Only two things determine how your life turns out — luck and the quality of your decisions. I'll teach you a decision-making process to help you master the second.

Make Better Decisions

Session 1. Why all decisions are bets: Uncertainty, Resulting, Bias, and Base Rates.

How to elicit higher quality feedback, the purpose of groups, creating an artifact of your decisions,

Session 2. Discover, Discuss, Decide.

Session 3. Applied group decision making.

Session 4. On Quitting: Monkeys and pedestals and kill criteria.

Learn strategies to help identify which decisions you can go fast or slow with.

Session 5. Decision Agility: When to go fast and when to go slow.

Session 6. Applied decision making exercise + program wrap-up.

Course syllabus

Monday, January 8, 2024

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Monday, January 15, 2024

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Monday, January 22, 2024

Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Make Better Decisions 

Course Schedule

You’re an entrepreneur who wants to be faster and more effective across the dozens of decisions you make every day.

You’re an executive-level decision maker looking to accelerate your team’s success by teaching them how to make high-quality decisions.

You’re an investor who’s tired of letting volatility drive your decisions and ready to systematize your thinking.

Is this course for you?

You'll learn

Every decision is a bet on a forecast of the future. You have limited resources to figure out which prediction will have the best return in the long run. The solution: my 6-step process for better decision making.

How to make better decisions.

Why doesn't your gut make great decisions? The answer: cognitive bias. I'll show you how to get to the outside view — what is true of the world independent of your own point of view.

What gets in the way of making good decisions.

Teams don’t always produce higher-quality decisions — they just have higher confidence. You'll learn how to find out when people disagree and normalize dissent in groups.

Making effective decisions on a team.

There's a time-accuracy trade-off with decisions. I'll teach you my best frameworks for figuring out how fast you can go when making decisions.

Making faster decisions.

Beat decision paralysis. Master a repeatable process for making better decisions in business and life.

Annie Duke

Cohort 2

Cohort 3

Taken by 205 students to date, taught by Dr. Marily Nika alongside 5 carefully curated AI leaders working for Big Tech companies such as Google, Meta, Salesforce, Elastic &amp; Amazon, this 12-week, cohort-based intensive and immersive bootcamp is designed to equip product managers with specialized AI skills and get them ready to get hired and have impact. This program offers a comprehensive package comprising 20 hours of live content, 3 hours of personalized coaching (which optionally covers resume and LinkedIn profile preparation). Moreover, it includes 6 practical hands-on exercises encompassing both technical and strategic aspects. To cap it off, participants will engage in a stimulating Capstone project for their own companies, where they can apply their newly acquired AI PM skills to harness AI technologies for developing cutting-edge products for testing purposes. Students that will successfully complete this Program will receive a certificate of AI Product Management readiness.﻿Additionally, students will have the opportunity to take part in a pitch competition, which will be graced by professionals from prominent venture capital firms. If you would rather not invest in a 12-week program, you can check out Marily's 3-week AI PM 101 course or Advanced AI PM course (total of 600 students).

“All Product Managers will be AI Product Managers in the future” - Marily Nika
 

<ul><li>AI/ML &amp; Generative AI basics</li><li>AI Product Development lifecycle</li><li>AI Product applications</li><li>Intro to algorithms, data collection, model training</li><li>AI PM Craft (strategic thinking, making trade-offs, hypothesis testing)</li><li>Metrics in AI PM</li><li>OKRs and Goals in AI PM</li><li>MLOps</li></ul>

AI PM 101 course

<ul><li>Model training using Google colab (code provided)</li><li>Leadership training</li><li>Architecture</li><li>Productionization</li><li>Responsible AI</li><li>4 guest product leaders</li></ul>

Advanced AI PM 

<ul><li>1-1 Coaching by AI PM Leaders</li><li>Resume &amp; LinkedIn creation</li><li>Access to exclusive jobs board &amp; recruitment specialists</li></ul>

Personal development

<ul><li>3 weeks of hands-on, structured work</li><li>Pitch to a forum of VCs</li></ul>

Capstone Project

If your events are recurring and at the same time, it might be easiest to use a single line item to communicate your course schedule to students

Tuesdays & Thursdays

Feel free to type out dates as your title as a way to communicate information about specific live sessions or other events.

May 7, 2022

Schedule items can also be used to convey commitments outside of specific time slots (like weekly projects or daily office hours).

Weekly projects

Course schedule

Seasoned Product Leaders Interested in pivoting to AI Product Management in their companies &amp; elsewhere

Aspiring AI Product ManagersWith or without tech experience that want to dive deep into all things AI &amp; Product

Software EngineersInterested in understanding how to productionize AI

Who is this course for

What you’ll get out of this course

You will start off by joining the <a href="https://maven.com/marily-nika/technical-product-management" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Introduction to AI PM course</a><ul><li>6 live sessions with Marily, 1 offline exercise, access to the community</li><li>Personalized coaching call to create your personalized plan</li></ul>

Phase 1: Introduction to AI PM  (3 weeks)

<ul><li>You will join Marily's <a href="https://maven.com/marily-nika/advanced-ai-product-management/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Advanced AI Product Management course</a></li><li>6 live sessions with Marily &amp; guests</li><li>3 offline coding/strategy exercises</li><li>We will revamp your resume &amp; LinkedIn profiles</li></ul>

Phase 2: Diving Deeper (3 weeks)

<ul><li>Bring your AI product idea or your company's AI product challenge</li><li>Work on this project in a structured, supervised way by FAANG AI PMs</li><li>(optional) Pitch your idea to a group of curated VCs</li></ul>

Phase 3: Capstone Project (3 weeks)

<ul><li>Interview Training Workshop</li><li>Mock interview practice</li><li>Access to private job &amp; recruiter pool&nbsp;</li></ul>

Phase 4: Getting ready for interviews / getting the job (1 week)

<ul><li>Get the AI Product Academy's official 'Certificate of AI PM Readiness'</li></ul>

Phase 5: Get certified

This 12 week program aims to cultivate a new generation of AI product leaders who can drive innovation in the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem

Dr. Marily Nika

AI Product Lead @ Meta, ex-Google, TED AI Speaker, Harvard Business School

*This is a part of the AI PM Bootcamp main course (https://maven.com/marily-nika/ai-pm-bootcamp) Taken by over 700 students, this is a popular 3-week-long hands-on interactive course for Aspiring AI Product Managers, that help you understand how to bring AI products to life with 0 coding experience at your dream tech company.Plus, get a certificate of completion. This course is for beginners with or without coding skills and with or without any PM experience. The follow-on to this course is the Advanced AI Product Management course for people that already took this one and/or for Senior folks interested in a technical deep dive and to pivot to AI PM:https://maven.com/marily-nika/advanced-ai-product-management/. If you get both courses you or if you upgrade to the AI PM Bootcamp get a special discount for both. Email hello@aiproduct.academy.

The Art of AI Product Management

AI PM fundamentals and key technical concepts

AI Product Development Lifecycle deep dive

From idea generation to AI MVP & long term strategic roadmap

Tools and methodologies for AI PMs

Effective cross-functional collaboration & strategies behind successful AI Products with real world examples

Interview Training

Course Structure

Aspiring Product Managers looking to understand the AI Product Development Lifecycle

Software Engineers looking to pave their path towards AI Product Management and understand how to position their skillset in the right ways.

Students or Current Product Managers that wish to understand how to pave their path to AI PM.

What Marily will cover in 3 weeks

Understanding the key technical &amp; AI concepts product managers need, in order to solve user problems with smart, niche technologies

Strengthening &amp; mastering the diverse skillset you will need throughout the product development lifecycle

Learning how to effectively partner &amp; collaborate with scientists, engineers and key stakeholders day-to-day while executing on your roadmap

Adopting a product-mindset &amp; user-first perspective throughout the AI product development lifecycle

Be able to train models end-to-end, understand the technical concepts behind model training

Strengthening your analytical skills, metrics-driven approach &amp; insight-driven decision making

Hands on working with Data and Google Colab

Hands-on AI concepts, model training, frameworks, processes & AI tools to build AI products with 0 coding experience. Get certified now! 

Cohort 12

Generative AI edition

Go way beyond just tinkering with ChatGPT and integrate custom AI workflows into your organization through: - Evergreen prompt engineering techniques for specific use cases, including custom AI app creation. - Principles and specific instructions for AI workflow automation and project management. - Preventing hallucinations with grounded models, and build your own AI chatbot with custom data. - Actually building AI prototypes. - Immersing in cutting-edge research on the present and near future of AI. - Step-by-step walkthroughs of applications of generative AI for content creation, operations, and research. Along with live class sessions, the course includes 1:1 coaching sessions and flexible office hours to ensure each student gets deeply personalized support for their generative AI applications they want to build out. We've been building generative AI solutions for B2B clients for years. This class distills our experience for you to apply this to your work and organization.

Harness the full power of AI

<ul><li>Predict the developments in the generative AI landscape over the next 1 to 3 years.</li><li>Discover the current state-of-the-art models, emerging methodologies, and their business applications.</li><li>Hands-on focus: test applications of advanced prompting (image + text). Projects include prompt mining, image styling and app wireframing.</li></ul>

Prompt engineering and the generative AI landscape

<ul><li>Get familiar with the generative AI infrastructure and the emerging software paradigms.</li><li>Gain insight into the role of data in content generation.</li><li>Explore LUIs and LUX - frontier of AI-user interactions.</li><li>Identify potential niches for generative AI app development.</li><li>Hands-on focus: Build a generative AI app.</li></ul>

Building a generative AI app prototype

<ul><li>Master strategy for selecting a model for your needs.</li><li>Employ the generative AI implementation cycle - explore, adjust, experiment, repeat.</li><li>Gain insight into utilizing AI plugins.</li><li>Build security into AI applications.</li><li>Hands on focus: Create a generative AI tool responding to your personalized data + automate a content generator with other software. </li></ul>

Combining generative AI with outside data and tools.

Live lecture on Tuesdays, prototyping sessions on Thursdays. ***NOTE: February cohort will run on Wednesdays and Fridays, same time

Tuesday & Thursday

Optional office hours where you can ask questions and receive personal guidance on developing your AI applications. ***NOTE: February cohort will run on Wednesdays and Fridays, same time

Projects will be offered every week to master your skills in AI. You will get to shape the project deliverable. Lecturers will be available by email and during office hours throughout the week for any questions.

Product managers who needs to understand how AI capabilities can better serve your customers and business objectives.

Leaders who needs to understand the cutting edge to guide strategy and team effectiveness.

Creatives hoping to protect your work from redundancy and explore new frontiers for content creation.

Clear, actionable processes for analyzing AI use cases and developing strategy towards concrete deliverables.

Solve real problems with AI

We will be your personal innovation and prototyping concierge as you create real AI apps, with no past coding experience required.

Build real AI prototypes

You'll leave with a huge toolkit of new capabilities and targeted resources you can start using immediately, with proof that you can leverage them.

Create a truly unique innovation portfolio

Master an evergreen method for identifying reliable information in a noisy, crowded field to build and future-proof your AI strategy.

Learn hype-proof research techniques

Gain access to step-by-step instructions, videos, AI models and decision-making worksheets to continue growing your expertise long after the end of the course.

Access a treasure trove of resources

Integrate AI into your work and business through hands-on prototyping and cutting-edge research (no coding required)

Cohort 9

Jeremy Kirshbaum

Lev Gorelov

Cohort 8

Cohort 10

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER COHORT----------------------------------------------------4 sessions, 4 hours each:﻿5pm - 9pm CST----------------------------------------------------Day 1: Nov 29th (﻿5pm - 9pm CST)Day 2: Nov 30th (﻿5pm - 9pm CST)Day 3: Dec 6th (﻿5pm - 9pm CST)Day 4: Dec 7th (﻿5pm - 9pm CST) FEBRUARY COHORT----------------------------------------------------4 sessions, 4 hours each:﻿5pm - 9pm CST----------------------------------------------------Day 1: Feb 5th (﻿5pm - 9pm CST)Day 2: Feb 6th (﻿5pm - 9pm CST)Day 3: Feb 12th (﻿5pm - 9pm CST)Day 4: Feb 13th (﻿5pm - 9pm CST)----------------------------------------------------Total live commitment: 16.0 hours---------------------------------------------------- Note: Price of enrollment increases 1 week prior to the start of the cohort. ---------------------------COURSE OVERVIEW---------------------------You learned finance and accounting in school. Maybe you went back and got an MBA, a professional certification or two. But you aren't progressing as much or as fast as you want or in the direction you desire. You don't want to wait for opportunities to come to you -- you want to create your own. You want to elevate yourself into a position of financial leadership. Or maybe you want to take the leap and start your own fractional CFO, FP&amp;A, or advisory business. CFO training programs at top universities are often taught by professors. They're notoriously expensive and inaccessible. And most financial training out there, well, it's just not so great. It isn't case-based or taught by someone who's an actual practitioner, working as a fractional CFO, and who has trained thousands of people at the companies you know and engage with every day... But this one is. And it's CPE- accredited by the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA). WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO? Whether you want to... &gt;&gt;&gt; Build a fractional CFO business and do the work you enjoy with clients you love to work with &gt;&gt;&gt; Position yourself for your next chapter in financial leadership &gt;&gt;&gt; Grow to the next level in your finance or FP&amp;A career Or all of the above, this program will support you in your journey and accelerate your advancement. Why wouldn't you want to learn from someone who actually does the work you want to do? You have an entire career ahead of you.Don’t leave it to others to create it for you.Freelance opportunities are everywhere. The time to elevate is now. Seidman Financial is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards&nbsp;of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its website: www.NASBARegistry.org. Seidman Financial is a division of Seidman Global LLC.

You want to advance your financial leadership, network, skills, and confidence? 

We'll cover some of the most current and robust techniques for managing evolving sets of data. This includes: <ul><li>Dynamic data sets</li><li>Dynamic data modeling</li><li>Dynamic array management</li><li>Dynamic data ranges</li></ul> We'll cover popular and lesser-known business modeling techniques that will make the greatest amount of difference in the shortest amount of time.

Dynamic Data Management and Business Modeling

The mind of a CFO is unlike those of all other financial and non-financial professionals in a business. But the mind of a fractional CFO is even different when considering: <ul><li>End-users</li><li>Company culture</li><li>Technical aptitude of the individuals being serve</li><li>Changing needs of the business</li><li>Technological resources in place to execute strategic initiatives</li></ul>

Strategic Finance and the CFO Mindset

Fractional CFOs and FP&amp;A professionals must deal with ever-changing data, circumstances, and pressures. It's far more than a mechanical exercise and requires a strategic mindset for determining risks, countermeasures, remedies, and contingency plans. In this module, you'll learn how to model dynamically, incorporating changing assumptions.

Managing Scenarios, Change, and Chaos in the Business

Technical finance is vital to the daily operations, planning, and analysis of the business. But it's the assessment and interpretation of financial performance that is the most impactful to the CEO and functional team leaders. In this module, you'll analyze company performance and present your package of findings clearly and concisely.

Presenting Financial Performance

As a Fractional CFO, you will be entrenched in annual planning and forecasting, and integral to financial presentations within the company and to third-parties. In this module, you'll learn what stakeholders care about and how you can provide value in the form of strategic planning, rolling forecasts, and external correspondence.

Strategic Planning and Analysis

We'll break into groups and go through a comprehensive strategic and operational business case, designed to push you to think like a fractional CFO. You'll be responsible for hitting certain financial performance targets by influencing: <ul><li>Sales and customer strategy</li><li>Product cost profiles</li><li>Hiring/headcount</li><li>Capex</li><li>Financing</li><li>Working capital</li><li>Outsourcing</li></ul>

The CFO Business Case

Running a consultative advisory practice is remarkably different than serving as a full-time CFO or FP&amp;A professional. Yes, it requires technical expertise, but it also requires perseverance in marketing and sales, as well as mastery of time management, branding, and customer service. In this module, you'll learn strategies for each.

Building and Growing a Fractional CFO or FP&A Business

A key difference between a full-time CFO and a fractional CFO is the consultative and part-time nature of the work. The Fractional CFO is an ousider, but also a trusted advisor with an entrepreneurial spirit. In this module you'll learn best practices for working with and serving your clients or stakeholders within your company.

Becoming the Trusted Financial Advisor

Networking doesn't stop there. You'll join Carl's private CFO and FP&amp;A community where you can keep in touch with other attendees, ask and answer a wide array of questions, share techniques and best practices, and refer business. This community is only open to former clients and attendees of Carl's programs.

ENCORE: The Fractional CFO Network

Here's the Course:

Each half-day is content-rich inclusive of discussion, reflection, and Q&amp;A. I often stay after each session to answer content- or career-specific questions.

Nov 29th | Nov 30th | Dec 6th | Dec 7th

Feb 5th | Feb 6th | Feb 12th | Feb 13th

Learning is best when there's action and accountability. There will be some pre-reading and post-session exercises for certain weeks.

Guided self-paced accountability and action items

Course schedule and duration

You're a professional with a background in finance, accounting, consulting, Controlling, FP&amp;A, investing, or the Office of the CFO.

You're an emerging leader pursuing mid/senior level positions in your company or wanting to take the leap into fractional CFO or FP&amp;A work.

You're a challenger who wants to grow with real-life business cases and companies and learning that continues after the program ends.

Who is this strategic finance and fractional CFO course for?

What you’ll get out of this strategic finance and CFO course

You'll learn extremely powerful skills and techniques you've likely never encountered before. But you won't just hone new skills and competence -- you'll develop greater financial expertise and confidence.

Develop highly-refined technical finance skills

Once the foundations of technical skills are in place, fractional CFO and FP&amp;A work becomes less about rote financial modeling and analysis and more about providing strategic insights. You'll learn how to better serve your end-users within a larger context of what matters most.

Engage in critical thinking and the strategic mindset

A key difference between junior staff and mid-to-senior level professionals is the ability to leverage skills, acumen, and mindset for higher-value deliverables. You'll learn what fractional CFO and FP&amp;A work looks like and how to build a quality reputation as a practitioner.

Leverage technical skills, critical thinking, and the strategic mindset to collectively position for fractional CFO and FP&A work

A common misconception in finance is success is all about financial acumen and application of expertise. But the truth: success comes to those who best understand people. You'll learn how to manage relationships and conflict within the context of your finance and advisory work.

Discover how to deal with different and challenging peer and client personalities

We'll get into the details of how to structure and leverage your time, service offerings, relationships, sales and marketing efforts, and mindset to develop a far more sustainable business model or opportunistic finance career.

Understand how to strategically design your fractional advisory practice, CPA firm, or your time as a high-performing finance professional

It's not what you know and it's not who you know. It's who knows you and what you do. Attendees of this program are encouraged to stay active and connected as a cohort, ask challenging questions of colleagues, and build a network of trusted confidants.

Connect with other high-performers, emerging financial leaders, and a globally-connected FP&A and CFO professional network

You'll get invite-only access to Seidman Financial business models, templates, worksheets, video courses, events, and office hours.

Access to Seidman Financial Inner Circle Mastermind Assets

See how FP&amp;A professionals, Controllers, and accountants and other professionals fit together within and beyond the office of the CFO.

Free video course: The FP&A Professional in Today's Environment

<a href="https://www.nasbaregistry.org/exhibitors/seidman-global-llc" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Seidman Global LLC</a> is registered with the Nat'l Association of State Boards of Accountancy as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. See the fuller disclaimer of individual course CPE acceptance within the FAQs below.

16 hours of continuing professional education (CPE) 

Being a full-time CFO isn't for everyone. But being in charge of your high-performing finance career is. Learn how to do it successfully.


Carl Seidman, CPA/CFF, CSP, CFE, CGMA, CIRA, AM, Certified Anaplan Model Builder

Principal, Seidman Financial

Sep 2023

Nov 2023

Learn how to leverage No-Code and AI, to bring your own ideas to life faster. With No-Code x AI everyone can build, without writing any code. Whether you want to build an internal tool for your team or company, or a product for customers, you can do this all by yourself. This will make you and your team more lean and autonomous, so you can grow faster. The No-Code x AI Bootcamp is a hands-on, action-oriented personalised learning experience for professionals who want to unlock the power of No-Code and AI. Learn how to make ChatGPT work for you, and how to build a Custom GPT, web or mobile app. By the end of this 25 day challenge your MVP is ready to launch!

Learn how to build your own ideas with No-Code x AI tools

Before the bootcamp really starts, first gain a comprehensive understanding of the No-Code and AI landscape, including some mini projects to warm up. 📚&nbsp;Concepts: Intro to No-Code and AI🧰&nbsp;Projects: Drag-and-drop, prompting🧪&nbsp;MVP Stage: Idea / problem selection

Navigate the world of No-Code and AI 🗺 

Learn how to automate your work by yourself, whilst leveraging the power of APIs, AI and databases in your projects. 📚&nbsp;Concepts: Automation, APIs, relational databases🧰&nbsp;Projects: Automate workflow, create database🧪&nbsp;MVP Stage: Ideation

Create powerful automations and databases ⚡️

Build your first web and mobile app with No-Code and AI 🤩 📚&nbsp;Concepts:&nbsp;Drag-and-drop, building with AI🧰&nbsp;Projects: Marketplace, Membership Platform, Resource Directory🧪&nbsp;MVP Stage: Test &amp; Validate

Build your first web app and mobile app 📱

Combining the No-Code and AI skills you have developed over the past 3 weeks, you'll plan and start building your prototype or MVP with the help of our practitioners in residence, your fellow bootcamp members and AI. 📚&nbsp;Concepts:&nbsp;Scoping, MVP's🧰&nbsp;Projects:&nbsp;Your own MVP🧪&nbsp;MVP Stage: Scoping, Feature Selection and Build

Plan and Build your idea 📝

Once you have built your MVP, we'll help you find your first users and get feedback from our demo day. Show what you've built and start implementing No-Code and AI in your own work right away 🥳

Launch your idea 🚀

In the first week we focus on making AI work for yourself: 💬&nbsp;Prompting frameworks🤖&nbsp;ChatGPT⚡️ Create timesaving automations

Week 1: Make AI work for you

Next we're going to learn how to build products for others: 🦾&nbsp;Custom GPTs📱 Mobile apps💻 Web apps

Week 2: leverage No-Code x AI for others

Time to build your own MVP, whether that's an internal portal or a product for your customers: 🧰&nbsp;Scope your MVP🛠️ Select the right tools🚀 Build Weekend

Week 3: Plan and Build your own idea 📝

By the end of this week your MVP is ready 🥳 In 25 days from idea to working MVP, without writing any code!

Week 4: finish and demo your MVP

Ship your ideas in 25 days without writing any code 🚀

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