Learn how to navigate the exciting field of product management, situated at the intersection of tech, business, and design. Understand the roles and responsibilities of a product manager, how video tutorials can be helpful in learning product management, and the lucrative career prospects in the field.
Key Insights
- Product management is a multifaceted field requiring tech skills such as coding and data analysis, user-driven design skills, and business skills such as project management.
- Product Managers serve as a liaison between the teams developing a product and the product users, often being referred to as the "CEO of the product".
- Video tutorials can be an effective tool for learning the foundational principles of product management, allowing flexibility in learning at one's own pace.
- Product management is a rapidly growing field, with job opportunities increasing by over 33% from 2017 to 2019. High growth industries include finance, e-commerce, tech, entertainment, and healthcare.
- Product management is a lucrative career path, with the median base annual salary for a Product Manager being around $125,000, more than double the average annual salary across all occupations.
- Noble Desktop, a coding, design, and business school, offers comprehensive bootcamps in all three core product management skills, providing an accelerated path towards a career in product management.
Product management is at the intersection of tech, business, and design. Product Managers create a communication line between the teams developing and marketing a product, stakeholders, and product users. Watching video tutorials online is a popular method of learning product management. A Product Manager needs many skills, including tech skills such as coding and data analysis, user-driven design skills such as conducting research and using Figma, and business skills such as project management and leadership skills. Product management videos and online tutorials could become invaluable tools with so much to learn. This article will cover a range of videos, including what they teach and where to find them.
What is Product Management?
Product management is the process of managing a particular product, including physical products, software programs, and other digital products. A Product Manager oversees a product through the four stages of what product management calls “The Product LifeCycle:” introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. In product management, Product Managers are often referred to as the "CEO of the product."
Product management is at the intersection of tech, business, and design. Successful Product Managers must train in all three core product management skill sets: coding, user-driven design, and project management. Product management connects the different teams who develop a product. For example, a Product Manager might work simultaneously with a development team, a design team, a marketing team, stakeholders, and customers to manage the development and launch of a successful product.
The Product Manager is an advocate for the customer and serves as a liaison between the teams developing a product and the users of the product. User experience is a critical part of product management, so Product Managers are expected to incorporate user-driven design principles and conduct user reviews of their product during the development and after launch.
Read more about what product management is and why you should learn it.
What Can You Do with Product Management?
Product management is a combination of tech, design, and business. You’ll need creativity, technical knowledge, and leadership skills to become a Product Manager. You will need to develop skills in all three to launch a new career in product management. However, the variety of skills creates a lot of flexibility in product management.
Coding skills are essential to an aspiring product manager. You don’t need to be an expert coder, but you will need to understand the process of building a digital product. As you probably already know, coding skills are highly desired by employers. You could even work as a coder while continuing the rest of your product management education.
Design skills are invaluable in many industries: design, digital design, fashion design, publishing, manufacturing, software development, art, marketing, web design, and animation. Product managers must know user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design. Training in these includes learning programs like Adobe XD, Adobe Sketch, and Figma.
Project management skills are required for Product Managers. Developing project management skills is great for the job market: the Project Management Institute (PMI) estimates that more than 22 million new jobs will be created for people with project management skills by 2027. Project management skills are also highly versatile since Project Managers are in demand across industries.
Why Are Video Tutorials Helpful When Learning Product Management?
Video tutorials are great for learning the foundational principles of product management. You’ll be able to dip your toes into coding, design, and project management without fully committing to a bootcamp or certificate program.
Videos are great for people with little free time or privacy because they can be paused or restarted anytime. Videos are especially great for visual learners who have a lot of self-discipline. They might also give you a more precise indication of some of the challenges when learning product management.
Types of Product Management Videos
To begin exploring your training in design, you might consider starting with video tutorials focused on design principles, such as Intro to UI Design. Another potential area of interest is industry-standard UX & UI Design applications, such as Intro to Adobe XD, Intro to Figma, or Sketch vs. Figma vs. Adobe XD.
If you’d prefer to start with coding, you might consider these free video tutorials on Python or Intro to Front-End Web Development.
Why Learn Product Management?
Product management is a creative and rewarding career path. Current Product Managers report a much higher job satisfaction rate than most careers. Product management has been ranked Top 10 on Glassdoor’s Top 50 Best Jobs list for several years. Since product management is still developing as a field, there is a lot of flexibility in this career path.
According to a study by Product Management Insider, Product Manager jobs increased by over 33% from 2017 to 2019 and have only continued to grow. A few factors driving this growth include the need for digital products and platforms, increased competition in a global market, digital transformation of industries, and data-driven business decisions. Some industries experiencing the highest growth in product management jobs include finance, e-commerce, tech, entertainment, and healthcare. For example, the adoption of streaming services has driven the need for Product Managers in the entertainment industry. Likewise, the adoption of digital tools by financial institutions has created a demand for Product Managers in the finance sector.
Product management is also a lucrative career path: according to Glassdoor, the median base annual salary for a Product Manager is around $125,000. Product Managers make more than double the average annual salary of $52,000 across all occupations. Jobs in product management are growing at a rate of five times the national average. Some companies hiring the most Product Managers include Google, Bank of America, Airbnb, Capital One, Adobe, and Visa. Some companies, such as Uber and Slack, pay Product Managers an average salary of around $200,000.
Read more about why you should learn product management.
How Difficult is It to Learn Product Management?
Product management is still defined as a field, meaning there is no single path to becoming a Product Manager. Before you can begin working as a Product Manager, you will need to learn the core skill sets of product management: coding, user-driven design, and project management.
Because there are a lot of skills to learn, training in product management could be more expensive than other career paths. However, there are fast tracks that can speed up the training process. For example, bootcamps provide comprehensive training in typically much less time and can also save you money.
Combining bootcamps is a great way to reduce your learning time and costs. Another advantage of learning through bootcamps is taking all your classes from the same school. For example, Noble Desktop is a coding, design, and business school which offers bootcamps in all three core product management skills. You could receive certificates in software engineering, UX & UI design, and project management in less than a year.
Read about how difficult it is to learn product management.
Learn Product Management with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop
Since product management is a relatively new career, there is no single path to becoming a Product Manager. To become a Product Manager, you do not typically need a bachelor’s degree. You will need a mix of the three product management core skill sets: coding, user-driven design, and project management. Bootcamps in coding, UX design, and project management are a great way to acquire the knowledge you need to become a Product Manager.
Noble Desktop offers bootcamps in coding, design, and business live online and at its state-of-the-art campus in Midtown Manhattan. Since Noble Desktop offers bootcamps in all three core product management skills, it is an excellent choice for aspiring Product Managers. All of their courses have guaranteed small class sizes. Noble Desktop’s expert instructors teach a “micro-lecture” introducing a topic and then guide students through applying what they learned through hands-on, real-world projects. There is a “free retake” option on their courses, allowing students to retake the course free to refresh their knowledge or continue developing their skills.
Noble Desktop’s Software Engineering Certificate is a great option for aspiring Product Managers who will need to understand how applications are made. This bootcamp immerses students in coding and building applications using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, Python, Django, and Node.js. Expert instructors will guide students through hands-on projects to develop skills in coding the front and back ends of websites and applications. Students receive over 500 hours of live, hands-on instruction and twelve 1-on-1 mentoring sessions. Graduates earn a New York State Licensed Certificate in Software Engineering.
Product Managers are required to put users first. Understanding user-driven design is critical for a Product Manager. Noble Desktop offers a UX & UI Design Certificate that provides comprehensive training in user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design. Students in this project-based bootcamp master user-centered design essentials, conduct research and product testing, and digital product design. Students become experienced users of Figma, Sketch, and Adobe XD. Students develop a professional portfolio and receive 1-on-1 job mentoring. Graduates earn a verifiable digital certificate which is shareable on Linkedin.
The successful development and launch of a product is a project. Product Managers are required to have highly-developed project management skills. Noble Desktop’s Project Management Bootcamp provides comprehensive training in project management principles, practices, and methodologies. Topics covered include the “Project LifeCycle,” risk management, resource management, budgeting, and project management terminology. This boot camp includes training in project management methodologies Waterfall, Critical Path, and Agile, including Scrum, Kasan, and Extreme Programming (XP). Graduates earn a Certificate in Project Management which is shareable on Linkedin.