Product School

 I enrolled for an 8 week part-time Product Management Certificate and attended the first-week session but decided to withdraw from the course. 

Just keep in mind, they are very unsupportive (although understandable) when a student wants to withdraw. And it goes against fundamental ethics in Product Management.

My advice to anyone wanting to enroll for any of the Product School Courses is

• Do your research very well before paying the tuition amount. I mean really well.
• Most of the reviews here are written by students who are made to write reviews after 2nd week and final week class. 
• Topics taught in the course doesn't get you the job, not even a call if you are trying to transition into PM. Knowing concepts and a mock project is just like reading a book on swimming and mock project is your bath-tub.
• I withdraw from the course because, I strongly feel, this course makes more impact when you just transitioned to APM/PM Role from your current role or from school. 

Ask as many people as you can, read reviews not just written by Product School students but look for opinions on Blind as well. 

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Product School has quite an eclectic group of students - I greatly value the varied perspectives from those across all product management disciplines. Product management tools that I wasn't aware of were brought to my attention. Found the lecture content digestible and most importantly, Professor Joel P. authentically cared about our progression and made himself available to us!

As an added bonus, Product School's slack channel is filled with gems! Read less

I was a part of the Product School cohort in 2017 for its eight weeks Product Management course.

Prior to joining the course, I had served as an associate PM for a year at a startup in the Bay Area but I wanted to learn more about product management to gain an overall understanding of the field.

The first best part of the program was the instructor who was also an active PM at a company in Silicon Valley. So I got to learn what a day to day life as PM entails and what are some pitfalls to avoid and how to approach various situations. The second best part was the diversity of the batch itself. My batch had about 10 students from varied backgrounds such as engineers, designers, and marketers.
Overall it was a great experience that helped me understand what I need to learn in the future to pivot my career in product management.

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Throughout my experience, I have gone through product lifecycle in different types of a product without knowing that I'm going through such a thing. Having Product School clearing it up with case study experience from instructors and guest speakers. The work that product school is giving to student help clears up my confusion with product related work and the engaging curricular is fun with classmates of a different work background.

I hope Product School is able to achieve their goal further to bring as many product managers into the tech world where is demanding to bring the whole product together. The job work is still new and soon it will be a full career path.

Now I know where I can improve my craft to work as a full fletch Product Manager. Thank you Product School.

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I took the Product Management course (weekend schedule) in Seattle. They have their own textbook which sets the framework of the class content, but it is still highly dependent on the instructor. I enjoyed my class a lot for the below top 2 reasons:

1)  My instructor Mikko Ollila is a veteran Product Manager with experience in multiple different companies (across industries and org sizes). He was able to demonstrate the topics by giving us plenty of real work examples that come from his professional experience. When we asked questions, he gave us different perspectives rather than "the correct answer". I benefited a lot from learning from him.

2)  My cohort was great. We all come from different organizations and have different backgrounds. We asked questions and shared our own experience during the class, which was truly beneficial to each other. Also, it was a great chance to know more people and make new friends.

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I absolutely loved my experience with Product School in Santa Monica. Our instructor Ryan Mick was amazing. He has a passion for being a PM and his passion was shown through his teaching. He consistently brought in his own experiences and related it to the concepts we learned in class, which I think is very beneficial when teaching a course in product management. Before I took this class I knew that I wanted to have a career in product management, but I still wasn't sure what product management really meant. So, I decided to take the course. In the end, Product School and Ryan's teaching solidified my career plans to be a PM. Is the price worth it? Yes, it was for me. If you are looking into a career as a PM I would highly recommend this course. I took the course for two days a week in the evenings and it was the perfect amount. There are assignments that need to be completed, however, each assignment builds upon itself for the final project. Ryan was always willing to help us with our assignments or anything related to PM. He was always available to us whenever we needed him. In the end, I would highly recommend this course to anyone looking into product management.

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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 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!

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he Product School offers great quality of education. Deciding to join Product School was the best decision in my life, no doubt about it. Thanks to Dr Joel my instructor who has supported me!

Dr Joel is one of my favorite instructors. He is very knowledgeable and very formal. He gives great examples and explanations. He is funny, smart, clear in what he expects, classes are fun and you actually learn skills. He cares about the students, he goes out of his way to connect with the students one-on-one, answers questions by giving real world examples, always available for students on slack/email, and he wants us to get jobs and helps us make contacts in the profession...which is the whole point.

Great person overall. Take his class, you'll learn a lot. I've seen a huge difference in the type of offers and number of offers I am getting. Everything from number of interviews to salary went up significantly. I highly recommend students to take Dr Joel's class especially!

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I was taught by Joel P and he helped me learn the essentials needed to transition to PM. He also gave me large amounts of individual coaching outside of class to help get my PM applications shaped up to land interviews. As opposed to other specialty schools teaching Product Management, Product School focuses solely on Product Management which differentiate them from what's offered at General Assembly or other competitors. I'd recommend PS to anyone with some software project management of software engineering skills that is hoping to skill up and focus on product management.

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Where Product School shines in comparison to its competitors is its focus on getting you that PM job you're after.  My instructor regularly interviews with the companies I am hoping to apply to and brings back important feedback and a career oriented perspective to the course that I really appreciated.

The conceptual and material portions of the class are thorough and the instructor was responsive to class feedback as to what in particular to focus on.  In class exercises and simulations also provided a huge amount of value.

I haven't yet had a chance to take advantage of the alumni network, but it seems exceptionally strong and useful.

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Overall PS was a great class. The course materials were good, but there are just some things you can't learn in an eight week bootcamp. What makes the class great are your classmates who ask intriguing quesitons that you wouldn't have been able to come up with yourself and your instructor who is passionate about product and can navigate you through a sea of information. 

I took my class with Joel in NYC and highly reccomend him.

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Having worked in Fintech since 2008, I thought I had a pretty good grasp of product management. Still, I felt that there were gaps that I needed to fill and Product School had a great reputation, so I decided to apply. My class was taught by a reputable instructor that provided invaluable insight to every aspect of the product development lifecycle. As you step through each phase of the process, you apply the knowledge to a project that you will present at the end of the program. My class had an even mix of backgrounds (engineers, project managers, product managers and analysts from adtech, fintech, fashion, edtech, misc startups) which contributed to passionate discussions from different points of view. All in all, my experience was amazing and well worth the investment. I highly recommend this program to any one in, or aspiring to be in, technology.

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Product School is a great concept but badly implemented. While the overall curriculum was quite easy to grasp, technical aspects were very poor. My cohort in Santa Clara was not given any opportunity to attend Wednesday meetup sessions since our classes were changed last minute from Tues - Thurs to Mon - Wed, nor were we told about Balsamiq login options in class. The instructor Greg was very wordy and had poor technical experience since he comes from filmmaking background and gave very poor feedback on presentations. His own presentations were not very inspiring. Product School needs to include technical UX sessions as well as more cases. The only case we used was Udemy which was not of much help, especially for technical software product managers. Most of my classmates have had no luck finding jobs after the course. Another very unethical move by Product School is that they offer Accredible certificates which can be linked on LinkedIn, if you provide positive reviews on social media.

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I enrolled in The Product School in July 2016 for an 8-week course on Product Development. I started the course with some apprehension because of my lack of software skills. It was relatively a small class size of 12-14 very diverse students from all walks of life. As the classes progressed, I was overwhelmed by new concepts and terminology- MVP, UX, frameworks, personas. I decided to speak to my instructor, Adam S about my difficulties/limitations.  Adam was very helpful and encouraged me to keep coming to classes, ask questions, read books & articles online.  He was always ready to answer any questions or concerns I had, and that was what did it for me!  The weekly assignments culminated in a final project that turned out to be a good learning experience. The last two classes were devoted to speaking with product managers from various fields, getting resume feedback and answering questions.  Overall a good “crash course” I recommend to anyone interested in Product Development. 

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I attended the weekend cohort from Jun, 2016 to Aug, 2016 in Santa Clara, CA. The instructor was a former PM director from salesforce. I think the learning experience was definitely fun and rewarding. Before the program, I know something about PM but not confident enough to go for a PM job. Now I am confident and ready to go for it.

The course materials (slides, handouts, and in-class group projects) are all provided by product school. The contents cover very practical information and skills for PM jobs, starting from the very basics. The slides are well designed and easy to understand. The in-class activities are also very interesting practices to do what PMs do.

The instructor is fantastic, very approachable and knowledgable. I appreciate it very much that he actually spent a lot of time helping students with resumes and projects. His teaching is also entertaining and engaging.

I'd highly recommend this course for people with limited time and limited PM background. For people who are already PMs, you probably wouldn't benefit as much. 

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I just completed the weeknight course at the NYC campus.    It was a great learning experience and a good "crash course" in practical skills and methologies used by product managers.

Pros:
- Learned a lot on product management
- Class work was immersive and hands on
- The weekly assignments leading up to the Final Presentation was very helpful in learning the process of how a real PM works through each phase of creating/enhancing a product
- Instructor was very supportive and made himself available to answer questions
- Access to workshops and continuing network of PMs

Cons:
- I thought there would be some kind of "career fair" where students get to meet potential employers at the end of the course, but there wasn't any
- Class work could be a more productive experience if the instructor demonstrates an example of the goal first.  Otherwise often we spent a big chunk of the allotted time just figuring out what the assignment wanted from us.

Overall a very worthwhile experience.

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I attended the Product Management course in Product School -New York Campus. The best thing about this course is all the awesome connections you get, from experienced Product Managers to students from various backgrounds who take the class with you. The course was very informative is teaching what Product Management was all about and giving directions to the tools and skills you need to get that PM break. I am glad I took this course. I will highly recommend this course to anyone who is looking to transition to Product Management.

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I had a wonderful experience in Product School. The program was fun and immersive. I really learned from the experience of going through the class. The best part was working with my classmates. I learned as much from collaborating in class as I did fromt he instructor and curriculum. 

Pros:
-Class work was immersive and hands on.
-Worked on interviewing and soft skills.
-Practiced frameworks to help in product thinking.

Cons:
-The course goes by incredibly fast and can be overwhelming.
-Some class resources could be better organized.
-No explicit job placement or assistance.

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I recently completed the Orange County offering of the Product Management course and I'd definitely recommend it. I'm a PM who is new to the role and I wanted to learn best practices and methodology. The order of classes essentially walks students through the product lifecycle from an idea to implementation. While this won't necessarily map to a current PM's role on a one-to-one basis, it will provide PMs with an idea of steps they should be taken in order to better define, implement and release products and features.   Our instructor, Derek Tumulo was very knowledgeable and I found his experience incredibly helpful. He was able to provide concrete examples of his experience at a few marquee companies he's worked at did things. Honestly, if you were to take this course, I'd suggest taking it from him. Read less