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Short rant about PM upskilling

"
I recently got hired as a PO at a new firm and I'm currently unable to justify the costs for courses on Maven or Reforge. No doubt some of those courses are valuable and taught by well known expert PMs of our industry. However I feel 700 - 900$ courses are still too expensive given in this economy.

I wanted to ask y'all about your opinion on spending the equivalent amount on

- Books
- LI courses
- Udemy courses

I love reading personally and my employer funds the LI premium and Udemy subscription. What do y'all feel about that? Can I gather same knowledge via books as reforge or maven courses? I know my questions is too broad and it would highly depend but maybe what I'm asking is would you keep chasing new courses or look out for good books on product management/leadership/business management and so on..

Our response

Author: Joe Tannorella
Rocket Role Team
I literally built https://www.rocketrole.io/ for precisely this reason.

In addition to the costs of the expensive courses, I always found myself not actually implementing most of the stuff… especially just a few weeks after.

Rocket Role lives in Slack and is built specifically to coach and mentor product managers.

We’ve just implemented a pretty great new feature which has been likened by some of our users to being Duolingo for product managers. If you have few mins spare you can do a quick upskilling lesson either at random or on a chosen topic.

For example you could role play a user discovery interview, learn to write better user stories, create a vision statement, etc. All personalised to you powered by the prior knowledge it already knows about you from past conversations.

It’s super cost-effective still right now as we’re growing our user base to nail product/market fit. Would be happy to extend your trial if you’d like to give it a go, as I’d love your feedback.

Good luck either way! :-)

We also asked some experts...

Advice from thousands of podcasts episodes, including:
Here's what they had to say:

📚 Immerse Yourself in Learning
Casey Winters suggests that PMs should learn quickly and try things. It's okay to learn a bunch of frameworks, but the job is to figure out how to add value to customers that translates into value to the business. You can gain this knowledge from various sources, including books, LinkedIn courses, and Udemy courses. The key is to focus on learning and applying, not just following processes or frameworks.

Try this: Diversify your learning sources and focus on applying the knowledge gained.
Source: Thinking Beyond Frameworks: Casey Winters – Lenny's podcast

🎓 Understand the Skills and Systems
Adam Grenier emphasizes that understanding the skills and systems of product management can make you think differently about how to run your team. This understanding can come from various sources, including books, LinkedIn, and Udemy courses. The important thing is to learn and adapt.

Try this: Learn the skills and systems of product management from various sources and apply them in your role.
Source: When and How to Invest in New Acquisition Channels: Adam Grenier – Lenny's podcast

🧠 Embrace Creativity and Exploration
Gagan Biyani advises immersing yourself in an industry and studying startups. He also emphasizes the importance of free time for creativity. You can get these insights from books, online courses, and podcasts. The goal is to generate new ideas and be successful as a creative.

Try this: Immerse yourself in your industry, study startups, and make time for creativity.
Source: Gagan Biyani on Building Startups – First Round Review Podcast

Closing Summary

In conclusion, while expensive courses can provide valuable insights, you can also gain similar knowledge from books, LinkedIn and Udemy courses. The key is to focus on learning, applying the knowledge, and fostering creativity.

All "ask an expert content" does not represent the views of any expert or individual. All provided links are not affiliated or operated by Rocket Role.

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