30: Do Product Managers Need an MBA?

01/05/22 • 59 min

How To Succeed In Product Management | Jeffrey Shulman, Red Russak & Soumeya Benghanem

In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board member Red Russak welcome Kelcey Joyce (Bright Health) to talk about PMs having an MBA. Is it a necessary credential for all aspiring and existing PMs? Will it matter if you have one? Listen in to find out if pursuing advanced education is a must!

Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.

What to Listen For:

00:00 Intro
00:57 Do I need an MBA?
08:26 People with technical background may not need an MBA
10:01 How does having an MBA help?
12:39 Diversity for people pursuing an MBA
15:05 Juggling priorities between work and pursuing advanced education
19:27 Understand what other players are within your industry
25:29 Moving things through in a heavily regulated industry
31:00 What is the role of a product manager?
36:51 Help customers find the products that will solve their problems
41:54 It’s about presenting the product and giving value to it
47:23 Find a good resume matching tool
51:39 An MBA can help accelerate your career shift, but not a requirement
53:02 It depends on your end goal

What to Listen For:

00:00 Intro
00:57 Do I need an MBA?
08:26 People with technical background may not need an MBA
10:01 How does having an MBA help?
12:39 Diversity for people pursuing an MBA
15:05 Juggling priorities between work and pursuing advanced education
19:27 Understand what other players are within your industry
25:29 Moving things through in a heavily regulated industry
31:00 What is the role of a product manager?
36:51 Help customers find the products that will solve their problems
41:54 It’s about presenting the product and giving value to it
47:23 Find a good resume matching tool
51:39 An MBA can help accelerate your career shift, but not a requirement
53:02 It depends on your end goal

Previous Episode

Best of 2021 - Transferrable Skills and Mastering Product Execution

In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board members Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem welcome Diego Granados (Microsoft), Welly Lee (Microsoft), and Shyvee Shi (LinkedIn) to talk about the value of transferable skills and experiences. It’s never about building from scratch, it’s all about the journey that helps build your skills as a PM and the experiences you can bring with you wherever you go and whenever you work on a new product.

What to Listen For:

00:00 Intro
01:35 Some PMs aren’t aware of the multitude of experiences and skills necessary in other roles
13:15 The most valuable transferable experiences or job roles
19:27 Create a compelling argument why an undervalued area can work
23:52 What aspiring PMs should have: transferable skills & complete understanding of product management
27:21 Product management is about managing risks
32:41 The PM role is a practice of balancing tension
35:16 You cannot be a good product manager if you don't like people
44:51 Resources to look into to learn product management
48:49 Start by doing the baseline, understand the gaps, then create a plan
52:49 At the beginning, you have to be good at execution
57:51 PMs a lot of time wear multiple hats
58:47 Important career pivoters
01:00:34 No single recipe is going to work for everyone
01:02:49 It’s the journey to learn new things

Next Episode

31: Why Customer Centric Vision is Essential in Product Management

In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board members Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem welcome Sagar Kulkarni (Microsoft) to talk about creating a customer centric vision within any organization. Whether there is misalignment in vision between teams within the same organization or working in opposing workflows, what matters the most is that the product vision aligns with the customer needs.

What to Listen For:

00:00 Intro
01:29 Creating a customer centric vision
06:59 What does vision stand for in product management?
11:43 The core of user-centered visions
18:02 Customer feedback is a big indicator of your success
22:54 Focus on vision around strategic prioritization
32:07 The mindset you should have to meet customer requirements
41:50 Bridging through misaligned vision but completely aligned with customer needs
49:15 Is it possible to keep the same domain and break into product management?
50:26 Customer centricity is sometimes taken for granted