Since its foundation in 2014 by two Spanish brothers, Carlos and Fernando González de Villaumbrosia, it is a world leader in training Product Managers with a community of more than a million professionals. Unlike traditional MBA programs, this school’s courses are highly relevant to the next generation of digital leaders and are offered at a fraction of the cost.
With what main objective was Product School born?
When we created Product School in San Francisco, California, we did so with the idea of helping professionals who, like us, were interested in building great digital products and growing their careers. 7 years ago, the role of ‘Product Manager’ began to have its own entity in Silicon Valley, and we were the first to create specific courses on this new discipline within the digital field. Today, the management of digital products is also beginning to be well known in countries like Spain, and the demand for Product Managers by companies is much higher than the market supply. For this reason, we have also spent years training companies around the world in how to build digital products at the level of Silicon Valley, and how to create and grow their “product teams”.
What is it that characterizes this school as opposed to another that trains students in the same field?
The quality of our instructors is unmatched by any other education company in this discipline. Our instructors are the Product Managers in charge of building and managing products such as Uber, Airbnb, Netflix, Instagram, Coinbase, etc. They all work full-time in the best companies in Silicon Valley, and they dedicate part of their time when they leave work to teach and share their knowledge at Product School. Being able to be mentored from your home, anywhere in the world, by a Product Manager who works every day at a company like Google is priceless. Our instructors are not teachers. Our instructors are the Product Managers of the apps and web pages that we use in our day to day.
“Currently more than 20,000 professionals have been certified in Product School”
Having made such practical, up-to-date and high-quality content is what has positioned our certificates as the industry reference worldwide. Currently more than 20,000 professionals have been certified in Product School.
Do you think MBAs are getting outdated? Because?
I think so, because in most cases, due to not having an agile structure, universities are not capable of adapting and evolving as quickly as the professional market and the demand from companies change. It is very curious how many students we have at Product School who, after having studied their MBA at universities such as Stanford or Harvard, come to us to be able to train in the management of software products and teams. This is a clear indication that MBAs, despite the large investment of money and time that they entail, do not manage to adequately train in more specific and currently demanded disciplines such as “Product Management” in the digital field.
I am of the opinion that the most prestigious MBAs worldwide will continue to exist over the years, because the main value they offer is not so much specific training in certain subjects, but an environment of excellence and professional and personal relationships that It will help you grow in many areas of your life. On the other hand, I see that there are currently too many MBAs whose value is not so clear and that they generate false hope in professionals who choose this option as a means to give a definitive push to their professional careers.
What methodology is carried out in Product School?
– Online, live: All our classes are live via videoconference in order to make the experience really practical and interactive. A great advantage of doing it online is that anyone from anywhere in the world can have access to our courses and instructors.
– “Instructor-led”: This methodology allows the “on-demand” content to be consumed by our students outside class hours, so they can make the most of the hours of live connection to discuss real examples and put them into practice. everything learned, in a direct and real-time learning framework facilitated by our instructors.
– “Cohort-based”: This means that we create small learning groups, with a maximum of 20 students per course. In this way we make sure that the experience is individualized, and that students have a trusting environment in which they can share their experiences and learning. Having small “cohorts” makes your participants create close ties and can help each other.
To which profile are the courses directed?
We have two profiles. One is the professionals who want to start their career as Product Managers and continue growing in this discipline (we have different levels of certification based on your experience). And on the other hand, we have large companies around the world that seek to have a real and effective digital transformation. The training for these companies is adapted so that they can improve their processes and train their teams so that their digital products are successful among their customers and users. We are currently training employees and teams at 7 of the 50 highest-valued companies on the Wall Street Stock Exchange.
What are the main purpose of the certifications that students obtain by completing these courses?
Our most popular certificate is the Product Manager Certificate (PMC), which is focused on those professionals who want to get their first job as a Product Manager and start their career as such. The other two certificates that we offer, Product Leader Certificate (PLC) and Product Executive Certificate (PEC), are focused on those Product Managers who already have some experience in this branch, and want to continue evolving and progressing in their career, focusing on these certificates. more in the part of leadership and people management, since it is a natural evolution in the career of the Product Manager.
How do you envision Product School in the future?
I am very optimistic about the future since in addition to growing a lot as a company, we are also helping thousands of professionals and companies along the way.
“Currently we are a company of about 100 people distributed throughout the world”
Since the start of the pandemic, Product School has tripled its growth and after the recent investment of 25 million dollars we received, we are consolidating our position as a preferred training partner of the most important companies in the world. We are currently a company of about 100 people distributed throughout the world, and in the coming months we will hire more than 50 people, many of them in Spain.
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