About 2 years ago, I was in the middle of a Project Management sequence at UC Berkeley Extension when I got the news. My employer would no longer be sponsoring employee education. While I understood the rationale; we needed to run a tighter ship and offering tuition reimbursement was deemed a luxury the company could no longer afford. Fortunately for me, employees already enrolled in a program/course were eligible to complete them; the policy change would only affect requests to reimburse new programs and/or courses.
During one of my SVPMA meetings last year, a 5-day Product Management course was advertised for the UC Berkeley Center for Executive Education. It sounded great, except for the $6,000 price tag. If only I was still eligible for reimbursement. Alas, you can't catch every ship that sails; you can only try to catch the ones available to you.
I now have two Product Managers reporting to me, and I often wish that our reimbursement policy was still in place so that I could encourage them to enroll in local programs to further their education and professional development. Then I got to thinking; why don't I offer some courses?
Strike One: I'm not a professor. Strike Two: I'm not exactly a 20-year product management veteran with an MBA and a published book. However, just because the count is 0-2 doesn't mean I should sulk away from the plate believing that I can't put my bat on the ball. So last week I stepped up to the plate and delivered the first of what I hope will be many informal Product Management classes not only to my direct reports, but also to another PM on our team in addition to my boss, our CTO.
I'm taking input from various sources--books, the web, my professional experience, etc.--and merging it all together into a program that covers not only what we do and why we do it, but what Product Management means as a holistic, professional approach to business.
Just putting together my first set of notes and presentation materials was exhilarating. I hadn't done something like this for several years; when I last trained technical writers and QA staff on the fundamentals of user-oriented documentation and modular writing. And while my first session didn't end with my colleagues standing in ovation shouting "Oh Captain, My Captain!", it was truly rewarding to be able to provide what could not otherwise be afforded.
Access to great teachers, facilities, networks, and mentors is often difficult to come by. Although I make no such claims of being "great" in this capacity, I felt that I owed it to my team to step up and give it a shot. At a talk at Laney College in Oakland, Cornel West said that people ought to stop waiting for the messianic leader they are hoping will come and save the day and instead realize that "you are the leader you are waiting for". Thanks for the inspiration Cornel, and here's to what hopefully will be the start of something truly productive.
During one of my SVPMA meetings last year, a 5-day Product Management course was advertised for the UC Berkeley Center for Executive Education. It sounded great, except for the $6,000 price tag. If only I was still eligible for reimbursement. Alas, you can't catch every ship that sails; you can only try to catch the ones available to you.
I now have two Product Managers reporting to me, and I often wish that our reimbursement policy was still in place so that I could encourage them to enroll in local programs to further their education and professional development. Then I got to thinking; why don't I offer some courses?
Strike One: I'm not a professor. Strike Two: I'm not exactly a 20-year product management veteran with an MBA and a published book. However, just because the count is 0-2 doesn't mean I should sulk away from the plate believing that I can't put my bat on the ball. So last week I stepped up to the plate and delivered the first of what I hope will be many informal Product Management classes not only to my direct reports, but also to another PM on our team in addition to my boss, our CTO.
I'm taking input from various sources--books, the web, my professional experience, etc.--and merging it all together into a program that covers not only what we do and why we do it, but what Product Management means as a holistic, professional approach to business.
Just putting together my first set of notes and presentation materials was exhilarating. I hadn't done something like this for several years; when I last trained technical writers and QA staff on the fundamentals of user-oriented documentation and modular writing. And while my first session didn't end with my colleagues standing in ovation shouting "Oh Captain, My Captain!", it was truly rewarding to be able to provide what could not otherwise be afforded.
Access to great teachers, facilities, networks, and mentors is often difficult to come by. Although I make no such claims of being "great" in this capacity, I felt that I owed it to my team to step up and give it a shot. At a talk at Laney College in Oakland, Cornel West said that people ought to stop waiting for the messianic leader they are hoping will come and save the day and instead realize that "you are the leader you are waiting for". Thanks for the inspiration Cornel, and here's to what hopefully will be the start of something truly productive.
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