A few weeks ago, I started teaching the undergraduate product management course that I started a few years ago at Case Western Reserve University. It’s one of the only undergraduate product management courses in the country, and it’s the very first (and only) one at CWRU. The class is a mix of juniors and seniors – most of whom took the class simply because they needed the credit and it fit best with their semester schedule.
Nevertheless, teaching that class is a lot of fun for me. Even though I know that most of my students don’t even have an interest in pursuing a career in product management, my hope is that the class will still add value for them in a few ways.
- If they end up working in tech, but never even become a Product Manager – learning about the Product Management role will help them have better visibility of how their organization works outside of their direct role.
- Thinking like a Product Manager and focusing on customer problems can help them in so many ways – whether they end up becoming an entrepreneur or find roles in sales, marketing, customer success, or nearly any other position.
- It may open up their minds to product management and consider a field that they possibly didn’t even know existed prior to the class!
It’s a great class so far – and they’ve already had a chance to learn from some of my favorite product people around (including this week’s virtual visit from Ash Maurya).
They all were gifted a pass to INDUSTRY Virtual later this month, so if you’re planning on joining us, too, and run into any of my students during the 1:1 virtual networking, you can tell them their professor gave them this shout-out in the newsletter. 😉
