Hi, I’m Sam! I have been a product manager for years. Now I work as an industry mentor for the product, strategy, and operations track at Pathrise. I help people land their dream job through workshops and 1-on-1 mentoring. Check out my review of Product Innovation Educators.
- What does Product Innovation Educators do?
- Who is Product Innovation Educators for?
- What does Product Innovation Educators cost?
- Ratings and reviews of Product Innovation Educators
- Alternatives to Product Innovation Educators
- How does Product Innovation Educators compare to Pathrise?
What does Product Innovation Educators do?
Product Innovation Educators is the only online product management association approved to offer certification courses to both the Association of International Product Marketers and Managers (AIPMM) and Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) members. In addition to coaching teams, they offer a free podcast and 100+ product manager interview questions to help people become a product manager.
New product development professional (NPDP) certification
The new product development professional (NPDP) certification course is designed for product managers with 2+ years of experience. Students learn to master the entire product cycle from ideation to product retirement. In fact, the curriculum covers all 7 critical categories of the Product Development and Management Association’s (PDMA) body of knowledge. In addition, students learn PM fundamentals, strategy, the new product process, portfolio management, tools & metrics, and market research. Finally, the course covers product life cycle management, PM corporate culture, PM organization, PM teams, and a comprehensive review to prepare for the NPDP certification exam.
Certified innovation leadership (CIL) course
Students in the certified innovation leadership (CIL) course get a certification from AIPMM. The course is designed for newer product managers with only around a year or so of work experience. The curriculum is split into 10 modules that cover project identification, product strategy skills, and business case development. Moreover, students learn to conceive, plan, develop, qualify, and finally launch their very own product.
In addition, all students get access to video lessons, practice questions for each topic on their certification exam, review sessions, a practice exam with 200+ questions, and a private community to ask PM questions and network with other product managers. Both courses are completely self-paced and culminate in a certification exam. If students don’t pass, the program pays for them to retake the exam. While the curriculum prepares people for the PM job search with new skills and a certificate, the program does not actually include any career services.
Who is Product Innovation Educators for?
People with 1-2+ years of experience in product management who are looking to get their PM careers off the ground could benefit from Product Innovation Educators. In addition, the program is especially helpful for people with full-time jobs who are seeking short, self-paced courses to prepare them for certification exams.
What does Product Innovation Educators cost? How much work is involved?
The CIL course costs $1195 upfront or 3 payments of $450. This tuition includes 1 year of access to the materials, the CIL application and exam fees, and a 1-year AIPMM basic membership. On the other hand, students in the NPD course pay $895 upfront which includes 1 year of access to the material.
Although students should have some experience, certification courses are open to anyone. In fact, there is no formal admissions process and anyone can enroll.
Ratings and reviews
Although Product Innovation Educators does not have many online reviews, so far the reception has been positive. Both the Product Marketers and Managers (AIPMM) and Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) approved the program to train students for the certification exam. Plus, Product Coalition also included the Product Innovation Educators on their list of product management bootcamps.
Alternatives to Product Innovation Educators
If you decide not to enroll in a Product Innovation Educators course, there are a number of other resources and bootcamps to help you land a job as a product manager.
- Product managers with a few years of experience can look into Product Faculty, which has a part-time online bootcamp to help students accelerate their careers. Students get access to their Slack community, 1-on-1 career mentorship, and advanced product management (APM)(R) certificates that they can add to their resumes upon graduation.
- Another product management association is Product Gym. They offer training, job support, and networking opportunities for aspiring product managers.
- Similarly, the popular product management community Mind the Product has over 150,000 active members. They offer workshops and networking events to help aspiring product managers launch their careers.
- Or you can consider Product School, which offers formal certificates. They teach full-time and part-time product management courses with career support and weekly mentoring.
- Likewise, Product Academia has full-time and part-time PM courses with formal certificates for grads. Their focus is on helping women start new careers as product managers.
- Women, GNC people, and trans people can also check out CodeOp, which has courses in web dev, data, and product management.
- The popular bootcamp General Assembly teaches full-time, part-time, and 1-day courses on a variety of tech topics including product management. Their program features over 19,000 hiring partners, hands-on projects, and a 91.4% job placement rate. Learn more about General Assembly in our review.
- You can also check out Bubble no-code bootcamps to learn how to make products without coding. Learn more about Bubble in our review.
More alternatives
- Another tech bootcamp with product management offerings is BrainStation. Students build product management projects, participate in professional development, and get access to over a thousand hiring partners like Google and Facebook.
- You can also consider Linky Product, which has self-paced courses and a bootcamp. Beginners can also check out Dorm, which helps people get into startups.
- On the other hand, students who want a remote bootcamp can check out Thinkful, which has a 6 month online, part-time course in product management. Their curriculum includes live classes, PM projects, and 1-on-1 mentoring.
- Another online bootcamp, GrowthX Academy runs courses in product management, UX design, growth marketing, sales, and business development. Their self-paced program includes opportunities for 1-on-1 mentoring. Likewise, School16 teaches marketing, sales, and product management.
- The Menon Labs fellowship helps people learn the skills to become web developers, data scientists, and product managers.
- People seeking a hands-on program with mentoring can check out Udacity. Their platform offers both free and paid self-paced courses on product strategy, design, and launch. Students in their “nanodegree” programs work with technical mentors and career mentors as they build polished PM projects. Learn more about Udacity in our review.
- Similarly, students seeking university courses can check out Coursera. Their online learning platform hosts free courses on topics like product management taught by professors at accredited universities with recorded lectures, hands-on assignments, and community discussion forums.
- Another affordable platform for university learning is edX. They offer courses from top universities like Harvard and MIT, plus big tech companies like Microsoft. Students can choose to learn the fundamentals or dive deeper into specific topics, like Agile systems for product management. Read more about edX in our review.
How does Product Innovation Educators compare to Pathrise?
Product Innovation Educators offers self-paced product management training and formal certificate courses. While they cover key professional skills students can use during their job search, the program does not actually provide any job support.
However, Pathrise is a career accelerator that works with people on each phase of the job search. Fellows work 1-on-1 with experienced mentors on resume and LinkedIn optimization, portfolio building, technical and behavioral interview skills, and much more. In fact, we have helped over 1,000 land great jobs in tech so far.
Like Product Innovation Educators, our program is flexible. Fellows in our program only have 2-4 hours of group sessions per week and can schedule 1-on-1s as needed. The Pathrise income share agreement (ISA) means that fellows don’t pay anything until they land a job they love and start working. We never require upfront payments or deposits.
Pathrise optimizes the job search through 1-on-1 mentoring. With our guidance and training, fellows in our program can see their interview scores double and their application responses triple. If you want to land your dream job sooner, join Pathrise.
Apply today.
