As a product leader, you're not expected to be an accountant. However, finance is the common language at the C-suite and board. To succeed, you need fluency in relevant aspects of corporate finance. Without it, you won't be taken seriously. This class will expose you to the essential areas in a rigorous manner.

The class is a mix of lecture and structured exercises/cases based on real scenarios. We'll then constantly tie our financial analyses back to strategic product decisions. Ultimately this is a product leadership class, just with a focus on finance.

Class 1: Learn how an income statement tells a story and feeds into product decisions

Class 2: Best practices for modeling and communicating your analyses

Class 3: Revenue models and pricing

Class 4: Business valuation, differences in owner types, and why this is crucial for product leaders to understand

The classes themselves are 90 minutes, with an additional weekly Q&A session (optional) and take-home assignment.

The Q&A sessions are open-ended. Topics we've covered in past include:

- how these concepts can help you diligence a company you are thinking about joining

- differences b/w how these concepts might apply in startup vs scale-up vs large-enterprise contexts, as well as innovation vs product-improvement contexts

- real examples of how making a financial case enabled an important project to get approved

- how the concepts might be applied to a challenge someone in the class is facing at work