When I set out to create a course on product management three years ago, I knew it would be challenging. Product management is one of those roles that’s notoriously difficult to define—it looks different in every organization. A product manager might oversee a feature at one company or manage an entire product line at another. Workflows are very different in consumer versus B2B companies, and domain knowledge is almost always the key to success.
Rather than trying to cover everything, I focused on teaching foundational knowledge—the essentials that would serve students no matter where they worked or how the role evolved for them. I believe the heart of product management is about balancing business needs, technical realities, customer experience, and ethical challenges.
First, let’s define what we mean by a product manager. I’m not talking about someone who manages physical products like shampoo or cereal. I’m focused on digital product managers—those responsible for software, apps, and SaaS tools. Working with physical products is a very different animal, though I would hope many of the key skills would transfer.
You’ve probably heard product managers described as the CEO of the product. I think that analogy sticks because, just like with CEOs, people aren’t entirely sure what product managers do. At its core, the product manager’s role is to ensure the product stays healthy and successful. This means managing three key elements:
- Business viability – Does the product meet business goals or generate revenue?
- Technical feasibility – Is it something the company can deliver from a technical standpoint?
- User desirability – Will people want to use it, and will they stay engaged over time?
This balancing act becomes particularly important in the world of SaaS (software-as-a-service), where it’s not enough to simply acquire users. You have to keep them coming back.
The hardest challenge product managers face is navigating conflicts with other teams. Designers, for example, focus on making users happy and may push for delightful experiences even when they don’t align with business goals. Engineers might prefer solutions that are technically elegant but don’t meet the organizations needs. More than once I’ve seen an engineer who wants to write in a new sexy language or play with a new technology, even if that makes the product support more difficult later on. Product managers care about these aspects of development, but they are ultimately responsible for the business success.
Part of the course focuses on managing these competing interests, helping students recognize that influence and negotiation are key skills in product management.
Structuring the Course: The Three Four Core Elements
When designing the class, I focused on three key areas that every product manager needs to succeed: business fundamentals, interpersonal dynamics, and execution techniques. These are the pillars that form the foundation of effective product management.
1. Business Fundamentals: Understanding Strategy and Markets
Even though product managers aren’t expected to be financial experts or marketers, they need to understand core business concepts. Without this knowledge, they can’t align their product with the company’s strategy. In this section of the course, I introduced:
- Market segmentation – Knowing who your target audience is.
- Business models – How products generate revenue and sustain growth.
- Product strategy – How individual products or features fit into a company’s long-term goals.
- Competitive analysis and differentiation – How to look at the competitive landscape and make decisions
- Estimates and guesstimates – Teaching students to make reasonable assumptions with incomplete data.
This material helps students think strategically, equipping them to work across departments and communicate effectively with different stakeholders. Product managers need to be able to bridge the gap between business and technology.
2. Interpersonal Dynamics: Mastering Influence and Conflict
The second element is soft skills, especially managing interpersonal dynamics. Product managers have no direct authority over the people they work with—designers, engineers, marketers, or customer service reps. They have to rely entirely on influence to get things done.
In this section, I drew heavily from my book The Team That Managed Itself. We explore how to build trust, set teams up for success, and navigate inevitable conflicts. Conflict isn’t a bad thing; it’s part of collaboration. The key is learning how to manage disagreements productively, without damaging relationships.
I reminded students that no one gets things done by ordering employees around. Autonomy and meaning are essential for human motivation. People aren’t robots. If someone tries to get results by using force, threats, or control, they’ll quickly find that people either quit or disengage. The most successful product managers are those who create buy-in, foster alignment, and solve problems collaboratively.
3. Execution Techniques: Turning Ideas into Reality
The third section covers execution techniques—how to actually get software built and shipped in today’s fast-moving, iterative world. Product managers need to be fluent in how products are developed and released, even though they aren’t coding or designing the product themselves. We focused on:
- User behavior analysis – Understanding customer actions and translating them into ideas.
- Spec writing – From lightweight one-pagers to comprehensive Product Requirements Documents (PRDs).
- Iterative development – How to adapt plans based on feedback and new data.
- Roadmaps and PRDs– So much of product management is fiction writing. JK/NJK. Students have to learn how to navigate making plans when those plans are likely to be changed or interrupted, and rarely does anyone know how long things will take to build.
Execution is where product managers bring everything together. It’s not just about having ideas—it’s about turning those ideas into successful features and products that create value for users and align with the company’s strategy.
Embedding Ethics into Product Management
One thing I felt strongly about was that this course needed to include discussions on ethics. Technology isn’t neutral—it shapes people’s behaviors, decisions, and sometimes even lives. I wanted students to recognize that every product decision carries ethical implications. To that end, I incorporated an embedded ethics component into the class.
Each week, students were assigned a case study or article that raised an ethical dilemma. These ranged from controversial AI uses to office romance. Students came to class prepared with discussion questions, which we used to spark conversations.
This part of the course was one of the most engaging and meaningful for students. Product managers aren’t just responsible for meeting business goals—they have to consider the impact of their work on society, users, and the broader world. These discussions helped students develop the habit of thinking critically about their decisions and how they could build products that are both successful and ethical.
What I Learned from Teaching Product Management
Creating this class reinforced for me how much product management is shaped by the context of each business. There is no single “right way” to be a product manager. The role changes based on the company’s goals, culture, and customers. That’s why my goal wasn’t to teach a rigid framework but to provide students with foundational knowledge and adaptable skills.
Product managers must be lifelong learners—the role is constantly evolving. My course gave students a strong starting point, but their real education will happen on the job, where they’ll learn to adjust to different environments and challenges.