The Basics of Product Management: How to Think About Products

Whether you’re an entrepreneur looking to build a new product, a product manager looking to improve an existing product, or even a customer thinking about buying a product, it’s critical to be able to rationally assess a product.  Product thinking is a fundamental skill for all product development, and all product management interviews will ask a potential hire to use this thought process to improve an existing product or design a new product.

This class will introduce the basics of product thinking and go over examples of how to apply it to real-world scenarios.  No prior knowledge is required, and this is a basics class for potential product managers and first-time entrepreneurs.

A handout template is provided to help you apply product thinking.

• Introduction
• Understand the Product
• Identifying the Customer
• Define Success
• Define the Pain
• Pick Your Pain
• Brainstorm Solutions
• Prioritize and Pick a Solution
• Summarize Your Solution
• Conclusion