Metrics for Product Career Schools?
Rich Mironov
40-year B2B product mgmt veteran with 15 interim CPO roles, 6 VC-based software start-ups (2 exits). Keynote speaker, coach/mentor for scores of product leaders/CPOs, author/blogger/ranter, Product Camp founder.
Today’s WSJournal called out that some of the Valley’s largest firms have delayed reporting metrics on engineering diversity. Clearly, this was because these firms were unexcited about the results, not because they had problems gathering data. Companies, like people, would rather not share unflattering results.
I’ve been wrestling with a similar problem over the last few months. Lots of folks wanting to get into product management call me for advice about courses or workshops that are supposed to help them land their first product jobs. They tend to be developers, newly minted MBAs, or others who don’t have a way to transition into product management roles at their current companies. Dozens have asked me some variation of “should I spend thousands of dollars out of my own pocket for a course, workshop or certification that will get me a job as a product manager?”
My anecdotal experience - interviewing candidates who’ve recently completed such programs - isn’t very encouraging. And I’ve failed to find any quantitative market evidence that these programs matter (see my three-year-old data).
Here’s the dilemma: programs that claim some success on getting folks their first product management jobs should be able (willing) to provide success metrics. For instance:
- M = number of students without previous product management titles who completed the course/workshop
- N = number showing product management titles on LinkedIn within 6 months of completion
- Success ratio = N/M (e.g. 45% of product management hopefuls hold product management titles within 6 months)
That would let prospective students answer their own question: “is this likely to help me land my first product management job?”
As with major tech companies called out on diversity metrics by the WSJ, this seems more about intention than analytics. From the outside, I’d guess that the results are somewhere between not-very-impressive and atrocious. If results are terrific, I’ll humbly recommend/promote the best offerings. And apologize.
And (of course) this is more complicated. Some students may already be product managers (and want to build up their skills); other attendees might just be looking for empathy/understanding for their product peers, etc.
- A more targeted metric might be "% enrollees who started the course with a desire to get a product management role and either received an offer or achieved that role within 90 days of active interviewing."
As product management leaders and educators, we understand personas and success criteria. (And we teach our students about them.) It’s our job to target our offerings, know what 'good' looks like, and be clear on the value we provide. So, if a program includes “master the product management interview” training and highlights its connections to tech recruiters/hiring managers, I assume it is specifically aimed at folks who want product jobs.
Takeaway: We should know the efficacy of what we offer. So, here’s an open invitation to make me a champion of such programs: show me that they work.
Full disclosure: I guest-teach at Dublin’s DIT in a master’s program for current product managers. Its focus is in-place skills development, primarily paid for by employers, and does not target job-changers. I’ve also guested/keynoted at business schools, product camps and tons of meetup. As many product management veterans do, I offer some free career advice on Quora and my home site.
Top image from the referenced WSJ article
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8 年Hey Rich---There is tremendous value in product management and product marketing certification courses when taken as a product team. Professionals of all experience levels and roles will benefit. The primary gain is that a great certification course gets everyone on the same page, from vernacular to process. A person with little to no experience who takes a course solo will get a good introduction to product management, but that's about it.
Freelance Business and Arts Writer and Communications Expert
8 年A similar problem exists with a related field--"new" product development. There is no clear pathrway to this--and no "official" training (other than quite a few different "methodologies" sponsored by different consultants and organizations. Executives who move into this discipline usually do it on the way to something else. It is a middle management position that executives learn how to handle "on the fly." Only a small number of executives remain in this function, despite the importance of innovation to most companies.
Helping Leaders Master Business Acumen and Product Management - Best-selling author, speaker, and advisor to senior leaders.
8 年Rich - This is really interesting. In my role as founder of Sequent Learning Networks (and I, too, am an instructor at Dublin's DIT advanced Product Management program) I get requests all the time from people who want to "get in" to product management - as if a class, a degree, or motivation is what's needed. Here are some perspectives for people to consider: Perspective 1: Leaders frequently hunt for product manager talent in a number of ways. One way is "talent spotting" where aligned leaders from across the business look for those who are collaborative, big picture thinkers who get things done. They consider problem solvers and those with a strategic eye. But even then, when some are selected, they can't seem to get past their functional paradigms and operate horizontally in the firm. Perspective 2: If a person wants to be a PM, the have to behave like one. Assuming they're already working in a company, they must show visible evidence of business acumen, leadership, domain expertise, customer understanding, and strategic urgency.... and then to communicate with their bosses as to how to take the necessary steps - and to take action. Perspective 3: If a person isn't even working yet - get a job where the role has visibility to product management, the firm's products, and its customers. Most companies hire people from the outside to fill a given role, solve a problem, etc. Fewer hire PMs off the street or out of school directly (not that they don't, but not as often). Once inside, it's easier for a person to adopt what's described in Perspectives 1 and 2 above. Certainly a training class, books (like the ones you and I write), networking groups, etc., can add to a person's perspective - but in the end, the incumbent must align a lot of "stuff" to get in the PM door, deliver a value prop to their employer, and at the end of the day, influence or deliver business results. If it were as easy as a class, there wouldn't be a shortage of "great" product managers. - Steven Haines - Author, The product Manager's Desk Reference
Founder, Author, Public Speaker. Developer of the Blackblot Product Manager's Toolkit? (PMTK) Methodology
8 年It is obvious that practitioners hope that any investment they make in obtaining a certificate or certification will promote their career. It is also clear that executives hope that any investment made in the business and its personnel will increase the chances of marketplace success. However, because hiring is often an emotional, complex and multi-faceted process, and because doing business is affected by a multitude of random influencers, it would improbable to discover causality of a single contributing factor. We may find some correlation but it is likely to be misleading. The prime objective of a professional product management training program is to foster "Improved job performance" by providing the attendees with knowledge, skills, and tools. This is how a training program should be measured. Career improvement and marketplace success is an undetermined probabilistic by-product.
Working with Professionals converting ideas into a scalable business.
8 年Metrics in this areas are very much important to evaluate, it is a challenge to collect today useful information. Your suggestion of using the LinkedIn title is great, we should find a way to perform systematically the report to make openly available. I was in a presentation recently about product management skills, I would like to know what is the toolbox that the product manager use and how to evaluate their skill levels, this can be attached in your suggested dashboard. Great article, Jorge Zavala