Online Certificate in Product Management and Strategy

Building an effective product portfolio is a critical skill. Contemporary product managers must be able to articulate a clear vision of the market for their organization’s products. They also have to develop those products in an agile environment and validate results using proven testing methods and performance metrics. This program provides a comprehensive understanding of cutting-edge product management techniques, along with strategies for implementing them, that will give innovative organizations a competitive edge.

• $107,745 Average annual salary for a product manager in the U.S. (Source: Glassdoor, March 2022)
• 83% Percentage added to top-line revenue by organizations that place a strategic emphasis on data and have an advanced strategy in place to extract business value, translating to 66% more bottom-line profit in the past 12 months (Source: Splunk Research)
• 8.6% Estimated compound annual growth rate of the global product life-cycle management market between 2022 and 2030 (Source: Grandview Research, March 2022)

Program Experience

• Live Sessions. Gauge your progress with live faculty check-ins.
• Podcasts. Listen to the content selected to align with specific modules.
• Polls. See survey results on crucial issues, including the characteristics of a great concept.
• Knowledge Checks. Gauge your understanding of the content as the program progresses.
• Try-It Activities. Focus on real-world scenarios such as conducting customer interviews and constructing design thinking processes.
• Focal Product Playbook. Choose a product relevant to your real-world circumstances, then implement and assess product development strategies and techniques throughout the program.

Who Is This Program For?

• Early- to mid-career product, technology, and marketing professionals seeking to understand product management and strategy for building an effective product portfolio
• Mid-level business/functional managers who are part of the product life cycle directly or indirectly
• Consultants looking to offer innovative products and solutions to their clients
• Entrepreneurs who want to expand their organization by identifying new product-development opportunities
• C-suite/senior leaders who are involved at any point in a product's life cycle, from ideation to final launch

Key Takeaways

Wharton's Product Management and Strategy online program provides a comprehensive overview of this growing field. This program will enable you to:

• Analyze contemporary practices of product management and strategy
• Use tools and techniques to conceive, build and manage products and services over their life cycle
• Understand how to develop and execute a go-to-market strategy for products
• Learn how successful product managers apply design thinking, agile methods, and key business metrics to build an effective product portfolio
• Evaluate the product management function within organizational practice
• Gain the confidence and credibility to transition into a product-management role

Program Topics

Our learning journey is structured to take you through the complete product life cycle, from concept and design to develop a comprehensive vision, incorporating customer feedback, and implementing the proper metrics for measuring performance.

Module 1: Introduction to Product Management and Strategy

Get an overview of the product-management sphere, including roles, general processes, tasks, and responsibilities as well as the capabilities required and prospective career paths.

Module 2: Customer-Driven Products

Take a deeper dive into the process of product development, from conventional waterfall/phase-gate techniques to design thinking, in an effort to uncover genuine insights into customer behavior.

Module 3: From What to How

Begin applying optimal strategies for developing product solutions, including how to generate concepts using both individuals and groups, methods for getting unstuck, and how to select and test concepts.

Module 4: Creating the Sizzle

Explore contemporary practices for presenting product benefits, starting with how to develop a clear vision of the product and using the Amazon PR FAQ as a template for articulating that vision.

Module 5: Agile+

Assess the use of agile methods in product development and management, including the historical context of the agile approach in software development, the mechanics and limits of the approach, and agile applications outside of software.

Module 6: Commercialization

Explore how KPIs influence product management, from basic economics for financially sustainable products to key metrics for business performance, along with how to develop a menu of growth tactics and dashboards for product management.

Industry Examples

Product Management and Strategy draws on real-world examples to illustrate how innovation actually occurs in the marketplace. It offers:

• An exploration of whether Zoom really is 10 times better than BlueJeans, Skype, or Hangouts and whether Google could build a Zoom
• An assessment of real-world brands and names, including Jukebox, BlackBerry, and Boeing
• A look at agile frameworks, such as scrum