Product Management 360Cornell Certificate Program

Developing and launching new products involves more than a great idea. In today's fast-paced digital economy, understanding your target customers and their specific needs is essential to launching and managing successful products. In startups and established companies alike, the product manager serves as a key player in taking a product from idea to launch to success.

To bring viable products to market, a successful product manager needs to balance creative inspiration with a disciplined approach. Articulating a winning product means beginning with a hypothesis: You need to craft a simple statement that says, "We are going to help Person X solve Problem Y by doing Z," thus defining a specific customer, a specific problem, and a solution. In this course, you will do just that: Talk to customers, define problems, and come up with a product strategy and a plan for how you would actually build that product.

In this course, you will map your customer's journey and build personas. In doing so, you‘ll position yourself with a much clearer picture of the real problem your product is trying to solve, paving the way for a strong product strategy.

Have you ever thought about why some products succeed and some fail? A product manager is responsible for the product's success. This all begins with setting a vision for the future where your stakeholders visualize how your product will improve your customers' lives. From there, you can begin to break down the specific goals you need to accomplish to make this future a reality. That helps you set the vision and articulate what a winning product looks like.

Visualizing and drawing the business is an important step in the process. In this course, you will discover how to break your business down into pieces so that you can carefully develop a winning strategy and focus on what matters. You'll examine how to visualize and draw the business, then identify the objectives and key results you'll rally the team to achieve.

The following course is required to be completed before taking this course:

• Developing a Product Hypothesis and Personas

Product strategy is the critical link between your organization's long-term vision and its short-term execution. As a product manager, your ability to craft a clear strategy and roadmap — while gaining buy-in from key stakeholders — positions you to lead product development teams with confidence and impact.

In this course, you will discover how to define a structured framework for prioritization; source ideas from customers, team members, and stakeholders; and make informed decisions about which product features to pursue. You'll then apply these skills to build a backlog of high-impact projects and create a compelling product roadmap that clearly communicates what's coming next — as well as why it matters.

The following courses are required to be completed before taking this course:

• Developing a Product Hypothesis and Personas
• User Personas and Product Vision

You have already done the work to answer critical questions regarding your target customer, your product, and the problem that your product will solve. Now it's time to design your product. In this course, you will address the product question, “How do we solve the problem in a way that delights our users and fits our strategy?”

You will examine how to create a prototype that simulates the product experience just well enough to get valuable feedback from potential customers. You'll also examine strategies for aligning the team and create a staffing plan that defines the team members, their roles and responsibilities, and potential areas for friction. You'll finish by writing a product requirements document (PRD), which is a pillar artifact that will rally the team and kick off the engineering and execution phase. This is an exciting moment when you prepare to pivot from analysis and planning to designing and building.

The following courses are required to be completed before taking this course:

• Developing a Product Hypothesis and Personas
• User Personas and Product Vision

After launching a minimum viable product, a product manager needs to measure what's working and what's not then make quick adjustments. This is a key area in the product management process.

In this course, you will identify strategies for measuring progress, validating or updating product hypotheses, and presenting a path forward. You'll use recommended best practices to collect data to make calculated and informed decisions. You'll present what you have learned, propose related adjustments to your product strategy and roadmap, and consider your team's culture as you decide how to learn and iterate.

The following courses are required to be completed before taking this course:

• Developing a Product Hypothesis and Personas
• User Personas and Product Vision

You made it this far by focusing on the customer, setting clear objectives and key results, building a roadmap, and determining how to articulate product learnings and make adjustments. The product manager now moves from planning and analyzing to building and launching a product.

In this course, you will identify strategies for partnering with an engineering team on a day-to-day basis as your team writes and releases code. You'll examine best practices for planning an engineering sprint, writing user stories, and managing and resolving issues. A product manager is accountable for building a delightful customer experience and achieving key objectives; you'll discover how to bring it all together so you can work with your team to build a successful product.

The following courses are required to be completed before taking this course:

• Developing a Product Hypothesis and Personas
• User Personas and Product Vision

In this course, you will explore the intricate relationship between the product manager, the product, and the customer. You'll begin by examining the foundational aspects of product management, including the nature of products, the skills required for effective management, and the common causes of product failures. You'll also gain insights into the product management process, learning to differentiate your role as a product manager from the tasks involved in managing products.

Through the course materials and activities, you will engage with the CORE approach and the Analytical Pyramid, essential tools for classifying ideation skills and navigating the product management journey. You'll then delve into the product development process, exploring its cyclical nature and the distinction between managing and executing tasks. You'll practice identifying management-specific responsibilities and discover how to optimize product design using techniques like Kansei engineering.

Finally, you will gain hands-on experience using Python for data manipulation and A/B testing. You'll discover how to measure customer preferences, leverage data to guide marketing strategies, and develop a deeper understanding of customer perspectives. This practical experience will prepare you to manage the product life cycle effectively and drive success in the market.

In this course, you will discover how to leverage data to develop and refine product strategies — a skill that is increasingly crucial in today's data-driven market. You'll start by exploring essential marketing metrics to design impactful customer journeys then use these metrics to optimize advertising strategies. You'll practice distinguishing between KPIs and attribution metrics to make informed marketing decisions, gather and interpret environmental data to contextualize your product strategies, and integrate these strategies into a company's broader marketing efforts.

Throughout the course, you will delve into various topics, including global ad spend, the marketing funnel, and advertising effectiveness metrics. You'll engage in practical exercises such as journey mapping, competitor briefs, and calculating key marketing metrics like cost per click (CPC) and return on ad spend (ROAS). You'll also be introduced to advanced concepts like marketing mix modeling (MMM) and multi-touch attribution (MTA), equipping you with the knowledge and skills to interpret complex data and guide product and marketing strategies.

By the end of the course, you will have a comprehensive understanding of how to synthesize data-driven insights to develop and implement effective product strategies within an organization, giving you the confidence and expertise to excel in your role.

You are required to have completed the following course or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

• Navigating Technical Product Management

This course equips you with the analytical tools and techniques needed to create data-driven strategies that resonate with your audience. Through a combination of interactive learning, an engaging case study, and hands-on coding exercises, you will explore fundamental ideas such as survival analysis, customer lifetime value, and sentiment analysis, which are essential for understanding customer behavior, predicting outcomes, and tailoring product strategies to meet consumer needs. These approaches will enable you to make informed decisions, refine product offerings, and create meaningful connections with your customers, ultimately driving engagement and loyalty.

You will then apply these analytical techniques to your own product environment. You'll use real data to discern customer preferences, analyze product features, and determine optimal strategies for improving product performance. By the end of the course, you'll have developed a comprehensive strategy that leverages consumer insights to enhance product value and drive customer loyalty.

You are required to have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

• Navigating Technical Product Management
• Developing a Data-Driven Product Strategy

In this course, you will explore the fascinating world of consumer behavior, discovering what drives customers and how to communicate those insights effectively. You'll start by analyzing motivations and internal influences on consumer choices, gaining a deep understanding of how and why customers make decisions. Through interactive activities and discussions, you'll explore real-world examples and apply these concepts to identify key behavioral implications. This knowledge will lay the foundation for formulating product specifications that are both insightful and actionable.

Throughout the course, you will develop critical communication skills to present your insights in a way that influences decision making. You'll get hands-on experience analyzing consumer motivations and presenting data-driven insights in meaningful ways. You'll work on formulating product specifications and ultimately craft a strategy for relaunching a recalled product. By the end of the course, you'll have the skills to understand consumer behavior, communicate insights to stakeholders, and make informed product decisions that resonate with your target audience.

You are required to have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

• Navigating Technical Product Management 
• Developing a Data-Driven Product Strategy
• Optimizing Product Strategy Using Analytics

In this course, you will discover how to apply different project management methodologies to tackle complex product challenges. You'll explore frameworks like Agile, Scrum, Kanban, and the RICE prioritization method to determine the most effective way to streamline project execution. Throughout this journey, you'll get hands-on experience selecting and implementing these methodologies in real-world product environments, allowing you to see how each approach can lead to more efficient outcomes.

You will also develop persuasive communication skills, leveraging consumer behavior insights to craft effective product messaging that resonates with your audience. You'll work on streamlining a technical product's development process and applying consumer behavior models to predict decisions and create effective pricing signals. By the end of this course, you'll have the ability to manage product development with confidence, driving both consumer engagement and business success.

You are required to have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

• Navigating Technical Product Management
• Developing a Data-Driven Product Strategy
• Optimizing Product Strategy Using Analytics
• Analyzing and Communicating Consumer Insights

In this course, you will discover how to create a value offering that resonates with your customers by leveraging key economic principles and pricing strategies. You'll start by exploring financial fundamentals like discounted cash flow and the time value of money then use these tools to construct solid business cases and determine optimal pricing. Through practical activities, you'll develop pricing strategies that evolve over a product's life cycle, applying these techniques to real-world scenarios to create a sustainable and compelling value offering.

As you progress, you will explore behavioral pricing techniques to ensure your product's value is effectively communicated and resonates with your target audience. You'll determine how to drive alignment and action across teams, preparing for a successful product launch. By the end of the course, you'll have the skills to set strategic pricing, understand market dynamics, and deliver a value offering that stands out in the competitive landscape.

You are required to have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

• Navigating Technical Product Management
• Developing a Data-Driven Product Strategy
• Optimizing Product Strategy Using Analytics
• Analyzing and Communicating Consumer Insights
• Applying Project Methodologies to Technical Products