Program Overview

Program Overview

The University of Maryland offers a Product Management Professional Certificate program, designed to equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary to successfully navigate the roles and responsibilities of being a product manager. This program covers the entire product lifecycle, from discovery to delivery, and is suitable for individuals from various industries and backgrounds.

Program Description

The Product Management Professional Certificate program is a unique certification that covers the skill sets required for the entire product lifecycle. The program starts with the fundamentals of product management, exploring the roles and responsibilities of a product manager, and their relationship to stakeholders, including customers, engineering, legal, finance, marketing, and customer service. Students will learn how to own the results of their product's success by tackling risks early and setting up their teams for success.

Program Objectives

The program aims to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to:

• Understand the keys to successfully navigating the roles and responsibilities of being a product manager
• Learn how to truly know their target customer, their customer's underserved needs, their value proposition, their product feature set, and their user experience
• Translate product ideas into tangible assets by creating wireframes, 3D renderings, prototypes, and minimum viable products (MVPs) to test assumptions and validate customer interests
• Develop techniques for designing and modeling for fast feedback and idea sharing, system optimization with open architectures, validating functions and verifying performance, and leveraging and enabling the system designs, platforms, and ecosystems
• Embrace modern product leadership to form and motivate product teams, and grow organizations that can both discover and deliver products at scale

Target Audience

The program is designed for individuals from various industries and backgrounds, including:

• Engineers
• Managers
• Designers
• Writers
• Creators
• Executors of all types

Program Structure

The certificate consists of five individual courses, which can be completed at the student's own pace. The courses are:

• Product Management Fundamentals (10 PDUs)
• Achieving Product-Market Fit (10 PDUs)
• Product Design, Prototyping, and Testing (10 PDUs)
• Data Science and Agile Systems for Product Management (10 PDUs)
• Modern Product Leadership (10 PDUs)

Program Fees

Each course is free for the first four weeks, and it takes approximately ten hours to complete. For a small fee, students can obtain a Verified Certificate, which provides proof of successful completion. The costs for a verified version of each individual course are:

• $249 per individual course
• $1,245 for the entire certificate (purchase all courses at once and save 10%)

Program Endorsement

The program is endorsed by Softek Enterprises, a company that employs radical application development, built on the principles of product management, agile, and DevOps. The CEO of Softek Enterprises recommends the program to those looking to lead new products and join the product management revolution.