Best Free MOOCs In Business In December

Digital Product Management: Modern Fundamentals

School: University of Virginia (Darden)

Platform: Coursera

Registration Link:  REGISTER HERE

Start Date: December 11, 2017 (4 Weeks Long)

Workload: 4-6 Hours Per Week

Instructor: Alex Cowan

Credentials: Cowan is the managing director of Synapse Partners, a Bay Area firm that includes both a consulting and a venture capital practice. He is also a Batten Fellow and adjunct faculty member at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, where he teaches courses in software design and development. Before entering academia, he launched five companies, most notably Leonid Systems.

Graded: Students must pass all graded quizzes to complete the course.

Description: 9-out-of-every-10 new product launches fail. Let that number sink in. Why does this happen? Sometimes, the value isn’t framed in a way where a team can buy into it. Then again, maybe the team – from creative to sales – doesn’t understand the concept (or their roles) due to poor communication. Of course, many projects are doomed from the start, stemming from a failure to truly dig into shifting consumer needs, market expectations, and competitive hurdles.

These days, digital product managers enjoy plenty of advantages. They can access a wealth of data to identify opportunities and guide decision-making. They can also more quickly modify content to better align with consumer experience. In this course, students will examine the product development process, from idea and development to management and enhancement. In particular, Cowan delivers the best practices in connecting stakeholders throughout the product life cycle; researching and testing concepts that maximize resources and reduce risk; and producing strategies for continuing a dialogue with consumers so they can deepen their use of solutions to their full capacity.

Review: “Great course, great content! Highly recommended for any new PM or any experienced PM wanting to flesh out their skill set. One key detail for me was what inputs you should give to each of the business teams and what outputs you should expect from them. This is important given how ambiguous the Product role can be and that you usually end up spending time filling gaps yourself to ensure success, rather than being clear what the business teams should be doing for you.” For additional reviews, click here.