THE RISE OF CREDENTIALING

After 10+ years of solid economic growth and free money, the US is seeing the economy pump the brakes. Over the past decade many product managers benefited from corresponding strong career currents that come with a strong economy. When economic tides shift, however, opportunities become less open. It’s no surprise that universities see higher enrollments in lean times. The opportunity cost of splitting your time and leaning back slightly at work are lowered. I expect many are currently starting to consider if now is the time to go back to school. In recent years I’ve noticed that credential programs and universities have surged forward and are offering a plethora of product management certifications, courses, and degrees. As a PM hiring manager, I recommend choosing additional credentialing programs carefully. Not all are meaningful to hiring managers, and their value may only be comparative when looking at multiple candidates. Further below I include my thoughts on specific PM credential and degree programs I’ve seen in the past few years.

HISTORY REPEATS

Across a long career I’ve seen multiple economic downturns. They didn’t all bruise me personally, but I have memories of those times. I remember the 2008 global housing meltdown, the 9/11 2001 attack, and the year 2000 dot com burst. I even remember black Monday in 1987, though I was barely in high school and wasn’t yet working career jobs. Across all of these, I never lost my job, but I did know many who did and many who struggled, and growth was slow. The last decade+ has been an unprecedented continuous period of economic growth. Times have been good in a macro sense.

Nearly 15 years have passed since the mess of 2007/2008. If you don’t remember that time, the movie The Big Short is a great dramatization of that period. This latest turn in the economy might be a new and shocking experience for you. With that lens, I can see why the state of the current economy may have a lot of younger career people nervous and considering what you can do about it.

OPPORTUNITY COST DECREASE

There is inversely some good news when the economy starts shrinking. The opportunity cost of investing in additional education or PM training shrinks. If you had been considering more training this might be the best time to do it. Training takes money and time. In all cases this won’t change. What is different is what you could have otherwise done with your time during this downturn. Previously you may have had better outcomes by working and investing your time in your job. Now that companies are slowing or freezing hiring, you may get better future growth by spending extra effort on training instead. This could include keeping your job while you add training.

I lived this myself in the dot com crash in 2000. I had already started a MBA degree before the crash, but as my employer Yahoo! had started moving teams to lower cost states and offshore, I changed gears to finish my last year and a half full time. With the tech sector in shambles, very little career progress was missed while I worked on this. I believe we’re entering a phase like this time again right now.

While opportunity lost is low, please be careful about who you decide to add training with. If you’re looking to get into product management, consider if you can do this with your current employer. Not all certificates are worth your time, and not all degrees might be aligned to your goals.

THE CREDENTIALING GOLD RUSH

When I first moved into product management in 2005, there were no courses you could take for product management training. At the time, Pragmatic Institute had a good marketing course which PMs would take which addressed some related product topics.Back then most PMs learned on the job. Many also got MBAs which broadened skills, but which didn’t teach product management specifically. Universities weren’t offering PM degrees or specializations, and certificate programs in my experience didn’t exist. Over the past 7+ years I have started to see more groups offering PM training which is a great step forward for the career. The gold rush has begun. Product management is an in-demand career, and many universities and private programs are now offering a wide range of specializations, certificates, and programs. While I am happy to see some formal skill-building programs, people considering these need to do their homework. Hiring managers like me don’t look at them like magic bullets.

MARKETING VS REALITY

Here’s the brutal truth. PM certificate credentials for me don’t add a lot of positive confirmation benefit to a candidate. They are usually short duration certificates which anyone can get with a relatively low time investment. Some that I’ve seen aren’t even taught by people with product management working experience which makes their value suspect. Others do benefit greatly from practitioners who have done the job, founded companies, and written books. Check out Melissa Perri at HBS and Brian Balfour at Reforge.

Conversely, I also don’t think these certificates are bad. They are neutral in most cases. In the absence of PM career experience, demonstrable training shows some level of commitment to the career path. The challenge for a hiring manager therefore becomes, what signal are they providing? For me the signal is verified interest. That’s all. When hiring in practice, I do hear internally and externally from interested people. If they have never done PM before, certificates tell me they are interested enough to put some effort in. The certificate won’t get you the job, but it can put your resume into the, “I’ll consider this one for an entry level candidate pile”. Your work background and other qualifications still need to match the needs of the role.

EVALUATING CREDENTIAL OPTIONS

I am not in a position to decide who has a great education program. I have not taken these courses myself. What I can do it look at the profile of each and suggest how you can think about them. In my view these are some fundamental questions you can apply to any program. Cost matters but I don’t include it as a question. If the quality of the training option is not strong, cost won’t matter. Caveat emptor. This is what I would look for:

• What topics and curriculum are they teaching? Is it skills-based? Is it business model-based? Is it practical and hands-on? Are there case studies? Some combination of these seem necessary.
• What’s the teaching format? In-person? Pre-recorded video? Interactive? Project-based? Etc. In-person and/or live video I believe provides the highest fidelity experience, but you can also choose the format that works best for you.
• Does the teacher of the class have actual product management experience? Is that experience multi-year and multi-level or function? Can they actually teach you and respond with insight to your questions? There are lots of smart people and good teachers, but experience matters.
• Bonus: Are there a networking opportunities or career services offered to help you bridge your career into an actual work opportunity? This is a big ask for any program, but if offered it would be a value add.

INTERESTING EXAMPLES

Over the past couple of years I’ve saved references to programs that I came across online. I’ve included these below. There are very likely others I have not included that exist. These come in three flavors which include a certificate program, a boot camp or class, and a university degree.

Note: I am not personally recommending any of these options. Any decision to invest your time or money into a course needs to be evaluated by you. As an aspiring PM, you can use your analysis skills to evaluate, critique, and ask these programs critical questions.

CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS

Northwestern University Professional Certificate in Product Management

 

 

 

 

Berkeley ExedEd Product Management Studio

 

 

 

 

Stanford Product Management: Accelerated

 

 

 

 

Pragmatic Institute Product Management Course: Foundations Online

 

 

 

 

General Assembly Online Product Management Course

 

 

 

 

ISB (Indian School of Business) Executive Education Product Management Programme

 

 

 

 

BOOT CAMPS

Columbia University Columbia Engineering Product Management Boot Camp

 

 

 

 

Reforge Product Management Foundations

 

 

 

 

Product School Product Manager Certification

 

 

 

 

DEGREE PROGRAMS

Carnegie Mellon University Master of Science in Product Management

 

 

 

 

Technological University Dublin Product Management (PG Dip)

 

 

 

MBA DEGREES

I covered this option in 2019. Read “Does your Silicon Valley Career Need a MBA?”. In brief, my recommendation is ‘maybe, your mileage may vary’. You need to understand what your goal is in getting one, and what you plan to do with it when you’re done. It’s not cheap, and it will take at least two years. Your choice of school also has a significant impact on the perceived value it will add to your profile. Many PMs get MBAs. Many don’t and they are also awesome. Do your homework before taking the plunge.

CHOOSING TO INVEST

In my opinion the value of a PM credential is signaling if you’ve never had a PM role before. Skills matter and these programs do work to teach relevant skills. For me, attitude, a disposition to take action, and eagerness to learn are more important first level criteria. In the absence of any PM work history, a class or a certificate program does show interest to learn and willingness to invest time and resources. When comparing similar candidates, a certificate can help you stand out just a little bit as a first PM role seeker.

Compared to certificates, the boot camps and the degree programs are more interesting to me. They appear to go deeper into training and may have a higher success ratio with helping you get into PM roles. I like the deep attention to skills and the resulting project-related assets you build and can use to build a personal portfolio. This is especially interesting because as a working PM, you won’t be able to show your in-process work. I.e. You can’t post your user stories, PRDs, or functional specs from a private company under NDA. You can only show the final result if it’s publicly visible. Training that creates output assets not only give you practice, they give you an initial work portfolio you can show to prospective employers.

Similar to coding camps from 5-10 years ago, PM training appears to be the new hot area. Provided you get the right results out of any coursework you take, I believe these can be valuable. In my opinion the best outcomes are skills training from qualified and experienced professionals, displayable assets, and training into how to get the job done across many groups. I like the theory and background topics, but I especially like to see training on how the job actually works to make productive and successful new PMs.

ABOUT LUKE

Luke Congdon is a career product manager living and working in Silicon Valley since 2000. His areas of focus include enterprise software, virtualization, and cloud computing. He has built and brought numerous products to market including start-up MVPs and billion-dollar product lines. Luke currently lives in San Francisco. To contact, connect via luke@lukecongdon.com or https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukecongdon/.