Stanford’s $3,000 Product Management Course: Worth the Investment or Just a Brand Name?

I love learning, and I do it with great pleasure. I enjoy picking up a solid course to fill in gaps in my knowledge. Recently, I came across a Stanford course on Product Management. Naturally, my eyes lit up: prestigious, incredible, exciting. That was until I saw the price. The full course costs $2,975. The course duration is 36 hours. If you're talking about buying just part of the course, like a specific module, that’s $765, and it lasts 8-10 hours. It immediately reminded me one very old Russian meme, when a woman was calling to customer support service of one of the biggest retailers screaming: "What is this performance of your master?! I'm going to cause such a scandal!!!"

Almost $3,000 for 36 hours is a pretty bold claim of "success," I’ll tell you that. I understand it’s Stanford, I understand it’s prestigious, but… maybe this is a course for the rich? Anyway, let’s break it down in detail.

In fact, Stanford took the old-school business model and smartly applied it. Firstly, the course is pre-recorded, meaning it’s not live, where both you and the instructor have to be at the monitor at a set day and time. It’s not a format where you can ask questions during the lecture. This is a pre-recorded, asynchronous course. If we calculate how much you’re paying Stanford per hour: $82.64 per hour for the full course and $76.50–$95.63 per module, if you took just one topic.

Now, a little unit economics. Let’s factor in the costs and calculate when this whole banquet will break even. The numbers are based on industry averages for creating online courses.

• Content creation (shooting, recording, preparing course materials): $200,000
• Platform and hosting: $50,000
• Marketing and additional costs: $50,000
• Payments to instructors: we have 3 instructors involved, let’s assume each is paid $10,000 per hour of lecture, so $30,000 per instructor. In total, for 36 hours — $360,000

Total expenses: $200,000 + $360,000 + $50,000 + $50,000 = $660,000

For Stanford to break even, it will need 222 students, assuming all of them buy the full course. After that, each additional student equals pure profit, as the fixed costs are already covered. However, Stanford provided some numbers in their course brochure, revealing how many people completed the product management course: 2,000.

Let’s assume all these 2,000 people bought the full course for $2,975, then the revenue would be: $5.95 million. Now, let’s assume all 2,000 students went for the “Per-Course” plan, meaning individual modules at $765 per course, and completed all 4 courses. The expected revenue would be: $6.12 million.

Now let’s calculate the tax on that revenue. Sales tax in the U.S. is 8%, so from $5,950,000, Stanford will get $5,474,000. And from $6,120,000 — $5,630,400. With such numbers, you can definitely afford a little butter on your bread.

So, why am I so worked up? I’ve been in EdTech for a while, and I really don’t like the idea of educational institutions blatantly cashing in on their brand, like fashion or cosmetics brands do. In the case of Stanford, how can I be sure this course will actually work for me? They don’t even offer a chance to try out the first two lectures. And I don’t think a brand is a guarantee. Maybe it was in the past, but now everyone’s trying to cut down production costs while still keeping their slice of the cake. For example, my grandmother still has Chanel clothes from the 60s and 70s, as well as more recent items. The difference in quality is night and day. What was made back then is simply gorgeous — the fabric, the stitching! Now, it’s all about selling the brand, like “pay for our marketing costs and the fact that we’re beautiful and have a history.”

For me, the brand is no longer a guarantee. Unfortunately. But, of course, everyone makes their own choice. In general, you can buy this course and then add the certificate to your LinkedIn, saying you studied at Stanford. It’s unlikely that a hiring manager will dig into the details. Stanford might give you a boost during hiring, no matter if it’s a full 3-4 year program or a 36-hour course.

Perhaps some of you have already taken this course and can share some information about it? Maybe I'm missing something important. Please, tell me.

Link for the program: https://online.stanford.edu/programs/product-management-program