Interested in earning a product management certification?
A certified product manager must be able to develop a unique product vision and product strategy that also provides value to customers.
But how do they know how to do this?
Becoming an agile certified product manager is one of the best ways to gain the knowledge and skills needed to guide your project towards success and help you build a solid foundation.
And luckily, getting certified as a product manager is a pretty straightforward process, and certified product managers are always in demand!
To become a certified product manager, all you need to do is register for a digital product manager certification exam that you’re eligible for and pass it.
But with so many product management certifications to choose from, how do you know which product management certification program is the best for you?
Don’t worry.
In this article, you’ll learn what local and international product marketing and product management certification programs are and why you need one. We’ll also highlight five key certifications you can earn and how you can use your certificate to become an efficient product management professional in 2021.
This Article Contains:
So, come on down, future product managers, let’s get you certified!
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat is a Product Management Certification?
A product management certification is an official confirmation that an individual has the skills, knowledge, and abilities to manage the product development process successfully.
These product management training programs teach you essential management elements like product marketing fundamentals, devising a product strategy, and Agile product development insights.
These product management skills come in handy when you need to brainstorm with your product team and develop a new strategy to take your project to the next level.
Bonus: Learn how product managers can use AI tools!
Summarize this article for me please3 Reasons Why You Need Product Management Certifications
So, you’re probably wondering why you need certifications for product management.
Well, apart from helping you develop your skills and broadening your knowledge for product management career growth, here are some other reasons why you need to hop on the product management certification program train now.
1. A product management certification helps you stand out
As an employee with product management certification certified employee, other team members and departments may view you and your opinions with a little more credibility. This can help with getting stakeholder buy-in from senior level product managers, company owners, and team members alike.
In addition to standing out from your teammates, you’ll also stand out on resumes when you’re applying for a new job or trying to earn a promotion!
2. You become more effective at core tasks
During certification courses, you learn about things in context.
What do we mean?
Product management certifications broaden your understanding of your role and introduce you to real-world strategies used by experts.
These on-demand courses will help you hone useful core skills like time management skills, roadmap planning, and product strategy planning.
And the best part is, with a product management certificate program, you’ll learn these things over a shorter period of time.
We’re serious; some courses can be completed in as little as a week.
That’s the same amount of time it takes people to break their new year’s resolutions!
Bonus: No-code tools for product managers
3. Boosts your confidence as a certified product manager
When you complete a certification course, it highlights how you’re capable of understanding the job from a practical perspective and an academic point of view.
And since you know the ins and outs of your role, you’ll feel more confident and prepared to get things done the right way as a certified product manager.
Also, some training courses also teach you how to handle difficult situations and manage cross-functional teams effectively.
So the next time you’re facing a risky situation or dealing with a difficult team member:
Need a little help managing your remote team? Check out our guide to virtual teams and how you can manage them.
Summarize this article for me pleaseThe Top 5 Product Management Certifications
Here are the five best product management certifications that you can earn today:
1. Certified Product Marketing Manager – A Product Management Career
The Certified Product Marketing Manager is an AIPMM certification that helps you understand core product marketing functions.
It also guides product managers in ensuring the success of a product in the marketplace.
Offered by
AIPMM
What domains does the exam cover?
- The strategic and tactical marketing functions present throughout the product lifecycle
- How to create and execute a marketing plan
- How to manage the creation of marketing deliverables
- How to create marketing campaigns that drive customer acquisition and revenue
- Custom feiolmi fjried
What are its prerequisites?
Anyone can take this certification exam, but it’s recommended for product managers and marketers with 3+ years of experience (or an MBA)
Course duration
- 15–20 hours
Pricing
- $125 for one-year AIPMM Membership
- $395 for self-study
2. Agile Certified Product Manager And Product Owner
The Agile Certified Product Manager and Product Owner course introduce you to the strategic and tactical concepts involved in Agile product management certifications programs and product ownership training.
Credential holders will be able to apply the concepts of the Agile methodology to real-world situations and deal with project setbacks seamlessly. Having an agile product management certification paired with experience and user research is a powerful thing! You’ll learn how to target customers, be able to provide in person training for team members, and will have a comprehensive understanding of the entire product lifecycle.
Offered by
AIPMM
What domains does the exam cover?
- Writing business plans for each major function
- Market planning
- Conducting competitive analysis
- Project planning for each major activity throughout the product lifecycle
- Developing product launch plans
What are its prerequisites?
Anyone can take the certification course, even existing product managers operating without certifications, but it’s recommended for a certified product manager, as well as marketers with 3+ years of experience (or an MBA).
Course duration
- 15–20 hours
Pricing
- $125 for one-year AIPMM Membership
- $395 self-study
3. Software Product Management
The Software Product Management course prepares you for the challenges you’ll face as a software product manager.
It’s an excellent software product management course considering that 60% of the holders of this certification started a new career, and 27% earned a promotion or pay increase.
Offered by
The University of Alberta (Coursera)
What domains does the exam cover?
- Introduction to software product management
- Software processes and Agile practices
- Client needs and software requirements
- Agile planning for software products
- Agile product development
What are its prerequisites?
This certification program has no prerequisites.
Course duration
- 24 weeks
Pricing
- You’ll have to contact them for pricing details, but financial aid is available.
Grow your product management knowledge with our product management glossary! 😊
4. Digital Product Management
The MicroMasters Program in Digital Product Management provides credential holders with knowledge on digital product roadmaps and techniques for Agile product development.
It’s pretty much all you need if you’re aspiring to be an award-winning boss of a digital product company.
Offered by
EdX and Boston University
What domains does the exam cover?
- Building product roadmaps
- Agile product management practices for software and digital products
- Guiding the development of products from inception through essential processes (research, rapid prototyping, and more)
- Social media marketing
What are its prerequisites?
This CPM certification has no prerequisites.
Course duration
- 4–7 hours per week for eight months
Pricing
- $1,995 for the full program experience
5. One Week Technical Product Manager
The One Week Technical Product Manager was designed by Dhaval Bhatt, an award-winning technical product manager.
The program is suitable for aspiring technical product managers or people who want to learn critical technical skills. The course also teaches you how to answer any technical product manager interview questions.
Offered by
Product Manager HQ
What domains does the exam cover?
- The technical skills you need to set up your projects
- How to secure your product and user data privacy
- System design framework and case studies
- Platform product management
What are its prerequisites?
This program has no prerequisites.
Course duration
- One week
Pricing
- $297 for over 140 lectures compiled in 6 hours worth of content
Bonus: Check out our top 10 recommended technical writing tools.
Summarize this article for me pleaseProduct Management Certification FAQs
How useful is a product management certification?
Although a product management certification isn’t required to have a successful product management career, it is recommended that product managers attain one. According to a Pragmatic Marketing Inc. survey, 71% of surveyed product managers hold at least one professional certification in addition to their degree.
How long does it take to get a product management certification?
The length of time it takes to get a product management certification varies depending on the certification. This can range from a few hours to months!
Summarize this article for me pleaseHow to Use Your Product Management Certification
It’s one thing to get that product management certificate, but it’s another to put your product management training to good use.
So how do you do this?
By using a powerful product management tool like ClickUp!
With ClickUp, you can easily implement your product management skills at work.
Here’s how ClickUp can help:
Here are a few ways ClickUp can help you own your role as an effective product leader:
1. Mind maps
As a product manager, coming up with fantastic products is a major step towards success.
Luckily, ClickUp has built-in Mind Maps to help you come up with ‘mindblowing’ ideas!
You can use ClickUp Mind Maps for design thinking, devising a new product strategy, or planning upcoming launches.
Use the Tasks mode to create Mind Maps out of your existing Tasks in your Workspace. You can also create, edit, and delete tasks (and subtasks) right from your view!
Want to create a Mind Map from scratch?
Opt for the Blank mode.
You can then create a custom Mind Map and convert the nodes into Tasks for your product when you’re ready.
You can also share your Mind Map via Public Sharing to keep your product team and clients in the loop.
2. Timeline view
Use the Timeline view to plan your work overtime and manage your resources.
The Timeline view is perfect for creating a detailed, internal product roadmap that your developers and other product managers can follow to build a new product with an actual product strategy backing it.
It even lets you assign tasks to each team member and adjust their schedule with a quick drag-and-drop.
Here’s our ultimate guide to roadmapping for getting you on the path to product success.
3. Tasks
It requires a ton of tasks to get a product from its development stage to the final launch.
That’s why ClickUp lets you create and assign tasks and manage task Relationships all within the app.
Task relationships allow you to link tasks across your entire Workspace. You can loosely link related tasks for quick reference or use them to highlight important items for you and your team.
Try out the Relationships feature for tasks that rely on another task before it can get started.
Additionally, say goodbye to the dreadful “I forgot about that task!” with ClickUp Reminders 👋.
Reminders inform you when you should be starting a task or opt to be reminded five minutes or up to three days before your task is due.
But that’s not all!
You can also include attachments to the Reminder, schedule the Reminder, and customize the Reminder notification.
4. Custom Statuses
Use Custom Statuses to manage every phase of the entire product life cycle.
With ClickUp, you can create Custom Statuses for:
- Design
- Development
- Testing
- Marketing
- Brand strategy
- Brand management
It’s all up to you!
5. Form view
Want to know what your customer needs?
Simply use ClickUp’s Form view!
The Form view lets you collect and analyze info submitted by customers. For example, you can gather feedback from customers who’ve tried out your minimum viable product.
You can also add tons of Custom Fields to your forms and turn form responses into tasks when you’re ready.
6. Milestones and Gantt view
Milestones indicate the end of a large set of tasks, like releasing a new feature for your product. It’s a great way to keep track of big accomplishments to motivate your team!
In ClickUp’s Gantt view, Milestones are represented as giant yellow diamonds 💎 to help you quickly identify them in seconds.
The Gantt view also lets you track product progress over time, helping you monitor your project over weeks, months, and even hours!
7. Goals
No product manager wants their teams to feel like this:
With Goals, you can make sure that every team member knows what they need to do while also keeping track of your team’s progress.
First, set your Goal in ClickUp and then break it down into smaller, measurable Targets.
So if your Goal as a product manager is to increase daily engagement with your product, your targets could be measured as:
- Number: number of website clicks per day
- True/False: whether the monthly engagement Target is achieved or not
- Currency: revenue generated from subscribers
- Tasks: interview 35 customers or users for feedback
Once your Targets and Goals are both ready to go, you can track your goal progress in ClickUp!
But that’s not all that this amazing goalkeeper can do 🥅.
Here’s more on how your team can use ClickUp to set Goals
But there’s even more!
We know that as a product manager, you can never have enough functionality.
That’s why you get other amazing features like:
- 50+ task Automations: automate your project management processes
- Docs: collaborate on and edit projects with team members in real-time
- Assigned Comments: assign comments to team members to ensure nothing gets left behind
- Chat view: have work-related or casual conversations with team members alongside your work
- Notepad: a personal notepad to quickly jot down ideas or lists
- Global Time Tracker: track how long teams take to complete tasks and projects
- Priorities: assign task priorities so that your team knows what tasks to tackle first
- Templates: use ready-made templates for consistency and to stay ahead with projects
- Mobile Apps: manage projects like a pro when you’re on the go
Related Articles:
- Project Management Certifications
- Design Certifications
- CRM Certifications
- Construction Certifications
- Marketing Certifications
- Agile Project Management Certifications
Summarize this article for me pleaseTime to get Certified ✅
A product management certification adds value both to your job performance and your resume for future job openings. The knowledge and skills you learn from these courses can help you transform into a great product manager.
All you need to do is go through the five courses we’ve listed here to find the certification that aligns with your career path.
But remember, without the right product management tool, even a product manager with experience can’t use their training to its maximum capacity.
With features ranging from Agile Dashboards to advanced Team Reporting, ClickUp has everything you need to put your training to good use.
Get ClickUp for free today so you can feel like this as a certified product manager:
Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.
