Financial Fluency for Product Leaders
4 Weeks
·Cohort-based Course
Get hands-on learning the essential financial skills you'll need to succeed as a product executive.
Hosted by
Giff Constable
former CPO at Meetup, CEO at Neo Innovation, bestselling author
Last chance to enroll
7
days
7
hours
3
mins
Course overview
If you want to succeed in the C-Suite and in front of a board...
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.
I believe strongly in hands-on, case-based learning. We'll be running through structured exercises/cases of realistic scenarios. We'll then constantly tie our financial analyses back to strategic product decisions — and we'll be taking advantage of the live class format to debate and discuss those decisions. You'll learn from me, but you'll also learn from each other. 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.
Who is this class designed for?
01
Mid-to-senior product managers who want to speed their path to a leadership role.
02
New product VPs who want to shore up gaps in their skillset and be more successful in the hot seat.
03
Design and engineering leaders who want to increase their influence over strategic business decisions.
What will you gain by taking this class?
Be seen by the CEO, the board, and other execs as a strategic business thinker, not just a product thinker
Build fluency, and thus credibility, in the common language at the C-suite
Build more compelling cases for your product initiatives, improving alignment with other execs
Expand your "systems thinking" beyond product features to the entire business model
Ultimately, level up a critical skillset you'll need in order to succeed as a product executive
Financial Fluency for Product Leaders
Intro to the class
Here's 1 min and 30 seconds on what this class is about!
What people are saying
Cindy Liang
Daniel Pardes
Florence Jumpp
Brian Orloff
Meet your instructor
Giff Constable
Giff Constable has coached hundreds of actual and aspiring product leaders as both a practicing executive and as a highly-rated teacher at NYU's Stern School of Business, Product Faculty, and also in private workshops to companies like Mayo Clinic, Priceline, Hearst, American Express, Steelcase, and many more.
Giff Constable was the Chief Product Officer at Meetup, the CEO of Neo Innovation, and VP of Product at Axial. He is the author of Talking to Humans and Testing with Humans, both core curriculum in university entrepreneurship and product programs around the world.
However, before all the product work, he was an investment banker at Broadview Jefferies helping tech companies sell or go public, and also led sales and business development at several startups. Along that journey, he learned how companies are valued, the importance of revenue model on product success, and how to use finance to make product, design, and engineering stronger inside an org.
Join an upcoming cohort
Financial Fluency for Product Leaders
Cohort 1
$800 USD
Dates
Oct 3—26, 2023
Payment Deadline
Oct 3, 2023
Don't miss out! Enrollment closes in 8 days
Course syllabus
01
Class 1: How does an income statement tell a story?
We're going to examine several mock P&Ls, find relevant insights, and then debate critical decisions you would make as a product leader given the insights you've spotted.
02
Class 2: Best practices for modeling and communicating your analyses
We're going to touch upon modeling best practices, dive into a hands-on scenario, and discuss how to share your analyses with executives and board members (and things to avoid).
03
Class 3: Revenue models and pricing
It's increasingly falling upon product leaders to (re)design how a company makes money. We will examine the pros and cons of different revenue models, talk through a real-life case where product had to change an established revenue model, and then get hands-on building an analysis for a board on a proposed pricing change.
04
Class 4: Business valuation and what this means for product leaders
Class 4 cracks open the black box of how businesses are valued, the different classes of business owners, and how this can help you become more strategic with your roadmaps and more aligned with your CEO and board.
Course schedule
90min live class / week + office hours
Tuesdays: 90 min class
12pm - 1:30pm Eastern
90 minutes of hands-on, case-based learning and group discussion around one core topic.
For this cohort, classes will be held Oct 3, 10, 17, 24.
Thurs: 45 min optional Q&A
12pm - 12:45pm Eastern
A chance to meet with Giff and other peers in the cohort and dive deeper into anything covered in the Tues class.
Take-home assignment
The best way to learn these concepts is to do them. After each class, you'll be given a structured assignment. You'll receive detailed feedback from Giff after completion.
Modeling 101 Tutorial
If you haven't spent a lot of time modeling out initiatives in spreadsheets, this free tutorial, built in Google Sheets, will expose you to best practices and the most common approaches and formulas you'll use.
Get this free resource
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if I can’t make a live session?
I work full-time, what is the expected time commitment?
What’s the refund policy?
Do I need to be a spreadsheet jockey?
What level of financial knowledge do I need already?
Join an upcoming cohort
Financial Fluency for Product Leaders
Cohort 1
$800 USD
Dates
Oct 3—26, 2023
Payment Deadline
Oct 3, 2023
Don't miss out! Enrollment closes in 8 days