Product Management Fundamentals
Become a more confident PM, armed with a toolkit full of actionable advice, tactics and frameworks to immediately put into action.
This course is no longer available.
Explore other coursesCourse overview
Accelerate Your Product Management Career
A 3-week-long intimate workshop-style course by the author of the industry-leading Product Management newsletter, Lenny’s Newsletter.
Who is this course for
01
Associate Product Managers
You work at a Big Tech company as an APM and want to drop the “A”
02
Entry-level Product Managers
You’re less than a couple of years into your PM career and want to level up.
03
Transitioning to Product Management
You’re handling PM duties alongside your real job or transitioning into PM.
Topics Lenny will cover
Understanding what separates good PMs from great PMs
Leveling up your strategic thinking and vision
Strengthening your written and verbal communication
Collaborating and influencing your peers more effectively
Mastering the art of shipping on time while keeping your team happy
Gaining confidence as a PM and defining a clear plan to accelerating your career
Leveraging user research, metrics, and stakeholders to prioritize
Leveraging the Minto Pyramid to delivering better presentations
What product experts have to say:
Josh Elman
Jackie Bavaro
Shreyas Doshi
Gibson Biddle
Meet your instructor
Lenny Rachitsky
Lenny Rachitsky
Lenny started his career as an engineer, joining a startup right out of college as their first engineer where he quickly moved up the ranks to lead their engineering team. After spending nine years as an engineer and engineering leader, he decided to start his own company (Localmind), which he eventually sold to Airbnb.
After joining Airbnb, Lenny moved into Product where he spent seven years leading teams driving supply growth, conversion, community, Instant Book, and trip experience. In 2019 Lenny left Airbnb to tinker with new startup ideas and advise, and unexpectedly started a paid newsletter. These days, Lenny spends most of his time on the newsletter (#1 business newsletter on Substack), angel investing, and advising companies on product and growth.
Course syllabus
14 live sessions • 23 lessons
Week 1
Nov
30
PM Mixer
Dec
1
Workshop 1: What it takes to be a successful Product Manager
Dec
2
Guest Speaker: Ken Norton
Dec
3
Workshop 2: Communication
Week 2
Dec
7
PM Networking
Dec
8
Workshop 3: Collaboration and Influence
Dec
8
Guest Speaker: Andrew Chen
Dec
10
Workshop 4: Execution
Dec
10
Guest speaker: Adam Fishman
Week 3
Dec
13
Guest Speaker: Teresa Torres
Dec
15
Workshop 5: Customer Insight
Dec
16
Guest speaker: Shreyas Doshi
Dec
17
Workshop 6: Strategy and Vision
Dec
17
Guest speaker: Jackie Bavaro
Bonus
- 📄
Workshop #1 Assignment
- 📄
Workshop 1: What it takes to be a great Product Manager
- 📄
Workshop 1 Deck
- What great execution looks like
- The seven steps of effective roadmapping
- Where great roadmap ideas come from
- Brainstorming tips
- Prioritizing advice
- The art of the deadline
- WTF is strategy
- How strategy and vision fit into your planning process
- How to develop a strategy and vision
- How to communicate it
- What to do with the strategy once you have it
- How to get better at strategic thinking
- Flywheels
- A ton of examples and templates
- 📄
Guest Speaker: Ken Norton
- 📄
Andrew Chen
- 📄
Adam Fishman
- 📄
Teresa Torres
- 📄
Resources
What it takes to be a successful Product Manager
What it takes to be a successful Product Manager
In this module, you’ll learn what it takes to be a good-enough PM, what it takes to be a GREAT PM, the fourteen habits of great PMs, the 5 core skills to focus on as a new PM, and how the PM role differs across companies. You'll also meet some of your cohort colleagues and we'll have plenty of time for Q&A.
Communication
Communication
Communication IS the job. Engineers code, designers design, PMs communicate. Through emails, docs, and meetings. This skill is at the core of everything else you do as a PM. In this module, we’ll study examples of good & bad written and verbal communication, learn about the Minto pyramid and the SCR framework, learn to write concise emails, give better presentations, and run better meetings.
Influence & Collaboration
Influence & Collaboration
A PM does all of their work through collaboration and influence. In this workshop you'll learn three frameworks for making collaboration much easier, and seven concrete skills and habits that will increase your influence.
Execution
Execution
At the end of the day, new PMs are judged based on how well they can execute. Did the project go out on time? Is the team on the same page? Are there any surprises? Are customers happy? In this workshop, you'll learn:
Customer Insight
Customer Insight
Your job, simply put, is to ship products to users to achieve business impact. To do that well, you need to figure out WHAT to build. You must design effective user research methodology that maps directly into your team’s business goals. In this module, you'll be able to speak confidently with users, conduct user research sessions, and expand your product taste with examples within and outside of your industry.
Strategy & Vision
Strategy & Vision
To ultimately level up as a PM, you need to get good at strategy – setting a course months and years ahead. In this workshop, you'll learn:
Guest Speaker: Ken Norton
Guest Speaker: Ken Norton
Guest Speaker: Andrew Chen
Guest Speaker: Andrew Chen
Guest Speaker: Adam Fishman
Guest Speaker: Adam Fishman
Guest Speaker: Teresa Torres
Guest Speaker: Teresa Torres
Resources
Learning is better with cohorts
Active learning, not passive watching
Workshops aren't lectures. Lenny won’t just talk to you, he’ll engage the class, facilitate breakout discussions, and leave plenty of time for Q&A. Think interactive seminar vs a massive lecture hall.
Learn with a cohort of peers
This course is designed to facilitate peer learning and interaction through Zoom breakout groups, an engaged Slack community and group projects.
Accountability and feedback
You’re a busy person. You can figure things out when you have to, but it’s important to have feedback and accountability to drive your likelihood of success.
Tactics, templates, and case studies
Don't expect just theory and principles. We learn best from applying what we learned into our day-to-day work. Expect to walk away from each week with next steps to improve your effectiveness as a PM.