What are user onboarding tools?

User onboarding tools can range from the typical product tour solutions to segment-based retargeting to advanced analytics platforms. While user onboarding tools come in all shapes and sizes, they all share a common goal: to help you activate and retain your customers. 

What can you expect from a software for new user onboarding?

New user onboarding software provides you with ways to activate your customers, such as product tutorials, tooltips, and engagement metrics. There are many no-code solutions out there to easily create and update customized product tours, while analytics-based features allow you to identify key optimization opportunities. When creating tours or feature announcements, you can expect to find many templates that make it easy to edit and deploy them straight to your product. 

Why is the user onboarding software so important?  

Effective onboarding is all about guiding your users to their “Aha!” moment (when they realize the value of your product) in as short a time as possible. The user onboarding process is a critical step in growing a product, and it’s our job as product managers to ensure our users are finding the value we’ve promised. Startups and established SaaS companies alike will find that when they invest in user onboarding, they’re not only pleasing new customers during their first interactions, they’re setting the stage for them to become long-time customers.

15 best user onboarding software to boost product adoption in 2021

With all the different SaaS product onboarding solutions out there, we know it can be difficult to decide which is right for your needs. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of the 15 best onboarding tools to help better guide your decision.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is an automation platform to engage your customers, increase sales, and reduce churn rates. While it’s billed as a marketing/sales platform, it can be highly beneficial for product onboarding, too. Set up automatic workflows designed to trigger emails or Facebook ads using in-app event tracking, helping your customers get the most out of your product at each stage of their journey. 

The built-in CRM lets your customer success team easily track customers and prospects, and the lead scoring feature helps to identify at-risk customers based on email unsubscribes, form submissions, and more. Keep your customers engaged by alerting them to new features or critical actions on their path to success.

Appcues

Appcues enables you to activate users with action items, feedback loops, and valuable insights tools. Guide new users through your product with customized journeys and checklists, targeting specific customers by behavior or attribute. The code-free event tracking lets you easily monitor onboarding completion, and unlock behavioral insights with their data visualization tools. You can also encourage new feature adoption with in-app feature announcements, and use the feature-specific NPS triggers or survey tool to instantly collect feedback on them.

Auth0

Auth0 reduces customer friction from the very first point of intent by offering highly secure, passwordless two-factor authentication. This creates a perception of both trust and ease for your brand, before customers have even interacted with your product. 

Auth0 allows you to choose from over 30 social platforms to integrate with, including automatic reconciliation with the various social APIs. By using social logins, you can enrich user profiles with demographic data that will help you better understand who your most engaged users are and which users you should target with specific promos.

Chameleon

Chameleon is an easy-to-use tool for creating product tours built upon banners, modals, hotspots, and more that guide your customers through the product. While creating or updating your tours, WYSIWYG editing lets you see changes in real-time, with easy placement for each tour component across your pages. 

After you’ve built a new onboarding feature, use the preview tool to ensure it’s exactly what you want before sending it through the one-click, no-code, instant deployment. Once released, your customers will be guided through the tours you’ve created with a native look-and-feel, thanks to the custom CSS feature to maintain your brand identity.

Demio

Demio lets you host high quality videos right from their platform. Schedule recurring live webinars so new customers can learn how to be successful with your product, and allow them to ask questions in real-time through the chat or by granting them microphone access. The embeddable sign-up forms and automatic email reminders ensure you can easily promote webinars, and you can even create a white-glove product experience by offering sign-ups for one-on-one demos. For straightforward content, Wistia also lets you upload pre-recorded videos so you customers can view on-demand. Once you’ve started hosting, use the registration and drop-off analytics to understand how you can better refine your content.

Drip

Drip is intended as a marketing tool for e-commerce companies, and it can easily generate value for e-commerce product teams looking to drive customer onboarding. Their platform lets you quickly build custom promotion forms (including pop-ups) to grow sign-ups, and to follow up later with pricing offers that help retain shoppers. 

Taking a strategic approach to placing these forms throughout your pages will ensure you’re capturing and retaining a growing audience while maintaining a strong user experience. By partnering with marketing on an e-commerce acquisition and onboarding strategy, you can feel confident in the ability to grow your business. After all, we’re all on the same team.

FullStory

FullStory promises deeper insights into each user’s story than what is typically provided by traditional tag-based analytics tools. Quantitative analytics generate visibility into conversion and funnel analyses, customized to fit your defined customer segments. Scroll, click, and heat maps tell a more in-depth story than the quantitative data alone, and session recreation provides replays of individual customer experiences. From a technical standpoint, you can uncover optimization opportunities via signals for bugs, slow pages, script errors, and dead clicks. 

Looking to spend more time on discovery and less on manually monitoring metrics? Customizable alerts on active segments keep you informed of any unexpected drops in user count.

Hotjar

Hotjar is one of the more well-known heatmapping tools on the market, and for good reason. The heatmap feature provides separate view options for clicks, movement, and scroll depth, with quick accessibility to view by device type. Recorded sessions supply deeper insights, with the ability to filter by rage clicks, specific URLs, and U-turns. This feature can help you not only identify UX enhancements, but may surface issues like broken buttons or forms that are contributing to conversion declines and churn. 

Planning an A/B test? Hotjar integrates with Google Optimize, Omniconvert, and Optimizely, so you can measure your experiment’s success on more than just quantitative analytics.

InlineManual

InlineManual is a multilingual customer onboarding tool that includes product tour features like walkthroughs, announcements, tooltips, and hotspots. The user onboarding flows are highly customizable with targeted segmentation experiences, and even more so with multiple branches that send your customers down a particular path depending on how they respond to prompts. When onboarding first time users, your primary goal is to get them to success in the least amount of time, and InlineManual enables this through automated tasks such as form fill buttons. 

In addition to guided actions, the in-app help center provides a knowledge base for your customers to quickly access in-depth help articles. If your company is looking for a two birds, one stone solution, InlineManual also offers employee onboarding features.

Intercom

Intercom is one of the leading customer messaging platforms, and they also happen to have a useful product tour feature. Their chat application allows your customer support teams to engage with customers in real-time, while providing the option of self-service bots to more quickly serve customers and save time for your teams to handle the in-depth conversations. The customizable inbox lets you easily organize new messages by importance and distribute them to team-specific inboxes. 

Improve your conversion rates by chatting with new prospects, increase retention by supporting active customers, and use the interactive product tours to guide your new users to their “Aha!” moment.

Pendo

Pendo brings customer onboarding, metrics on user engagement and revenue growth, and feedback collection under one roof. Create unique onboarding experiences to best appeal to certain customer segments, such as sending a “Success!” GIF in place of a standard text-based message. In-app messages enable customer self-service to save time for both them and you, complete with feature announcements, checklists, and feedback polls. If your product includes a native app, Pendo for Mobile delivers codeless solutions for creating in-app guides, with reporting on version adoption and OS.

UserGuiding

UserGuiding is a no-code user onboarding software, complete with step-by-step walkthrough guides, onboarding checklists, and in-app messaging. Walk your new customers through the most important steps during their onboarding, and keep them engaged with new feature announcements to increase adoption and retention. You can even trigger basic foundational messages, such as gathering user consent for GDPR compliance.

The in-app NPS surveys allow for a constant feedback loop to ensure you’re building the right things for the right customers, and can help drive higher volumes of feedback, with Leadworx quoting a 65% response rate.

Userpilot

Userpilot provides customer onboarding and communication tools, facilitating product growth at every stage of the customer journey. As with other onboarding tools, you can create custom walkthroughs to reduce the time to activation. Their advanced segmentation tools are a standout and include pre-defined segments such as NPS responses, with the option for creating custom segments. Segment-based analytics surface habits of your most successful segments, and the A/B testing functionality lets you test different in-app messaging to uncover behaviors that are most likely to drive product growth.

WalkMe

WalkMe offers a range of onboarding software, including for enterprise CRM software and employee training. For our purposes, we’ll focus on their customer onboarding software, which led to a 6X increase in product adoption for IBM (according to the WalkMe website). 

WalkMe’s customer onboarding software allows you to create a personalized onboarding experience for your customers, providing them with a step-by-step walkthrough of the key actions you want them to take in your product. The simple walkthrough experience will help to not only increase your retention rates, but to grow topline revenue with upselling and cross-selling opportunities.

Wistia

Wistia is a video hosting platform that allows you to create, edit, and post videos at any stage of your customer’s journey. Increase the chance of your customers finding success in your product (and remaining customers) by meeting them with the right media content at the right moment. The customizable player lets you create a natural environment by matching the look and feel of your brand, while the standard embeds load asynchronously to preserve your page loading time. Surface opportunities for improvement by diving into the analytics tools to get a second-by-second breakdown of how engaged your viewers are throughout.

How to pick the perfect user onboarding software for your company?

Picking the perfect user onboarding software depends on your product, goals, customers, and resources.

Lean teams will want to pick a no-code solution with the ability to automate tasks or responses to customers, so they can maximize their working hours. 

Products that are a bit too complex for plug-in tutorials may benefit from video-based onboarding webinars. 

If you find your prospects are dropping off before they even sign up, Auth0 or Drip could help increase those sign-up rates.

The best place to start is by understanding the needs of your customers and business, talking with your teams, and evaluating all the options against a set of predetermined criteria. Just like you wouldn’t launch a product without success metrics, don’t make a purchase without measuring the value you expect to get from it.

Key takeaways about user onboarding software

Whatever your use case, there’s likely something out there to aid you in user onboarding. It’s one of the most crucial interaction points with your customers, and user onboarding software can help ensure you’re conveying the right value to the right customers at the right time.

The post 15 Best User Onboarding Software To Boost Product Adoption in 2021 appeared first on Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference.

How can product managers benefit from good product management podcasts?

Whether you’re looking for inspiration to help guide your next design sprint, tactics for influencing senior leadership, or consolation when your new product launch didn’t go quite as planned, product management podcasts are a reliable medium to help guide you along. They offer the opportunity to learn from other product managers who have found themselves in similar situations on the path to building great products. You’ll learn new ways of approaching what you’re facing and, perhaps more importantly, discover you’re not alone in this exciting but challenging profession.

21 best product management podcasts in 2021

Rocketship.fm

Produced in partnership with Product Collective, the Rocketship.fm podcast is currently in its 10th season, which focuses on the theme of Workplace Confessions. One of these confessions will resonate with nearly every product manager: imposter syndrome.

What do we like about this podcast?

This podcast is great for product managers, entrepreneurs, and business leaders alike, covering topics from growth to funding to productivity. Hear about the product journeys of Amazon Echo and Tesla, product failures from Google+ and eBay, and dive into the 10 dysfunctions of product management.

Who is the host

Michael Sacca and Mike Belsito

Frequency

Multiple episodes per week.

Where to listen

https://rocketship.fm/

100 PM

Suzanne Abate has set out to interview 100 product managers, resulting in a wide range of conversation topics. With 61 interviews down, we can expect many more to come.

What do we like about this podcast?

Suzanne’s guests come from companies of all sizes, from B2C to SaaS, so you’ll get a glimpse at how product management can differ at different organizations as they grow. Topics include the art of user story writing, how to build a healthy relationship with engineers, and tactics for building a marketplace.

Who is the host

Suzanne Abate

Frequency

This April saw the first episode in 3 years, so hopefully the weekly cadence returns soon.

Where to listen

https://www.100productmanagers.com/interviews

The Design Better Podcast

Hosted by two leaders of Design Education at InVision, the podcast is aimed at designers, but a lot of it is highly valuable for product managers.

What do we like about this podcast?

Each season centers around a unique theme, such as tips for navigating your career, building a product-led organization, and improving collaboration between product, design, and engineering. The conversations aren’t limited to design leaders – you’ll also hear from individuals like NASA’s Steve Rader, actor John Cleese, and Marty Cagan of the Silicon Valley Product Group.

Who is the host

Aarron Walter and Eli Woolery

Frequency

Weekly, with some interruptions.

Where to listen

https://www.designbetter.co/podcast

Fearless Product Leadership

Hope Gurion is the founder of Fearless Products LLC, through which she coaches product leaders. Her podcast serves as an extension of this mission, providing insights for product leaders to guide their teams and their product strategy.

What do we like about this podcast?

The episodes are centered around a specific focus, like how to hire the right product managers or how to say no to the CEO. These topics are then discussed by a round table of experienced product leaders, so you’ll get to hear different viewpoints in each episode.

Who is the host

Hope Gurion

Frequency

No regular cadence. So far it’s evened out to 11 or 12 episodes per year, and is still going strong.

Where to listen

https://fearless-product.com/fearless-product-leadership-podcast

HBR Ideacast

In this weekly podcast, Alison Beard & Curt Nickisch interview business thought leaders, including executives, organizational psychologists, leadership coaches, and professors.

What do we like about this podcast?

This show is a great way to sharpen your business acumen, a critical component of the product manager toolkit. Recent episodes that are great for product managers include how to stop overthinking things, leading with authenticity, and how to encourage imagination. 

Who is the host

Alison Beard & Curt Nickisch

Frequency

Weekly

Where to listen

https://hbr.org/2018/01/podcast-ideacast

How I Built This

In this wildly popular NPR podcast, Guy Raz sits down with entrepreneurs to learn how they took their business from zero to massive success. 

What do we like about this podcast?

Guy Raz has a knack for driving his guests’ narratives along, pursuing the most insightful moments of the conversation. Check out thrilling conversations about companies like Bumble, Spanx, and Lyft, told through their founders’ own words.

Who is the host

Guy Raz

Frequency

Weekly

Where to listen

https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this

Intercom on Product

If there’s one thing that’s clear from their numerous books, it’s that Intercom knows product, so it’s no surprise that this podcast follows suit.

What do we like about this podcast?

Unlike most of the podcasts on this list, there’s no guest interview format. Each episode is a conversation between the co-founder and SVP of Product at Intercom. Hear these two thought leaders share insights on accelerating your strategy after COVID-19, how marketing can help scale products, and more.

Who is the host

Des Traynor and Paul Adams

Frequency

Every few months

Where to listen

https://www.intercom.com/blog/podcasts

Jobs-to-be-Done Radio

Bob Moesta and Chris Spiek are some of the leading pioneers of Jobs-to-be-Done, and this podcast shares insights on how to best implement the practice in your work. 

What do we like about this podcast?

Jobs-to-be-Done seems to be growing in popularity among product managers, and for good reason: it’s an incredibly effective way to ensure you’re building the right thing. This podcast hones in on critical parts of the methodology, such as using the practice for end-to-end product delivery, and includes guests like Des Traynor of Intercom.

Who is the host

Bob Moesta & Chris Spiek

Frequency

Very infrequent; No new episodes since 2019.

Where to listen

https://jobstobedone.org/topics/radio/

LeadingAgile SoundNotes

We had to throw in a couple engineering podcasts, because this is a critical partnership in the product development lifecycle. In this podcast, Dave Prior sits down with various guests to discuss the ins and outs of agile concepts.

What do we like about this podcast?

As a product manager in an agile organization, it’s crucial to be well-versed in agile practices to ensure effective collaboration with your team. Learn from the experts on topics spanning from sprint planning to more advanced conversations, like the physics of agility and using impact maps to build the right thing.

Who is the host

Dave Prior

Frequency

At least one per month, sometimes more.

Where to listen

https://soundnotes.leadingagile.com/

Masters of Scale

Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, sits down with entrepreneurs and business leaders to discuss their experiences in scaling a business, and their lessons learned along the way. 

What do we like about this podcast?

The creative editing makes for enthralling storytelling, with Reid’s interjections honing in on the most important takeaways throughout. Hear the lessons learned in scaling companies from Airbnb to Beyond Meat to Fiat Chrysler.

Who is the host

Reid Hoffman

Frequency

Multiple episodes per week, counting the Masters of Scale: Rapid Response series hosted by Bob Safian.

Where to listen

https://mastersofscale.com/

Product Coalition

Another podcast built on PM-to-PM interviews, Jay Stansell sits down with product managers from varying backgrounds for some enlightening conversations directly related to our discipline.

What do we like about this podcast?

There’s a lot of diversity in the topics, including day-to-day tactics, product leadership, and career development. One highlight is when Jay gets philosophical with Rushika Kumar as they talk about Consequentialism and Zen in Product.

Who is the host

Jay Stansell

Frequency

No new episodes since August 2020; Weekly prior to that.

Where to listen

https://podcast.productcoalition.com/

The Product Marketing Experts

A list of podcasts for PMs isn’t complete without some focus on one of our most crucial partners: product marketing. Join Jeffrey Vocell of Iterable as he interviews a different product marketer each week.

What do we like about this podcast?

Similarly to the design and engineering podcasts in this list, The Product Marketing Experts podcast gives a glimpse into the world of product marketing. Enhance your collaboration and your product’s success by getting a deeper understanding of strategies for pricing, positioning, and launching successful products.

Who is the host

Jeffrey Vocell

Frequency

Weekly

Where to listen

https://podcasts.sharebird.com/episodes

Product Mastery Now

Product Mastery Now, formerly known as The Everyday Innovator, brings in product professionals, business leaders, and more to share their thoughts on innovation and product management.

What do we like about this podcast?

As its former name suggests, there’s a healthy amount of episodes related to innovation. The focus doesn’t stop there, so you’ll also find great conversations such as how to start preparing now for the transition from product management to senior leadership.

Who is the host

Chad McAllister

Frequency

Weekly

Where to listen

https://productmasterynow.com/tei/

Product Talk

Coming from the Products That Count platform, this podcast hosts product leaders across different industries as they talk about their experiences and lessons learned.

What do we like about this podcast?

The variance in the types of products discussed is impressive. Discover how some of the latest cutting edge products are coming to market, such as the expanding role of technology in Broadway storytelling, and the growing area of digital mental health therapy.

Who is the host

Hosts change with each episode.

Frequency

Weekly

Where to listen

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/product-talk/id1038890550

Product to Product

Roadmunk wasn’t satisfied enough with building a product roadmap platform for PMs, they wanted to go a step further with (in their own words) a “product management podcast for / by product people”.

What do we like about this podcast?

This podcast also follows the “theme per season” approach, with some traditional product management focuses (turning feedback into features) and some more unique themes (product buzzwords you hate to love and love to hate). Tune in for enlightening conversations with PMs, designers, marketers, and engineers from companies like Intercom and Buzzfeed.

Who is the host

Rotating hosts from Roadmunk.

Frequency

Every other week

Where to listen

https://roadmunk.com/product-to-product-podcast

Scrum Master Toolbox

Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches are interviewed about the things they’re doing to excel at their craft. Get an inside look to identify how to become a better product partner to them.

What do we like about this podcast?

There’s a new episode every weekday and most fall under 15 minutes, so it’s perfect for a lunch or coffee break. If you can’t listen every day, at least set some time aside on Fridays when they focus on the best and worst of Product Owners from their perspectives.

Who is the host

Vasco Duarte

Frequency

Every weekday

Where to listen

https://scrum-master-toolbox.org/

This Is Product Management

This long-running show brings in product people, CEOs, CTOs, and more for a deep dive on the wide range of focus areas that product managers find themselves up against. Great for new and experienced PMs alike.

What do we like about this podcast?

With 278 episodes and counting, you’re sure to find an episode that’s applicable to something you’re currently facing. Learn how to optimize conversion rates from the Optimizely VP of Product, or how to foster internal collaboration from the CTO – Energy at Google.

Who is the host

Anuurag Verma (formerly Mike Fishbein)

Frequency

Every other week

Where to listen

https://tipm.feedbackloop.com/

This Week In Startups

Angel investor Jason Calacanis covers some of the latest topics in tech amidst interviewing successful founder, investors, and more.

What do we like about this podcast?

It’s a news show and interview show wrapped into one! Many episodes cover tech and startup news, such as the Bitcoin crackdown in China, before moving to the interviews. An easy way to stay up to date on the industry and get relevant tips on scaling a tech company.

Who is the host

Jason Calacanis

Frequency

Multiple episodes per week

Where to listen

https://thisweekinstartups.com/

This Week In Tech

Tech experts sit down for a roundtable discussion about the latest news in tech, including the innovations, policies, and more happening throughout the week.

What do we like about this podcast?

If the previous podcast left you wanting more tech news, you’ve come to the right place. The episodes clock in at 2+ hours, but the conversations are highly valuable to stay on top of the industry trends you should be aware of. Pop it on while you’re cooking dinner or if you find yourself back to a long commute.

Who is the host

Leo Laporte

Frequency

Weekly

Where to listen

https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech

The Tim Ferriss Show

Let’s face it – product management can be demanding, time-consuming, and stressful. The Tim Ferriss Show is a great source for new tools to manage your day-to-day, enhance your growth, and maintain a healthy mindset.

What do we like about this podcast?

Tim interviews an impressive list of people who are all masters of their craft, and extracts insights from them about how they do it. Get tips for overcoming self-sabotage, remembering anything, and navigating difficult conversations. You’ll also find great recommendations for your reading list or exercise and mindfulness routines.

Who is the host

Tim Ferriss

Frequency

Weekly

Where to listen

https://tim.blog/podcast/

UI Breakfast

One more design-focused podcast because, let’s face it, we’d be lost without our designers. Just like with our engineering and marketing partners, we should constantly strive to be better partners with design.

What do we like about this podcast?

Topics include the latest in user experience and design trends (thought-based interfaces) and best practices (designing for accessibility). Don’t miss the episode “Your Personal Design Style”, because we can all do with a little more authenticity.

Who is the host

Jane Portman

Frequency

Every 1-2 weeks

Where to listen

https://uibreakfast.com/category/podcast/

Final points about podcasts for product managers

There’s clearly no shortage of great podcast content out there for product managers, and no shortage of qualified individuals to learn from. The podcasts we’ve shared here present product management topics that can be impactful for product managers at any stage of their career – from the brand new APM to the veteran product leader. What we all have in common is that we’re in this together, and these podcasts are a great example of that.

The post 21 Best Product Management Podcasts for Product Managers in 2021 appeared first on Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference.

Product management certifications are awarded by a variety of organizations, many of them offering accompanying product management training programs. Certifications recognize individuals who possess the knowledge and skills required to be successful in one or many areas of product management. Read on for why you should consider becoming a certified product manager.

Why do you need product management certification?

Product management certification programs are a practical way to grow your product management skills while giving a boost to your resume. Certifications show potential employers that you’ve completed relevant software product management training courses, and possess the knowledge needed to perform the job.

Benefits of product management certifications

Product certifications come in all shapes and sizes, and offer a wide range of benefits. Here are some of our top reasons for pursuing a product manager certification online.

Kickstart your product management career

Perform a quick search online and you’ll find no shortage of mentions about how difficult it can be to break into product management. While this is true, it’s certainly not impossible. Learning the basics of product management through a training program and obtaining a product management certification will give you an advantage when applying for your first product manager role.

Expand your product manager skillset

No matter what career stage a product manager is in, they should maintain a growth mindset to continue improving their abilities. Whether you’re looking to sharpen your skills in strategy, leadership, or technology, there’s a product management training out there to help you along.

Career advancement opportunities

As you progress through your career, you’ll take on greater responsibilities and become accountable for more impactful decisions and contributions. Product manager training programs can help equip you with the knowledge required to be successful in these duties, and the accompanying certifications can show your employer (current or prospective) that you’ve put in the work.

Top 15 best product management certifications in 2021

We’ve compiled our list of the 15 best certifications for product managers. The certification programs range in content and target audience, from core principles for aspiring product managers, to leadership and vision for the more experienced professionals. Whatever stage you’re at, we’re sure there’s a product manager training below to meet your needs.

M.S. in Product Management (Carnegie Mellon University)

Carnegie Mellon University’s M.S. in Product Management is the only outright degree on this list. Developed specifically for technical professionals, the program prepares you for a transition to product management by teaching courses in business fundamentals, leadership, product management, human-computer interaction, and computer science.

Why we like it

The program differentiates itself from an MBA by focusing on the intersection of technology and business as it relates to product management, with courses split between their highly reputable schools of business and computer science. In addition to the coursework, students will complete an internship and capstone project, all within 12 months.

Best for

Individuals with work experience in a technical profession (e.g. software engineering) who have made the decision to pursue a career in technical product management, and are willing to attend school full-time for a year.

How to earn

https://ms-product-management.cmu.edu/

One Week Product Owner (Product Manager HQ)

This is the first of two certifications we’ll cover from Product Manager HQ. The 7-day course teaches the basics of Agile product ownership to kickstart your career.

Why we like it

The straightforward fundamentals are perfect for those exploring a product career, including the basics of Agile frameworks, scrum, project management, customer development, user stories, and release management. As with all PM HQ certifications, you’ll also receive resume and interview tips, and access to an exclusive Slack community of product leaders and peers.

Best for

Aspiring product owners seeking to gain a foundational understanding of Agile development methodologies and the role of product within them.

How to earn

https://www.oneweekpm.com/p/certified-product-owner

One Week PM (Product Manager HQ)

This 7-day course from Product Manager HQ will help you establish the necessary skills to build and execute a product strategy. You’ll learn how to effectively move through all stages of the product lifecycle.

Why we like it

You’ll come out of this with a strong grasp on the full product lifecycle. There’s a heavy focus on customer discovery (user research and interviews) and validation (wireframing, prototyping, and usability tests). These are bookended by tactics for writing product specs, managing backlogs, and constructing roadmaps.

Best for

Aspiring product managers looking to establish foundational PM skills and transition into product management.

How to earn

https://www.oneweekpm.com/

Online Product Management Training (Tarigo)

Tarigo is a UK-based product management training organization that offers certifications in Complete Product Management and Leading Product Management.

Why we like it

Tarigo claims product managers at any stage of their career can benefit from the Complete Product Management course’s approach to Discovery, Definition, Delivery, and Drive (measurement and optimization). The Leading Product Management certification offers further training for product leaders in team building, product vision and strategy, portfolio management, and more.

Best for

Anyone can benefit from the online training material, but UK residents have the option to attend an in-person training (when they become available again). Those with Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements have the additional benefit of earning hours toward CPD accreditation.

How to earn

https://www.productmanagementtraining.com/online-product-management-training

Brand and Product Management (IE Business School, Coursera)

This certification on Coursera, taught by the IE Business School, focuses on the intersection of product and branding, and equips you with the tools to bring a brand strategy to life.

Why we like it

When we think of “branding”, our minds may shift to marketers, but it’s equally important for product managers to understand branding strategy when launching new products. You’ll learn how to integrate a product strategy with a brand equity, architecture, and portfolio, and will receive tools for implementing the brand into the customer journey and your organization.

Best for

Tenured PMs in charge of launching new product lines, especially to new market segments, or for entrepreneurs looking to launch their own company.

How to earn

https://www.coursera.org/learn/brand-management

Product Manager Certificate (Product School)

Product School has established a reputable name through their certifications, frequent webinars, and the Product Podcast. The Product Manager Certificate helps aspiring product managers build foundational skills to break into the field. For more tenured product managers, they offer a Product Leader Certificate and Product Executive Certificate.

Why we like it

Taught by product leaders at top companies like Google, Netflix, and Spotify, the lectures are all live-streamed, offering the opportunity for interactive discussions with classmates and instructors. In addition to teaching end-to-end product development and leadership, the course includes resume and interview workshopping to prepare you for the job search.

Best for

Early-career product managers or professionals from other fields looking to transition into product management.

How to earn

https://productschool.com/product-management-certification/

Become a Product Manager (Udemy)

With over 30,000 ratings and 4.5 stars, this is by far the most reviewed product management course available on Udemy. The comprehensive syllabus touches on all the ins-and-outs a product manager can expect in their day-to-day.

Why we like it

The course content is very broad. From customer research to Agile frameworks to the basics of APIs, you’ll gain a solid foundation to kickstart your PM career. As one of the most cost-effective options on this list, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Best for

Aspiring product managers looking to establish foundational PM skills and transition into product management.

How to earn

https://www.udemy.com/course/become-a-product-manager-learn-the-skills-get-a-job/

New Product Development Professional Certification (PDMA)

This offering from the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) stands out as a not-for-profit certification administered to those who meet the educational and experience requirements, and who pass the NPDP exam.

Why we like it

While prep courses are available, they’re entirely optional. If you have the required education and experience, you can jump straight to the exam to strive for the certification. Self-study materials are also available on Amazon, or through annual membership in the PDMA.

Best for

Experienced product managers that want to prove their knowledge and enhance their resume for career advancement opportunities.

How to earn

https://www.pdma.org/page/NPDP_exam

Product Management Certification (Proficientz)

Proficientz specializes in B2B product management and awards their certification to those who pass an exam after successfully completing all 13 lessons in the training program. The lessons cover the entire product launch across 4 themes: Markets & Customer Goals, Opportunities & Priorities, Build & Deliver, and Market & Sell.

Why we like it

The lessons are mostly structured in the way you would actually apply them in the real world, taking you from understanding business goals and market segmentation all the way through to selling the product. You can opt for instructor-led courses or on-demand virtual learning, the latter with a simple monthly subscription to access all resources.

Best for

Experienced B2B product managers looking to hone their discovery skills and better collaborate with stakeholders on all aspects of a product launch. Great for those wearing many hats at a startup!

How to earn

https://www.proficientz.com/product-management-certification/

Product Management Professional Certification (Blackblot)

Blackblot is an international organization offering this certification based on their Product Manager’s Toolkit® (PMTK) methodology. Certification is granted with a passing grade of 75% on the core certification test. Additional accreditations are available through subsequent tests in Product Planning, Product Marketing, Product Pricing, Blackblot PMTK Methodology, and Product Life Cycle Model.

Why we like it

There’s no required coursework to register for the exam, but there are valuable self-study materials available to prepare. The registration fee is reasonably priced and each payment offers two chances to pass the exam. For those confident in their knowledge, this is a cost-friendly way to obtain certification in several subject areas.

Best for

Experienced product managers that want to prove their knowledge and enhance their resume for career advancement opportunities.

How to earn

https://www.blackblot.com/certification

Agile Certified Product Manager and Product Owner (AIPMM)

The Agile Certified Product Manager and Product Owner credential is offered by the Association of International Product Marketing and Management (AIPMM), but the exam preparation course comes from the 280 Group.

Why we like it

The course provides a holistic understanding of Agile concepts and frameworks, while detailing how product managers and products owners should best integrate with Agile development teams. Beyond the basics, you’ll also get insights into product strategies and roadmapping tactics. The course prepares you for the AIPMM and includes access to a study guide and practice exam.

Best for

This Agile product management certification is likely best for the aspiring product manager due to its central topic of Agile foundations, but more experienced PMs may benefit from the strategy and roadmapping content.

How to earn

https://aipmm.com/agile-certified-product-manager-product-owner

Product Manager Certification (Pragmatic Institute)

The Pragmatic Institute is one of the most renowned product management training programs out there. To obtain the Product Manager Certification, you’ll take four of their eight course offerings: Build, Design, Focus, and Foundations.

Why we like it

The Pragmatic Institute carries a certain prestige with it, and for good reason. Taught by instructors who all have executive-level product experience, you’ll gain valuable real-world insights to propel your product management career. Once you’ve gotten the Product Manager Certification, you can pursue the Product Master Certification by completing their courses in Data, Launch, Market, and Price.

Best for

Taking all four required courses will net you a hefty price tag, so this would be best for experienced PMs looking to use the certification as a means for promotion or salary increase.

How to earn

https://www.pragmaticinstitute.com/certifications/

MicroMasters® in Digital Product Management (Boston University edX)

The MicroMasters® program at Boston University offers extensive training through five courses over eight months. Students can expect a weekly commitment of 4-7 hours.

Why we like it

Course material goes beyond core product management concepts to focus on platform strategy, social media marketing, advanced experimentation principles, and business analytics. In addition to certification, the course can also transfer as credits toward an M.S. at Boston University or the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Best for

The program material is definitely geared toward senior-level product managers and leaders. Considering the cost and time commitment, this is likely best for those planning to pursue the M.S.

How to earn

https://www.edx.org/micromasters/bux-digital-product-management

Product Management Studio (UC Berkeley)

This 8-week program from UC Berkeley Executive Education provides training across a variety of product management accountabilities and skills, including storytelling, decision making, discovery, positioning, and pricing.

Why we like it

The course is heavily focused on discovering value opportunities for the customer and for your organization. In addition to live sessions led by their world-renowned staff, students receive individual & group coaching from product leaders across several industries.

Best for

Product leaders or experienced product managers looking to further grow their skill sets for more impactful work and career advancement. While it’s a higher price tag, the prestige is a part of the cost.

How to earn

https://executive.berkeley.edu/programs/product-management-studio

Product Strategy (Northwestern Kellogg)

The last certification in our list is from another one of the top business schools. This course from Northwestern University teaches product leaders how to build and execute a successful product strategy.

Why we like it

The curriculum stands out with the inclusion of more advanced concepts like Jobs-to-be-Done, business model taxonomy, go-to-market planning, and growth hacking. The 2-month course combines on-demand learning and live sessions led by the world-renowned faculty.

Best for

Senior product leadership and experienced product managers who contribute extensively to product strategy.

How to earn

https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/executive-education/individual-programs/online-programs/prodstrat.aspx

Key takeaways about product manager certifications

Product management is a complex and ever-evolving profession, and our success as product managers depends on our willingness to engage as regular students of our craft. Whether you’re looking to break into your first product management role or move up the career ladder into product leadership, earning a product manager certification can augment your knowledge, abilities, and credentials. We hope the product management certificate programs detailed here provide some inspiration for your next educational pursuit.

FAQs

What is the best product management certification?

There’s no one-size-fits-all product management certification. Those new to the profession would benefit from certifications that focus on Agile methodologies and delivery, while experienced product managers and product leaders are better suited for certifications that teach advanced discovery techniques, strategy, vision, and leadership.

How do I train to be a product manager?

While product management programs are beginning to pop in universities, there’s no 4-year degree, and the concept of product management education is still relatively new. Fortunately, product management certifications like the ones we’ve discussed here offer structured and focused curriculums to train you for the various levels of product management.

Beyond product management certifications, there are a plethora of resources available to train as a product manager. Whether you enroll in a training program or not, we recommend checking out some of the best blogs, podcasts, and books on product management.

Are product management certifications worth it?

Product management certifications are entirely worth it if you’re seeking new skills to grow your career. Just make sure you choose a certification that suits your needs! An experienced product manager won’t benefit from a course on the basics, while a product leadership course will be too advanced for newcomers.

How to get product management certification

Obtaining a product manager certification often requires completing a training program, passing an exam, or both. Check out the specific details on each certification program’s website to better understand the requirements, and be sure to take the time commitment, cost, and career level into account.

The post Top 15 Product Management Certifications for Product Managers appeared first on Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference.