How Long Does it Take to Learn Product Management?

Like many aspiringProduct Managers, you might want to learn product management but worry that it will take too much time. Product management can seem especially intimidating since it requires training in three skill sets: coding, design, and project management. The rise in demand for people with product management skills has created faster training paths. For example, bootcamps are a great way to learn product management quickly. Of course, this depends on several factors. Keep reading about how you can learn product management and some resources to help speed the process along.

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. 

Average Time it Takes to Learn Product Management

The average time it takes to learn product management varies for each person. Factors that affect your training time include your current experience and education level, how many core product management skills you need to develop, which industry you plan to work in, and your current schedule. 

The most significant factor affecting the average time it takes to learn product management is what type of training you select. Bootcamps are typically the fastest way to learn product management, especially if you select a bootcamp with 1-on-1 mentoring and job assistance. Bootcamps provide concentrated training in product management skills and allow you to start your career as a Product Manager faster. 

Taking a more traditional approach to becoming a Product Manager, such as pursuing a graduate degree in product management or business, will take much longer. People who rely on bootcamps to learn product management can typically finish their training in under a year. Pursuing a degree in product management typically takes years. 

One way to speed up the process is to develop your product management skills through a sequence of bootcamps from the same school. For example, Noble Desktop offers bootcamps in Software Engineering, UX & UI Design, and Project Management. The Software Engineering Certificate takes about 20 weeks to complete, UX & UI Design takes around six weeks, and Project Management takes a few days. By combining these three courses, your product management training would take less than one year. 

Other Factors

Factors that could affect your product management training time include your current experience and education level, how many core product management skills you need to develop, which industry you plan to work in, and your current schedule. 

Current Experience and Education Level

Product management is made of three core skills: coding, design, and project management. Knowledge or experience in one of these three skill sets will reduce the training time needed to become a Product Manager. For example, if you’re already working in software development, you have a headstart in becoming a Digital Product Manager than someone with no prior coding experience. Or, if you’re a UX Designer, you have a headstart over someone with no training in design. 

If you’re planning to pursue a degree in product management, your current education will matter. If you already have a bachelor’s degree, especially in a relevant field, the length of time needed to get a graduate degree will be less. 

Product management is a skills-based field, meaning employers value proficiency in core product management skills more than a degree.

Developing the Core Product Management Skills

You’ll need to develop core product management skills to become a Product Manager. You've got a head start if you already work in coding, UX or UI design, or project management. If you’re a total beginner, then training in product management will take more time. The time to train in these will vary, although there are ways to speed up the training process. 

One recommended way to speed up your core product management skills training is to take all the courses from the same school. For example, Noble Desktop is a coding, business, and design school that offers bootcamps in software engineering, UX & UI design, and project management. Aspiring Product Managers could combine these bootcamps without having to repeat skills and finish their product management training in less than a year. Because Noble Desktop is highly reviewed, you are guaranteed to learn the core skills needed by a professional Product Manager. 

Which Industry You Plan to Work In

The industry you choose to work in and the types of products you specialize in will factor into your product management training time. For example, if you plan to manage software products, you’ll need to train in Agile product management. You’ll also want to make sure that your coding skills are strong if you plan to manage products built with code. Not all industry specialization will take time: for example, Noble Desktop’s Project Management Bootcamp, recommended for aspiring Product Managers, includes Agile training. 

Your Current Schedule

Your current schedule can affect how long it takes to learn product management. For example, if you need to take part-time courses instead of full time that might lengthen your product management training time. For example, Noble Desktop’s UX & UI Design Certificate has a part-time option that lasts around 24 weeks or a full-time option that lasts around six weeks. Training will take longer if you don’t have the room in your current schedule for full-time. 

However, don’t let this discourage you from training in product management. The time required to develop product management skills is typically less than a year, even if you have no prior experience or need to train part-time. 

Level of Difficulty, Prerequisites, & Cost 

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.

Watch a Free Product Management Online Course

If you’re not quite ready to commit to product management, free online courses are a great way to see if it’s a career path that you’d like to explore. You can learn some of the foundations of product management before you fully commit. For example, Udemy offers a free tutorial, Fundamental Steps of Product Management which covers the basics of product management using a real-world case study. A few colleges, such as the University of Maryland College Park, offer free product management lectures on their website. Or, you might consider Product Crash Course, which delivers its free introductory product management course directly into your email inbox. 

Read about more free product management videos and online tutorials.

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. 

Key Insights

• Bootcamps are the fastest way to train in product management. 
• By taking product management bootcamps, you could start a new career as a Product Manager in less than one year. 
• Some factors that could affect the time it takes you to learn product management include your current experience level and education level, which industry you plan to work in, and your current schedule.
• You can receive comprehensive product management training through an in-person or live online course with Noble Desktop.