World-class Product Sense in Practice

January and March is open for enrollment. No class will be offered in February.

A majority of students who take the course tell us they wish they'd taken it sooner than they eventually did.

The structure & schedule for this course has been designed very intentionally, to allow busy folks to focus without work-related distractions. If for some reason you cannot make it to a live session, you will have access to the recording in your Maven account. You will also have perpetual access to the resources that are included with every cohort.

There will be about 20 hours of live instruction & exercises with me, at least 6 hours of optional Q&A, and some time for optional homework. The course itself is designed for people who have busy jobs, so you can skip the optional parts and still gain a lot. That said, you should not enroll for this course during a busy product launch week at work.

This course is very directly tied to your ability to make better product decisions which should then translate to better outcomes for your company. So there is a strong case to be made that any employer should be willing to reimburse employees who are working on making a product.

This is a normal hesitation. 100s of longtime followers have taken this course & each has reported afterwards that they learned entirely new things from this course.

This course is not a synthesis of my publicly-available writing/videos. The material you'll learn in this course is all new—you won't find it any books, podcasts, blogs, videos, etc.

Thank you, I love that! Here's the deal: I've been building this course for 3+ years. To create the course material, I had to go to the greatest depths of my own product sense to dissect the skills necessary for product success. None of this material is available publicly because it's deep, extensive—so it can't fit into my short posts & YT videos

This is a normal concern.

That is why all the info you'll ever need about this course is on this page you're on & in recent students' reviews

While this course is not for everyone, it is quite transformative for ambitious product people who are excited to learn new ways of being more correct & influential. Most people are never taught these ways.

While this is not a course on interviewing/job search, many students have reported that the content of this course has been immediately useful for them in their job search. The modules on motivation theory, cognitive empathy, creative execution, product strategy are especially unique and have made them stand out in interviews & take-home exercises.

Timezones are very tough. I live in California, so it will always be challenging to make APAC-friendly times work.

Lastly, US adjusts 1 hour for daylight savings in March, so April onwards might be easier for APAC/Europe.

This course is not for early career folks (say <5 years industry experience).

Apart from that though, the ideas and lessons from this course apply across the most modern tech companies (think OpenAI, Stripe) to established FAANGs (think Amazon, Meta) to the less modern, traditional, slower moving companies (think Ford, HP, Flipkart).

The reason is that this course does not teach templates, frameworks, and processes that only work under specific, ideal conditions.

It covers ideas and ways of product problem solving that apply in the real, imperfect world i.e. in your actual world.

It teaches correct, clear thinking in product. So motivated leaders can make it work anywhere.

Product Sense can be improved by anyone who really wants to do it. But to do that, you need to learn & practice the individual skills that make up Product Sense. You can see those individual skills in the mindmap towards the top of this page. This course teaches you each of these skills. Its focus is on lasting skills, not ineffective processes.

The reason it seems difficult to learn is because people fixate on processes to build Product Sense e.g., talk to customers, answer support tickets, follow <xyz> framework.

NONE OF THESE THINGS WORK IN PRACTICE.

Think about it this way: everyone knows these things, why then do very few people have great Product Sense? It’s a skill, not a process.

Likely not. World-class is a really high bar (something like top 1% of product people or even stricter). No one reaches world-class levels in anything simply by taking a course, no matter how great the course is.

What we do know is that this is the only education that exposes what it takes to reach world-class levels in actual practice, not theory.

We will cover key product strategy ideas, methodology, what good looks like, how to do proper customer segmentation, determine differentiation, product strategy structure, etc. in a dedicated module that spans over 2 classes. It is likely the best material on Product Strategy out there.

We will not spend time writing a full strategy doc though.

Yes, you can. Just email staff@shreyasdoshi.com with more info on your company and share how many team members you want to enroll. Due to student demand, we cannot guarantee that everyone will be in the same cohort, but teams will get high precedence. We might also be able to add your team to the very next cohort, depending on team size.

Due to the high demand for the course and the logistical challenges with company-specific classes, we do not offer a dedicated just for one company or org.

We do offer bulk enrollment for your team / org—they'd join the class with other product people from around the world.

Contact staff@shreyasdoshi.com for more information on team enrollment.

Very likely yes. This is not a beginner level course. While we will of course cover some fundamentals to get everyone up to the same shared vocabulary, there will be many advanced & nuanced topics throughout the course. The exercises themselves have multiple degrees of depth that you can reach based on your proficiency.

Some Eng/Design/Analytics/Ops folks hesitate because they are not PMs. So some numbers: thus far >200 non-PMs have taken the course & found it valuable.

If you are working very directly working on products or you are responsible for product success, then this course is for you. It will also arm you with ways to coach other people on Product Sense.

Likely not.

There are 2 possibilities:

1) You are naturally good at Product Sense

2) You are naturally not good at Product Sense

If #1, work on applying that natural Product Sense in your job and gaining additional skills to become a well-rounded PM.

If #2, get some more real PM experience so you can better appreciate the lessons in this course.

Students focused on building products as a PM, founder, exec, engineer, designer, data scientist, product marketer, product ops, etc. are welcome to enroll for this course.

This course is not for everyone. New grads or part-time/full-time creators, newsletter folks, coaches, instructors, book authors, consultants, etc. should not join this course.

As stated in the Course Overview section above, this course is not for folks who are spending a meaningful amount of time on such activities. While we strongly believe that people should do whatever they are passionate about, we want to ensure that our course community solely comprises of people who are spending all their time on building products.

While you needed to apply to get accepted into first 4 cohorts (May, July, August, September 2024) of this course, as of this writing all future cohorts usually are open for you to enroll in 2 minutes, without any application process.

We occasionally require an application when a given class has just a few seats left. We review applications daily.

This is a classic example of stated preference vs. revealed preference. While some people think they prefer a low intensity class that runs over a long period, in practice it is nearly impossible for working professionals to sustain their motivation & focus that long.

So the 8 day duration is very intentionally designed to maximize your learning.

Offering the same course over 4+ weeks is both operationally easier & more profitable (because people will pay more for a 4-6 week format than an 8 day format, even if the curriculum & hours are exactly the same).

But I will not be offering a 4+ week format because it would be significantly less effective for students than the current format.

This course has been designed to work for senior product folks & founders who have a busy work life & family life. The weekday schedule is much lighter and there is homework, but it is optional. All pre-reads are also optional. Students find it intense, but not unmanageable.

The 100s of students who've taken this course report that it fundamentally changes how they view the world, the products they use, their day-to-day work interactions and the product problems they are solving.

You can also optionally apply to join the Product Sense Club to continue the learning with 100s of course alumni & live events with Shreyas.

This is a very hands-on course with many examples. That is the only predictable way to learn the principles & improve your Product Sense. You'll analyze examples solo or in small groups. Plus, there will be a live discussion on the examples. It is not possible to get nearly as much value from recordings as you will get from a live course like this.

Domain expertise is a very important aspect of Product Sense. That said, this course is not going to make you a domain expert. No course on earth can because expertise requires years of applied experience.

It will teach how one can become an expert in a given domain. But you should not expect the course to cover your specific domain in detail.

There will be dozens upon dozens of examples throughout the course. In almost every session, you will be shown an example or asked to do a small exercise (individually or in a small group), and then I will review the Product Sense principles behind the exercise.

Examples will be from multiple domains - B2B, B2C, SaaS, Social, etc.

This is a classic mistake that some people make. True Product Sense isn't just domain knowledge. There are 1000s of PMs with great domain knowledge who have terrible Product Sense because they think they can only learn from their domain.

By reviewing examples from other domains, you will meaningfully improve your cognitive empathy & creativity.

Yes, you will receive a course completion certificate from Maven, typically within 1-3 days after the end of the course.

We also issue specific credentials for students who have completed certain modules: certificates for Customer Empathy, Product Strategy, Product Creativity.

While people's time preferences can be different, 20% of the students of the previous cohort joined from Europe and another 15% from India. Most of the instruction also happens on weekends, giving some people more flexibility.

I understand this can be a concern for some.

A few points to consider:

• Unlike some other courses you may have come across, I am not trying to "sell as many seats as possible"
• This course is made for senior & ambitious product people & founders
• So I'd encourage you to carefully assess if it will be highly valuable for you, and decide accordingly.

There are 2 parts here:

1) Is the course applicable to India? This course covers material you can apply in any market.

2) Can I afford the course? We polled our India course alumni on this. They recommended that product people with a salary >40 lpa should take the course. For <40 lpa, they said it depends on the person's goals & life situation.

That is up to you.

We recently raised course fees to $2500 in June. Among other things, this helps us control the increasing demand we are seeing.

We generally discourage students from signing up if they do not feel like they will be able to create tremendous value for their career and their company after taking the course.

In general, if you aren't very excited, you should not take the course.

But one student shared an interesting way they thought about whether it was worth the $s:

"We spent 30+ hours learning live from Shreyas in this course. If you had asked me if I'd pay $70/hr to learn these insights on Product Sense from Shreyas, I'd say hell yeah!"

While you might benefit from this course, it is not really going to help you a whole lot with internal products. If you are mostly doing project mgmt, or if you work on an internal platform "product", there are probably better uses of your time than taking this course.

When you want to switch to user-facing products, this course can be helpful.

The focus of this course will solely be on cases where the software product is critical for the company's success i.e. software is not a minor enabler. So if you work on software features at Uber, this course should be very helpful. But if you work on in-house supply chain software at Pfizer, this course is likely not the best use of your time.

I too have worked on such products in the past (chiefly, search ads on Google.com). If you are planning to continue working on such products, you should probably take a Product Analytics course instead.

If you are planning to work on a different / earlier stage product in the near future, then you might find my Product Sense course very useful.

Even senior folks—if they are being honest—struggle with the hard stuff in product: user needs, segmentation, product strategy, etc. About 30% of students in previous classes were at these levels—most of them found the course transformative. Plus, the course helps you become a better tastemaker for your org and mentor your team on these hard topics

This is a pretty common situation. PMs who are great at getting things done / supporting their team / etc. get promoted quickly early on. But after a certain level (usually SPM/GPM), Product Sense can be a crucial factor in getting to the next level or going to a better company.

No one can guarantee you a promotion, but see if this applies to you.

No. I advise very few founders & execs 1 on 1 because of time constraints. My advising fee is $3000 to $5000 per hour.

My courses are the best way for me to spread what I have learned about making successful products over the past 2 decades, in-depth. We will do 6+ hours of group Q&A, but you should not treat those sessions as 1on1 advising time.

While we will see some non-US examples & exercises, you should not expect that the course will cover specifics of your country / region / market.

One misconception among some product people is "my market is special". While obviously no two markets are exactly alike, people with strong Product Sense tend to succeed in any market. Be that person.

This course is designed to help anyone who

1) has some experience building products & making product decisions i.e. isn't a novice, and

2) is open minded and eager to learn

If that is you, I am nearly certain you will find this course worthwhile. This applies even to very senior product leaders.

Also check out student reviews on this page.

These are very valid questions.

Consider this:

-This course is designed to be an actionable & practical resource for learning Product Sense

-You won't learn this stuff anywhere else

-It is entirely based on real product experiences, not frameworks manufactured to create a course

You should only take this course if all of that resonates with you.

You can read more about what product folks like you are saying about the impact & value of this course on this page.

You can also read more detailed student reviews here and here.

If you've carefully reviewed all the material on this page & you are still not sure about enrolling for this course, you should probably wait a bit. Tune in to your gut & listen to it, because it is probably correct.

You are welcome to add your email below if you want to be the first to hear about new course dates & course updates. Best of luck!

While fun is a personal idea, it is almost certainly very fun. Lets put it this way: on the last day of the course, we get dozens of comments from students who say they are sad that the course is ending.

This isn't a dull frameworks course. You're constantly thinking during your live class. There are memes. Students tend to laugh a lot. It is fun.