only one training course, which is Product Manager training, so they have to get it right, otherwise they fail. And I think they got it right. I come from a background of 9 years in IT Consulting, of which software development is a huge part and I believe that this course does a good job of breaking down that process into logical parts that someone without the background can grasp. Even though I've been thru software development lifecycle time and again, I still enjoyed this portion of the course and refreshing on the various methods that can be used.
Like any course you get out what you put in, and who your instructor is will be key. We had a fantastic instructor, Ji Kim, who brought a wide breadth of experiences from many years of doing product management. Most people will be reading this review because they are trying to figure out if they should go to Product School or General Assembly, and here is how I made my decision: I looked at the profiles of the instructors. Ji had a solid track record in Product Management, the instructor at GA had a great resume, but only 2 years in a PdM Role....so who do I want to learn from? Ji Kim.
I appreciated that Ji always taught the importance of data/metrics. When deciding what to build - you better have data to back it up, you also better know how you are going to measure success and when you ship, you better be looking at those KPI's! It couldn't be stressed enough, and I think this course taught us how to analyze data as a Product Manager from inception to delivery of a product or feature.
Last note..here in SF, I wish we had less of "get users, worry about making money later", to Ji's school of thought, which is product market fit is not "you have a product that has users", it's "you have a product, for which users are willing to pay, and if you take that product away from them then they would be begging you to bring it back - that is true product-market fit" If this was taught more often, I think we'd be challenging ourselves the right way and we'd see some really promising products out there.
Cons:
As with any product, always room for improvement :) I felt there could have been some more guidance around the final project, perhaps instead of us finding a company ourselves to do a new feature for - just assign us a company. I also felt some of the group activities were too rushed and, therefore, didn't get much value out of them, so either a better schedule for them or remove them. Last - the mentor session was great, but a bit disorganized for our group, so a little more guidance to the mentors and the class would be good for the future classes.
Thanks Product School and Ji Kim for a great learning experience! -
Anonymous
Everything I needed in one place!
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It can be tough to sift through all the info on the internet about best practices vs preferred methods and then making an informed decision on what was best for my role and company.
What Product School provides is a conversation, an experience, and an application to source check and put into practice the learnings of a huge network of amazing product managers from all over the globe.
I had a fantastic time at Product School and can't say enough about the strong ties built amongst my cohorts, my instructor, and the rest of the PS community. Lifetime access to a network like this is invaluable for someone like me.
Besides validating the self-taught knowledge I already possessed, Product School gave me such useful tools to step up to the next level of my career as a product manager. I can't recommend it enough. -
Queenie
Great curriculum and experience!
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I'm very happy with my Product School experience. I attended the San Francisco weekend session during the fall and I loved my cohort and instructor. Attending the Saturday class was intense - a lot of information was thrown at us but we also had guided class materials, our instructor, classmates, as well as the PS community as resources to reach out to. The eight weeks went by surprisingly fast and I was sad when the course was completed but I do still keep in touch with my former classmates and have connected with other PS members too. Carlos and his team have built an inclusive network of product people who are supportive of each other and willing to help, which can be difficult to find in a competitive marketplace. I can truly say that I do have a strong foundation in product fundamentals and how to put these skills into practice in real working situations. The education and mentorship I received was well worth the investment!
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Vijayashree
Thumbs up - Product School
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Product Management is considered an accidental profession. There aren't many schools that offer a good framework to understand product management. I was a software developer in my previous life where I could see concrete deliverables assigned to me. I grew into a product manager role but struggled with it and in keeping with my developer mindset became more of a technical lead rather than a product manager. But within a couple of weeks at product school I could sense the difference in the way I perceived use cases, and also in the way I presented to the management. I was able to easily come up with roadmaps and other deliverables that are expected of a product manager. You also get to walk thru some hands on tools like Jira, Balsamiq all of which have helped me with my product. I used my current product for the final project and it has done wonders to my current job satisfaction as well. So why Product School instead of reading a book on product management? I would say its because of the real life examples, the great peer network you build and importantly the constant help you get from Carlos and team.
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Anonymous
8 week course in SF
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Product School was the perfect educational resource for what I was seeking. Briefly, I was already a product manager prior to PS, but everything that I knew about product prior to PS was self-taught. So I applied to Product School with 2 priorities: 1) Gain perspective and understand product frameworks 2) Expand and grow my network in product. Product School helped me accomplish both of these goals. PS has a powerful network of product folk who serve as mentors and event speakers. My personal network has hugely benefited from actively attending events and my conversations with PS mentors. The PS community also makes for a more personal experience, which was one of my main decision points when considering PS vs. GA. Secondly, PS provides a clear structure for learning product development processes. This was an excellent way for me to fill in knowledge gaps and have my questions answered by highly experienced product professionals. As others have mentioned, the level of effort that you put into the course directly impacts what you get out of it – do your homework, collaborate with your peers and ask questions.
Overall, I highly recommend PS if you are looking to learn within a community and strengthen your position as a product manager.
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Sunil Tagare
Product School rocks
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The Product School does an amazing job of teaching Product Management in a short span of 8 weeks. I found the lecturers to be world class and the class size small. The quality of the classmates was also first class thereby stimulating great discussions and in fact, I learnt as much from classmates as from the teachers. I highly recommend the bootcamp to anyone who wants to learn Product Management.
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Ashu Sharma
Product School Review
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Overall, a spectacular experience! I felt the small class size is perfect for learning Product Management concepts in a short 8 weeks. The best thing about Product School: the money you pay doesn't just go towards an overall education. You get access to online courses from some upcoming/notable names in the Product Managment/Development space. In addition, you have a huge network of aspiring and current Product Managers to connect with, all at the tip of your fingers. These guys are all full of energy and are happy and more than willing to help you out on your endeavors. Of course, you can build this network on your own, and you can always learn these things via experience, but Product School offers the environment, space, and flexibility to learn it far more effectively whist at your own schedule. You also can't beat the quality of instructions and energy you get from the instructor. I took the weekend class (Saturday's from 9:30am-3:30pm) and the class was always engaging. Our instructor, Beatriz was on top of her game every morning and ready to go. We fed off her energy and I'm sure she fed off ours. I could go on about the quality of instruction and experience I received, but I will end with this: if you feel that being the champion of the customer/end-user is where you belong and you have a passion for products, then Product School is the place to go. Don't wait. Go for it.
P.S. - There are some minor cons, but I found they were easy to look over after being a part of the Product School community. Whatever the drawbacks, these guys are aware of it and are constantly working on improving it. -
Alfonso Muñoz
Thanks
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I came to NY to specialize in Product Management, that's why I chose Product School. I saw the success in SF and when the opportunity appeared I made the decision to move to NY for 3 months and take the 8-week course.
I've had such a great experience in New York and it was in big part thanks to Sophia, our instructor. The first time you meet her you can see that she is a pure PM, always thinking the best for the final user, with a kind sense for design and a big focus on the user satisfaction.
The class development was very smooth, enriched with good and perfect examples from real work that fitted every aspect of the syllabus.
At the same time, the school provides very helpful resources in order to succeed in the PM job search and interviews. The events were very interesting, you can know directly the biggest talents in the Product world.
I definetely recommend it.
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David Kennan
Excellent course
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I rate Product School 5 stars on content, instructors, networking, and resources. Those are the criteria I cared about when selecting Product School and my class turned out great, an excellent value for the price. I evaluated other options such as an Executive MBA at UCB or a class at General Assembly, and ultimately chose Product School because of its laser-focus on Product Management.
I also value concise reviews so...
Content: Broad enough to touch on all aspects of Product Management. You'll want to use the additional resources and/or projects to dive in to areas of particular importance in your career.
Instructors: Our instructor is a full-time, experienced Senior Product Manager and did a fine job of drawing from personal experience with case studies. There were half-a dozen terrific folks involved in the course, including guest instructors and presenters at Open Houses.
Networking: This was an area of particular importance for me. Seek and ye shall find.
Resources: The "extras" included, from conference tickets to software and professional content, are all relevant and appropriately curated.
If you have any questions about the impact of this course on your career, speak with the staff - they answered my questions very directly.
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Jesus Cagide
Excellent !
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I am a self-taught product manager for the past 4 years and I have been very passionate about what I do. However sometimes I doubt if the way that I do things is the correct way so I was looking for chance to networking with other product managers and improve myself.
One day, I was exploring on meetup.com and found a product manager group. I was very excited and went for it. It was very nice and I found out that they also offer product manager class. I signed up without any doubt. In this class, we had chance to bring real projects and applied what we learned on it every week. The instructor would always be there to answer your questions.
My classmates are from different companies who are already product managers or wanting to become a product manager. We share our experiences and help each other to grow. In the weekend, we even get together to do homework together. Besides what I learned from the teacher, I also learned a lot from other classmates and we keep connected after the class finish.
I am also happy to find out that the way I manage product is correct. What I learned filled some gaps in my product management knowledge. This class is very good for people who wants to learn the product management process and get hands-on experience. You will gain knowledge and meet new people, get all your questions towards product management answered.
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Priya V
Great course, Awesome instructors.
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I completed the eight week Product Management Certification course offered by Product School(PS) from their Mountain View Campus in Jan 2016. I stumbled up on their website as I was researching about product management courses, and the ones available closest to where I lived.
Product management has varied definitions/responsibilities in different companies, and there isn't a clear roadmap on how to get there. I met the CEO Carlos in a meet up, and he was clearly very passionate about the topic. After meeting him, I was convinced to go to Product School to learn more about product management, and I am happy with my decision.
Here are the reasons why Product School rocks:
- Clear syllabus that focuses on different aspects of product management. The different companies could decide to split or combine depending on their stage/size/product. But, the basics remain the same.
- The awesome and passionate instructors, who focus on imparting key learnings from their experience along with the course. Also, each of them give amazing "critical feedback" that every product manager should get used to. If you don't like honest and constructive criticism, this is not the place for you.
- The opportunity to be part of the product management community in the Product School. There is always someone willing to help out in the community. My own cohort had diverse backgrounds, were ready to jump in during any discussion, and I have learnt something from each one of their experiences.
- The final product presentation(built on homework from week 1-6), resume review, mock up interviews. These invaluable sessions put me totally out of my comfort zone, and it made me much more confident about everything that I had learnt during the past sessions.In summary, Product School offers a great course that provides the necessary tools and the environment needed to become a successful product manager.
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Julian
Most productive 8 weeks of my life!!!
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There had always seemed to be a mystery around how to build successful apps or how to bring apps ideas to life. I couldn't really find answers anywhere, then I found Product School! The 8 week course at Product School is literally the science of doing things better.
I learned best practices first hand from at least a dozen product leaders in NYC. VP's, Directors, Senior PM's all came together to provide years of experiences and anecdotes that allowed me to come full circle. I saw firsthand what hurt and helped young and mature tech companies. Their support network and weekly product events gave me the confidence to take my vision and manifest it.
Would I recommend Product School? At this point you'd have to pay me not to! I don't think anyone serious about tech can afford not to. At the current price point and with their flexible schedule its a no-brainer to anyone looking for the next achievement in their life.
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Kel Wu
Product School Mountain View Campus Review
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I first stumbled upon Product School when I attended a Lean Product & Lean UX Silicon Valley meetup. Carlos, the CEO of Product School, was one of the speakers at the session. During the informative session, he told us the first 10 people to email him will get a free resume review. Of course, I obliged and that's when my interest for the school began. I'm currently a Product Manager, but I felt there were some skill sets I was lacking and wanted to get professional instruction on. The only option at the time was General Assembly, but we're talking about a $10,000 course. Waaaaaaaaay out of my price range.
Being a natural skeptic, I did my own homework on the school by attending the info session and happy hours where I pretty much grilled the instructors and current students. All gave generally positive and real answers so I decided to give it a shot. In fact, I also learned that Carlos used to be a Lead Instructor at General Assembly.
So I gave it a shot, I won't give you full on details, but I give a high-level synopsis of what to expect. It's an 8 week course that meets on Tuesdays/Thursdays from 6:30-9pm. The first couple of classes are general overviews of what Product Management is, for those that aren't as familiar.
Then it starts ramping up. Rather than just sitting thru lectures, you're forced into group exercises that test your knowledge of the frameworks and processes you learn each week. Homework is due every week so you also have accountability to get things done. One thing I will emphasize is, the MORE you put into your homework, the MORE you'll get out of it. I mean, its not as expensive as General Assembly, but you're still paying a decent amount for it so get your moneys worth!
Later classes cover UX as well as the best tools to use to be a PM. I've been using Balsamiq this whole time for Wireframing and it wasn't until this class that I built prototypes in Invision. You'll also learn a LOT of frameworks, and you'll start to change how you think about solving problems. Rather than trying to come up with the solution to a problem off the bat, you'll learn a framework as to how to arrive at the answer naturally.I highly suggest setting up a Pinterest page and pinning all the great stuff out there.
The overall format is that each topic and exercise you go thru each week, will culminate into your Final Presentation, the representation of all the knowledge retained thru the course. You're tasked with choosing a product or feature, and presenting the whole flow on how you came about identifying the need, research, your wireframe/prototype, key metrics to validate the feature/product and the Go to Market strategy. This presentation can also be added to your portfolio and be used in future job interviews. In fact, I converted mine into a LinkedIn Pulse article here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fitstar-workout-builder-product-school-final-presentation-kel-wu-1
From there, the classes focus on resume reviews, mock interviews, job search strategies, etc. They also have a community that can do company introductions with their network. I can honestly say that I've learned a lot in this class and I was VERY proud to show off my work and skills. As a bonus that have ongoing events and workshops that are free to students.
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Carey
Mini boot camp for Product Managers
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What do undergraduate/graduate programs teach you about product management? Answer: nothing.So how does one become a product manager?
Answer: unless you’re already a PM, you have to get lucky, and break into the role with your existing company. Or alternatively, you can start your own company and learn on the fly. A pretty daunting proposition, to say the least.
Some companies are getting smarter, and grooming associate/junior PM’s early. But for the most part, there is really NO training out there on how to become a product manager. And school doesn’t prepare you for it either. Product School is trying to change the game. It’s a modern day, mini boot camp style trade school just for product managers.
As an entrepreneur, I already had a grasp of how to rapidly prototype a product, spec it out, and launch. But I wanted to take their course to see if I could fill in some knowledge gaps. It was an eye opener, to be sure; we had in-depth conversations ranging anywhere from managing Scrum teams to using PM-centric tools like Trello, Jira and Xtensio. PMing is done differently at every company, and PS’s goal is to equip you with the tools to become a solid GENERAL product manager, so you can step into any role and adapt quickly to the job’s requirements. Early on, you are forced to reflect on who you are, what you’re good at, and weaknesses that you need to shore up if you’re to become a competent PM.
While there are several mini simulations on things like data analysis and feature ideation, I got the most value out of our individual projects. For your projects, you share your project/work on the big screen with the entire class and explain/defend your thought process. And you’re forced to strip down and open yourself up to critical feedback not just from your instructor, but from your peers as well. Definitely humbling, and in a strong way, very indicative of the life of a PM.
Overall, I had a blast in the class and met some great people, whom I’ll keep in contact with for a long time. Can you learn about many PMing aspects of your own? There are certainly tons of resources out there. But if you’re thinking about making the leap into product management, forcing yourself to get into real, simulated work done in an environment with other people, stepping out of your comfort zone, and making some great connections, it’s hard to find better value than PS.
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Prasenjit Choudhury
A very good investment!
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I'm a current student of Product School (Weekend - Dec 2015) in San Francisco. Only last class left.
I had a great experience learning so many concepts in a short 8 week span and for me it was an eye-opener! The course touched upon many topics right from user persona, interviews, design, A/B testing, metrics, marketing, and the entire product development cycle. And I'd like to thank Carlos for starting Product School!
Also, thanks to Stany, Bryce, Jinyoung, Beatriz (our cohort instructor), Jordan and Josh (mentors) for making it a wonderful experience.
I have listed the Pros and Cons of the course below:
Pros:
1. First things out of the door, which I liked was the flexibility in classes: most other such places generally have classes either whole day, or run classes in the evenings. Both of these options were total non-starters for me since I have a full-time job and the nature of my job is such that my evening schedule keeps changing. So for me, finding a course which has classes over the weekends was top priority.
2. Return on Investment: General Assembly charges $10,500 for a similar 8-10 week course while Product School charges $3,500 for an 8 week course. Also, as a Product School student you get a host of free online resources for deeper studies - that alone is able to offset some of the investment.
3. Faculty: So Product School has a great roster of folks teaching Product Management and our cohort was especially lucky that we were taught by four different instructors - Beatriz was our instructor, but we got a chance to interact with Carlos, Jordan D and Josh A as well. All of them have different working and teaching styles - which make you realize that all PMs are slightly different and through them, you realize what kind of a PM you would be.
4. Curriculum and Methodology: The curriculum touches upon every aspect of Product Management (it doesn't dive into Coding/Programming as this is obviously not a coding boot-camp) and the course builds up in a way that it mirrors a Product Development Lifecycle. Also, throughout the course - every student is expected to be working on a project where-in they can utilize all the concepts that they learn progressively. This really helped in actually getting in the mindset of a PM.
5. Resume and LinkedIn Updates: So this is one session, which is yet to come so I won't be able to tell from my experience. I'd love to see how mentors help in crafting a better resume which highlights the PM skills which we've learned at Product School.
Cons:
1. Like all good things, there are some cons - the first being that the course tends to drag a bit towards the end. I think there can be more concepts added so that the tempo remains constant.
2. Also, some of the group exercises can be done away with - since I felt those were pretty simple and rather we could have people put up their work-in-progress projects and seek advice and suggestions from the cohort. -
Anonymous
My Product School Review
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I really enjoyed my experience in Product School. To make this review useful, I will not repeat what others say but will offer my unique perspective. I personally find reviews from Schaeffe A and Richard F pretty neutral.
Here are some unique/amazing aspects I love about the school
1.) It is your house of PM resources if you know how to use it. I was very lucky to be in a diverse class where there were engineers, entry level PMs, sales, marketers and people who are in business development. Each of them contributed to the class discussion with their unique work experience and make the discussions/group exercises very interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed working with them. We were also very lucky to have Hamid as our instructor. He has definitely added some tough PM love to our discussions and brought the class discussions/exercises to another level.
Besides getting to know other students, I also get to tap into the vast network of Product School's instructors. Throughout the courses, I have made connections with PMs who specialize in tech, UX, business and specific industries. One word of advice is dont expect one instructor will give you everything. Go to Product School and other PM events to meet people, and find out who have those skills or who can steer you to the right directions. This is probably the best $3500 I have spent. You pay much more in a MBA and they dont have a specialized PM curriculum or network like this.
2.) If you were a hardware engineer like me looking to break into product management, expect to pick up some software skills on the side since the course is targeted to help you to get into software based companies. I will, however, still encourage you to enroll in the course if you are in hardware. For me, the course has helped me to enhance my software skill up one notch and the hardware/software background will only help in getting a PM job in the IoT wave that is coming our way.
3.) If you are a budding entrepreneur, the course helps you become a better manager and work with your team effectively. The last thing I would add is I would like to see them expand their curriculum (or maybe a separate course) to talk more about Product/Market fit. Though this is not what an entry level PM will do, this will offer a complete picture of what product management is about.
Thank you Product School! You have been awesome!
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Purni Siddarth
Best career decision
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Joining Product School to learn Product Management is the best decision I have taken for my career. Carlos, Hamid, Stany, Pratik, Mike, Bryce, Eduardo make a wonderful team and they are all extremely helpful. Hamid is an amazing teacher who is passionate about product management and enjoys teaching. The course is well structured, the small classroom size helps a lot. Like other positive reviews, there is a lot more to this course than just PM concepts. I am glad I joined Product School and I am very thankful for the help I have received.
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Anonymous
If you want to understand product management, this is your course
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Product School is an excellent introduction to product management for those wanting to break into the field.
The course encompasses the core functionalities of a successful PM - understanding design, marketing, A/B testing, metrics, and the product development cycle. You'll be exposed to both the higher level theory as well as practical, hands-on examples. Outside of class, you can sharpen the skills you've learned by working on your own personal project. The class highlights exactly what it takes to become a great PM, helping you figure out what strengths and experiences you can leverage in a product position -- as well as the areas where you need the most improvement. The value you get out of the class reflects the work you put into it. If you're willing to hustle, Product School will give you the knowledge, support, and tools you need to kick off your career in product. Other Perks:
- A boatload of free online resources
- Unlimited access to weekly talks by experts in product, design, & the tech industry
- (Most importantly) A community of product folks focused on improving and always more than happy to share experience and provide feedback -
Wayne C.
"I had a great experience here at Product School. Alan was my instructor and he provided lots of..."
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I had a great experience here at Product School. Alan was my instructor and he provided lots of insightful knowledge on what it takes to be a great PM, Carlos, Michael, and Stany were also helpful during my time there.
Pros
- Homework was great and best of all applicable to our resume/portfolio
- Received a lot of straight forward feedback
- Helped me to improve my soft skills such as public speaking, interviewing
- In class projects revolved around real features and real companies
- I was able to receive help, feedback, or advice from Alan whenever I needed
- Extra perks were and still are helpful for me - books, onemonth coursesCons
- I wished for some of our projects to be more in-depth. This is personal for me - I learn best by doing - I wanted more activities where I could get my hands dirty
- Maybe a bit more focus on how to approach technical issues as a PM, although not all PM's are technical - many PM positions require some technical knowledge -
L Nau
Product School
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Background
After over 15 years in the technology industry as a front end developer / web application engineer, I wanted to make a change — to tack to starboard and sail on a different course. I wanted to have a much more significant impact on the things I work on. I love building things on the web for a wide variety of customers, in a huge spectrum of languages. After some investigation, I decided that product management was a good direction to explore. As a product manager, I'll be able leverage my experience, passion, and talents, while learning and applying entirely new skills.
To make this course change, I investigated various options until I discovered San Francisco's Product School. I applied for their eight-week product management course. My cohort started in September and met on Saturday mornings until early November. We were taught by Teo, a senior product manager at a health care startup.
The course is well-crafted and has no expectation of specific prior experience (many people are engineers, but some had other backgrounds). The exercises proved relevant and directly applicable to product development work. In fact, after my primary project for Product School, I'm using the homework assignment templates to frame my thinking on a couple of side projects that I'm working on.
I enjoyed the course, got a lot out of it, and would recommend it to others.
What I really enjoyed about the course:
- My instructor was open for interruptions to clarify material. These clarifications deepened my understanding of unfamiliar (for me: especially on the business/marketing side) concepts.
- The project focus of the course allowed the concepts taught to soak in and be applied directly to a single goal.
- My colleagues were supportive of each other and came from diverse professional backgrounds.
- The feedback of my colleagues and instructor helped me solidify my ideas and improve my presentations.
- Mentor resume feedback proved indispensable, especially for those of us who needed to write a better PM-focused resume.
What I think could be improved for future cohorts:
- The San Francisco location asked us to vacate the space pretty quickly after the end of the day. Future cohorts may find it helpful to have some time to chat after class in the space (or in the lunch room).
- More one-on-one time with mentors in the field would be especially valuable.