12-Month MBA for Product Managers (better than any $127K course)
Hey, Paweł here. Welcome to the free edition of The Product Compass newsletter, republished on Medium.
My original, full post available without a Medium subscription: https://www.productcompass.pm/p/12-month-mba-for-product-managers-bba
In today’s newsletter:
- 12-Month MBA for Product Managers
- PM Diagrams and Articles to Download
- New Product Management Resources
- Our Community Keeps Growing!
1. 12-Month MBA for Product Managers
Many people ask me about formal education for Product Managers. One of the questions is taking an MBA course.
Most MBA courses will teach you how to:
- Make detailed plans
- Avoid failures and expect predictability
- Lead with control and act like “the boss”
But that’s the opposite of what the product leader should know. They might leave you with many bad habits you must unlearn at work. For more information, see MBA Pathology by Marty Cagan.
I created an alternative program based on books, related videos, and free resources. The product managers’ community has repeatedly validated and tested it on LinkedIn.
12-Month MBA for Product Managers
Month 1:
- Introduction: Inspired by Marty Cagan
- Leadership: Empowered by Marty Cagan and Chris Jones
- Startups: The Right It by Alberto Savoia
Month 2:
- Product Discovery: Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres
- Interviews: The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
- Product-Market Fit: The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen
Month 3:
- Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur
- Value Proposition Design by Alexander Osterwalder and others
- Testing Business Ideas by Alexander Osterwalder and David Bland
Month 4:
- Setting goals: Radical Focus by Christina Wodtke
- Leading with context: No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings
- Teams: Team Topologies by Manuel Pais and Matthew Skelton
Month 5:
- PLG: Product-Led Growth by Wes Bush
- Retention: Hooked by Nir Eyal
- Product-led Certification Course by Pendo with our dedicated 100% discount code not available elsewhere (I’m not an affiliate)
Month 6:
- Marketing: This is Marketing by Seth Godin
- Marketing for tech startups: Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore
- Product Growth: Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis
Month 7:
- Public speaking: Talk Like TED by Carmine Gallo
- Copywriting: The Copywriter’s Handbook by Robert W. Bly
- Negotiating: Never Split the Difference by Christopher Voss and Tahl Raz
Month 8:
- Making decisions: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- Effectiveness: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen M. R. Covey
- Networking: Superconnector by Ryan Paugh and Scott Gerber
Month 9:
- Leadership: The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhuo
- Financial Intelligence: The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
- Accounting: Accounting for Non-Accountants by Wayne A. Label
Month 10:
- Product Analytics: Lean Analytics by Alistair Croll and Ben Yoskovitz
- A free North Star Framework Compendium: Premium post or Free PDF
- Product Analytics Certification course by Pendo with our 100% discount code not available elsewhere (I’m not an affiliate)
Month 11:
- JTBD: Jobs-to-be-Done by Tony Ulwick
- What to build: Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perri
- Building products: Build by Tony Fadell
Month 12:
- Strategy: Playing to Win by Roger Martin
- Business portfolio: The Invincible Company by Frederic Etiemble, Alan Smith, Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur
Bonus (recommended):
- Career: The Ultimate Guide to Getting a PM Job by Aakash Gupta
- Learning from the best: Working Backwards by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr
- 600+ Free Product Management Learning Resources
- Product Manager Competencies Map
- Product Management Skills Assessments
- Top 16 Free Product Management Courses & Certificates
-
Theoretical knowledge is not enough, but it’s a solid foundation. It equips you with a set of thinking tools you can apply to the challenges you might face at work.
All it takes is to read or listen to audiobooks for 45–60 min/day.
You can start networking on LinkedIn or in our Slack community.
2. PM Diagrams and Articles to Download
My premium subscribers can now access high-resolution graphics and articles on our Google Drive. I’ll be adding new resources regularly.
3. New Product Management Resources
I reviewed and reorganized our free PM resources:
- Recommended books by role.
- Free PM templates in the Notion collection.
- Free PM courses (refreshed and migrated to Substack, no paywall)
The current links are always available in the top navigation of the newsletter.
- 📕 Top PM Books
- ▶️ Top PM Videos
- 📒 Free PM Templates
- 🔗 Top free websites and articles
- 👨👦 PM People
- 🛠️ Top Apps for PMs
Resources available on Substack (no paywall):
- 🌎 Product Manager Competencies Map
- 🎓 Product Management Skills Assessments
- 🏅 Top 16 Free Product Management Courses & Certificates
4. Our Community Keeps Growing
Last week, our community grew to over 50,000+ members (today, 50,518).
A year ago, I could only dream about making it by the end of 2024/2025.
The newsletter would be worthless without subscribers. So, thank you all for joining and supporting the community 💖
The best is yet to come!
Have you read?
If you are not a subscriber, here’s what you might have recently missed:
- What is Product Management?
- How to Become a Product Manager?
- Product Vision vs Strategy vs Goals vs Roadmap: The Advanced Edition
- Product Owner vs Product Manager: What’s the difference?
- User Interviews: The Ultimate Guide to Research Interviews
Thanks for reading The Product Compass
It’s incredible to learn and grow together.
Have a fantastic weekend and a productive week ahead.
Take care, Paweł