13 Online Courses to Help You Become a Certified Product Manager

Product Management, in simple terms, is a practice of strategically designing and driving a product in the market based on the requirements of a user.

Product Management involves thorough knowledge of the user and the market, preparing a business model, creating a great UX, getting the product built from a technical point of view, and finally presenting the same in the market. 

Roles of a Product Manager

A product manager, abbreviated as PM and also referred to as a mini CEO, is a professional who does everything required to ship a quality product to the user.

A product manager’s primary responsibility is to oversee the progress of a product throughout its lifecycle, from conception to delivery to customers. It is a multifaceted role made up of numerous more minor parts. A product manager must plan the development of a product, analyze it from various perspectives, test it, market it, and eventually act as a business executive.

Each product manager may have a unique approach to their job. They may be required to create a product for a company’s employees or clients. It necessitates close collaboration between the development, forecasting, analyzing, marketing, sales, and end-user teams.

Becoming a product manager requires a significant amount of not just technical knowledge but also soft skills.

Online courses can help keep one’s knowledge up to date and in pace with the latest developments in this field. Someone working in an entirely different field and who wants to move to product development can upskill by enrolling in online courses.

They can teach you everything from the basics of product management to advanced strategies and techniques. The best part? You can learn at your own pace, anywhere that has internet access.

With so many online courses, programs, and certification options, how do you know which ones are best for you? Depending on your level of experience and what you want to learn, you may choose one of these courses.

Udacity Nanodegree Program- Become a Product Manager

The Udacity Nanodegree program is designed to teach the fundamental skills that all product managers must possess to lead the development of any product.

Duration: 4-month at 10 hours/ week

Prerequisites: No prior experience is required

Skill Level: Beginner

Self-paced: Yes

The syllabus for the program is prepared in collaboration with AT&T, Lyft, and Google. A brief about the same is given below:

• Product Strategy: This will talk about Product Management, its importance, the role of PM in an organization, problem identification and solution, Vision & Strategy, and more.
• Product Design: Designing a solution after defining the problem and identifying a market opportunity. The major topics covered here are: Introduction to Design Sprint, Understand, Define, Sketch, Design, Decide and Prototype: the phases wherein a product prototype is created.
• Product Development: This course will cover topics like Influencing without Authority, i.e., defining social capital, describing its importance in product management, learning the art of saying ”No” in situations with competing priorities; Development Methodologies, Processes, and Tools, and lastly managing the product development process by creating a proper plan and more.
• Product Launch: Under this, you will be taught to make a plan, identify the launch risks, and determine how to mitigate their impact on your launch. Other topics such as Setting up the Process, Marketing Strategy, Launch, and Post-Launch Feedback will also be covered.

This is one of the best courses for beginners who want to begin a career in product management and position themselves for success in landing and performing on the job.

Product Management 101

This Product Management 101 on Udemy will help one become a more strategic product manager – with a significant impact on your services and products. The program will cover the spectrum of product management work from market intelligence, strategy, new product development, and lifecycle management.

Duration: 5 hours 10 minutes

Prerequisites: 0 – 5 years of experience

Skill Level: Beginner to experienced

Self-paced: Yes

Syllabus: 

There are a total of 6 sections with 70 lectures under this program. Brief information for the same is given below:

• Introduction of product management
• Marketing Intelligence: Customer analysis, Interviewing customers, and more
• Strategy and Lifecycle Management: Preparing a suitable plan, Positioning & communication, Buyer’sBuyer’s journey & content marketing

In addition to this, there will be a breadth of product management, including software, hardware, services, and analytics – with company examples and practice activities.

UMD and USMx’s Product Management

UMD and USMx’s Product Management program offered via edX will make the student understand the keys to successfully navigating the roles and responsibilities of being a PM to champion change with internal and external collaborators and influencers.

Duration: 5-month or 2 – 3 hours per week

Prerequisites: No experience is required

Skill Level: Beginner

Self-paced: Yes

Syllabus: 

• Product Management Fundamentals: Under this, you will understand the key to successfully navigating the roles and responsibilities of being a PM to champion change with internal and external collaborators and influencers
• Achieving Product-Market Fit: This lesson will explain how to know your target customer, customer needs, the value proposition, and user experience. You will also learn to integrate the knowledge into product and market requirements and positioning plans.
• Product Design, Prototyping, & Testing: Translate product ideas into tangible assets by creating wireframes, 3D renderings, prototypes, and minimum viable products (MVPs) to test assumptions and validate customer interests
• Data Science and Agile Systems for Product Management: Deliver faster, higher quality, and fault-tolerant products regardless of the industry using the latest in Agile, DevOps, and Data Science.
• Modern Product Leadership: Lead product teams and organizations to deliver winning solutions for customers while driving engagement and innovation across the enterprise

With this, you will learn how to identify your target customer, customer’s underserved needs, value proposition, product feature set, and user experience, then integrate this knowledge into product and market requirements.

Digital Product Management: Modern Fundamentals

The University of Virginia offers a Digital product management course via Coursera. Under this program, you will be able to get knowledge and help understand the translation of product ideas to develop and finally sell them.

Price: Free to view, payment required for certification

Duration: Approx. 11 hours

Prerequisites: no experience is required

Skill Level: Beginner

Self-paced: Yes

Syllabus: 

The lessons and a brief of the topics covered under it are: 

• Achieving Focus and Winning: This will have 20 short videos of 99 minutes. It will teach you how you and your team can work together to create a successful product.
• Using Today’s Product Management Methods: This too will have 20 short videos of a total of 113 minutes. This lesson will speak about today’s most successful product managers’ use and suggest methods to sell products to the stakeholders.
• Exploring a New Product Idea: This lesson has 13 videos for 73 minutes. Here, one will step through customer discovery, idea testing/validation, early development, and business model design. By the end, one will have a durable process you can both execute and communicate to your team.
• Amplifying an Existing Product: Finally, the last lesson has 19 Videos for 105 minutes. Here, you will learn how a product does more than make a big splash, how to apply what you have learned here every week, and every sprint to keep that product fresh and relevant.

All the topics are in a video format, making understanding related to PM and concepts associated with the same more accessible. 

Product Strategy (Discovering, Developing, Managing, and Marketing Products as a Business)

In this program by Kellogg School of Management, you will learn how product strategy is the foundation of business growth, product strategy lifecycle, learning growth strategies from the cradle to the grave and how to think like the CEO of your product or service.

Duration: 2-month (4-6 hours per week)

Prerequisites: no experience is required

Skill Level: Beginner

Self-paced: Yes

Syllabus: 

A brief of the modules with their topics is given below: 

• Understanding Product Strategy: Learn why having a product strategy is essential and how it varies depending on the type of organization.
• Analyzing Product Opportunities: Assess new opportunities using the ”jobs-to-be-done” framework.
• Discovery and Requirements Definition: Use the discovery hypothesis framework to create user stories and a wireframe to outline an opportunity to provide an urban mobility solution for school children.
• Designing the Business Model: Learn which situations call for which business model and examine the economics of a SaaS pricing model.
• Agile Product Development: Learn the agile development principles and use them to influence a team over which you have no direct authority, such as an engineering team.
• Taking Products to Market: Learn how to define and understand your key audiences and choose the best marketing route(s).
• Managing the Partner Ecosystem: Learn how to define the elements of the ”whole offer” and how to design and manage partnerships effectively.
• Managing Product Evolution and Growth: To drive new growth, capitalize on the strengths of your existing strategies and tactics. Learn about product evolution and how decisions affect your product line. Conduct a road-mapping exercise for an innovative new medical supplies product.

Becoming a Product Manager: A Complete Guide 

Offered by LinkedIn, the course on Becoming a Product Manager is a complete guide for beginners to learn about product management and a product manager. You will also learn about various techniques required to successfully coordinate all aspects of product development. 

Duration: Approx. two months 

Prerequisites: No experience is required

Skill Level: Beginner

Self-paced: Yes

Syllabus:

The course will cover the following aspects in video format: 

• Introduction to Product Management: What is a PM?; Deciding on what type of PM you want to be, and more
• Introduction to Product Development: The four significant phases of the product life cycle, Getting deeper into the product development process, What is Kanban, and how does it work?
• Ideas and User Needs: Introduction to ideas and user needs, Users vs. Customers 
• Competitive and Market Analysis: Market research, the five criteria for understanding competitors, and more
• Customer Development: What is customer development? Build user personas of your interviews and more
• Designing and Running Experiments: What is an MVP, its techniques, What is a hypothesis, and more

Product Manager Certificate by Product School

This Product management online certificate course was created and designed by top product experts of YouTube, Google, Facebook, and Slack.

Duration: 2-3 months 

Prerequisites: no experience is required

Skill Level: Beginner

Self-paced: Yes

Syllabus:

The program covers the following chapter and topics:

• Defining a Product Strategy: This will discuss Product Development Lifecycle, Success Metrics, and User Personas.
• Identify Opportunities & Acquire Customers: This will cover: Industry Disruption Model, Value Chain Assessment, and Technology Strategy.
• Design Thinking & Development: This chapter will consist of: User Flows/ Wireframes/ Prototypes, Design Sprint, Agile Methodologies: Scrum & Kanban
• Product Marketing & Strategy: The last lesson will talk about: APIs & Integration, Team Management, Go-to-Market Strategy

This program is perfect for aspiring Product Managers from any professional background. 

Digital Product Management MicroMasters Program

This edX course is a part of Bux’s Digital Product Management program. You will learn how to use lean, agile, and systems design thinking in all aspects of the digital products lifecycle.

Duration: Approx. 7 weeks (4-8 hours per week)

Prerequisites: Secondary school level Mathematics knowledge

Skill Level: Advanced

Self-paced: Yes

Syllabus:

The aspirant will be able to learn the following:

• The first chapter will talk about Product line planning and road mapping alternatives.
• The second chapter will learn about idea generation, customer needs assessment, co-creation, minimal viable product (MVP) definition and validation, and requirement document setup.
• Following completion of the first two chapters, the third will explain alternative approaches for lean, agile, and waterfall development and tools for assessing task, project, and business risks (and risk mitigation strategies), among other things.
• The fourth chapter will discuss how to launch a product and develop a go-to-market strategy to promote your product.
• And the last one will talk about Performance Management, i.e., how to take ownership of product-related profit (or loss) over various life cycle stages and track and optimize system performance metrics while organizing social media and third-party data towards performance optimization.

The program also guides you to make critical decisions needed for each phase of the product lifecycle. It will ensure your mastery of business and organizational logic for product success in the marketplace. 

Software Product Management Specialization

Software Product Management Specialization is offered by the University of Alberta via Coursera and focuses on the significance and role of software product management. It also gives a general overview of the specialization, including its goals, structure, and expectations.

Duration: 18 hours per week (1 month); 6 hours per week (3 months), and 3 hours per week (6 months)

Prerequisites: no experience is required

Skill Level: Beginner

Self-paced: Yes

Syllabus:

A brief syllabus for the program is given below:

• Software Product Management: The Discipline: This module, which has eight videos, will help you understand the software for product management and how you can improve its performance. It will cover the path you will take through this specialization, offering to prepare you for taking on a software product manager role.
• Foundations of Software Product Management: This module contains nine videos totaling 50 minutes. You will learn the Agile software development philosophy, core values, and principles.

The course explains the significance of process, requirements, planning, and monitoring in developing better software.​

Product Management Certifications

280 Group provides the most respected and credible training courses for Product Managers, Digital Product Managers, Product Marketing Managers, and Product Owners.

Duration: Self-paced

Prerequisites: no experience is required

Skill Level: Beginner

Self-paced: Yes

Syllabus:

Here is what each certification expects you to understand at a high level:

• For Certified Product Manager: It will talk about: Standard seven-phase Product Life Cycle followed worldwide; Understanding the strategic and tactical functions of Product Management and Core concepts including critical skills, strategies, tactics, and terminology, including methods and tools
• Certified Product Marketing Manager: It will have the same topics as above but will be discussed from the marketing perspective. 
• For Certified Digital Product Manager: This certification will help you understand: How a digital product necessitates distinct processes in the seven-phase Product Lifecycle; core concepts of digital product management are based on dual-track Agile, which separates learning loops from development loops and more.
• Agile Certified Product Manager and Product Owner: This will talk about How the Agile development methodology complements the seven-phase Product Lifecycle; core concepts including critical skills, strategies, tactics, and terminology, and Agile Product Management strategies and leadership skills.

These programs can be completed in Live Online, Self-Study online, In-Person Training, and Private Custom Training formats. 

Postgraduate Diploma in Project Management (E-Learning)

The Postgraduate Diploma in Project Management (E-Learning) equips product managers with the skills required to successfully plan and manage a product over a long time.

Duration: 6 months, 4-6 hours per week

Prerequisites: No experience is required

Skill Level: Intermediate

Self-paced: Yes

The duration of each course section is 6 weeks. Here are the 4 stages of the program-

• Project Launch
• Project Planning
• Project Execution
• Capstone Project

The program includes topics such as business analysis, marketing strategy, and financial analysis.

Pragmatic’s Product Management Course

To become a certified product manager, Pragmatic Institute offers project management courses. It has helped over 200,000 professionals in product development from over 9000 companies worldwide to enhance their businesses and products. There are currently 2 levels of certification available: beginner and intermediate. To become certified, an individual must have at least 2 years of experience as a product manager.

PDMA Certification Central

The NPD Professional Certificate will aid you in making crucial connections to your professional career. Utilize the authority of certification to be connected with prospects for business and even new opportunities. Certification is the only way to establish a connection between where you are now and the direction you’d like to take.

It was developed and is offered by and administered by the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA). New Product Development (NPD) Professional Certification is an internationally recognized body of information. 

Once you have earned your NPD Professional Certification, firms looking to hire the most skilled professionals will recognize your dedication to the field, knowing that you are an expert in capabilities in management and product development and a proven track of success and professionalism.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that a Product Management course certification is the future demand of various companies or businesses having a consumer-friendly product. And being an early certified product manager will only give your career a huge boost. The above-listed online courses will not only make you ready for the future market but will make you stand apart from the crowd.