Product School

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!

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.

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! 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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!

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.

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

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 courses

Cons 
- 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

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.