Product Management Essentials (FutureLearn)

This four-week course will help develop your product management knowledge and skills. You’ll be guided through the product management timeline with tips and techniques for each step of the process, from strategies and design to launch and growth.
Explore the basics of product management and strategy

Whilst product management is a discipline that continues to evolve, it can be summarised as ‘maximising the success of a product throughout the entirety of its lifecycle thereby supporting an organisation to achieve its goals’.

On this course, you’ll develop your basic product management knowledge and skills to create actual business value. These skills will help you enter into almost any industry and organisation to further your career.
Build your skills in product design and development

With the speed of digital innovation, the influence of digital products on the wider economy, and the growing expectations of customers, product design and development skills are in constant high demand.

You’ll look at product design strategies and how you can incorporate product management techniques into the design and development process.
Discover the tools to execute a successful product launch

The final part of this course will guide you through launching a product and the skills needed to execute a successful launch.

However, as most product managers know, the launch isn’t the end of the product lifecycle, so you’ll also look at how to measure success, the metrics to use, and how to utilise this information to improve a product with the aim of generating value for an organisation.

Syllabus

Week 1: An introduction to product management and product strategy

Week 2: Introduction to product design

Week 3: Product launch

Week 4: Product improvement and growth

Learning on this course

You can take this self-guided course and learn at your own pace. On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

- Classify product management and its various components as a critical business concept

- Discuss the elements and value of product design and development

- Identify product launch strategies and various marketing funnels to achieve launch goals

- Explain and utilise success metrics for implementing valuable product performance.

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for anyone interested in improving their practical product management skills.

Whether you already work as a Product Manager or you’re new to product management, this course will help build your skills for each stage of the product development process.