Product Management Prerequisites

Product management is at the intersection of tech, business, and design. Product Managers bridge the gap between the different teams who create a project, such as the development and design teams, and the stakeholder of a product, such as upper management and customers. A successful Product Manager must manage the success of a product in a complicated and competitive global market. You might worry that product management will be too hard to learn. This guide will help you understand the best methods for learning product management and what you should study first to make the learning process easier. This way, you’ll be successful however you choose to apply your new skills. 

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. 

Is Product Management Easy to Learn?

One of the biggest challenges of learning product management is that you’ll need training in several areas. Product management combines many skill sets, including soft, coding, project management, and design skills. You will need to train in these skill sets to become a Product Manager.

What to Know Before Learning Product Management

Coding Skills

Coding skills are used to build software applications, websites, and digital products. Achieving foundational knowledge in coding is required before you start a career in product management because you’ll need to understand how products are built to manage them. Coding skills are valuable beyond product management and have consistently been ranked as a job skill in very high demand. 

Learning to code might seem intimidating at first. However, bootcamps and live online classes are a great way to learn to code. Noble Desktop’s Software Engineering Certificate provides foundational, hands-on training in coding in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, and Python. Students learn to code both the front end (what you see) and the back end (what makes it run), and graduates earn a New York State Licensed Certificate in Software Engineering. 

Design Skills

Aspiring Product Managers will need design skills, particularly user-driven design. In product management, the Product Manager is responsible for communicating with the development and design teams on behalf of the user. The Product Manager advocates for user-driven design based on conducting user research and prototyping.

Suppose you’re serious about becoming a Product Manager. In that case, you’ll need to train in UX (user experience) and UI (user interface) design, such as the UX & UI Design Certificate offered by Noble Desktop. Students learn design principles and concepts while developing proficiency in industry-standard software programs, including Figma, Sketch, and Adobe XD. Expert design instructors guide students through hands-on design projects, including design principles, Sketch, Figma, user research, prototyping, and Adobe XD.

Project Management Skills

Project management training is required for aspiring Product Managers. Project management provides the business and management training one will need when managing products. Project management skills are highly sought after in the job market, with 22 million new project management jobs added by 2027. 

An excellent way for aspiring Product Managers to gain project management training is through bootcamps and other live online classes. Earning education hours from these courses can be applied to qualify to take the entry-level Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) certification exam. The Project Management Bootcamp offered by Noble Desktop provides students with comprehensive training in project management theory, practices, and methodologies using hands-on, real-world projects. Students learn how to manage a project through the “Project LifeCycle'' and using different methodologies, including Agile, Scrum, Kansan, and Extreme Programming (XP).

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

• Aspiring Product Managers must develop coding, design, and project management skills.
• Coding is essential because Product Managers should understand how products are developed and built.
• A Product Manager bridges the gap between developers and users through user-driven design training.
• Noble Desktop offers in-person and live online bootcamps in core product management skills.