Product Management line, station 11 of 11Leadership line, station 3 of 4
Communication & Leadership
Write memos that get a decision in one meeting, present answer-first to a managing director, lead people who don't report to you, prepare for PM interviews and grow as a PM or product leader.
- 5lessons
- 3 hto read and do
- Advancedlevel
- 5podcast episodes
Tools you'll use in this course
The lessons open these with a template ready. They work for your own job too, no course needed.
About this course
Most of a product manager's influence travels through documents, meetings and conversations with people who don't report to them. This course teaches the methods strong PMs use when the decision belongs to someone else: decision memos and one-pagers with the ask in the first line, one-way and two-way doors, pre-mortems, answer-first presentations built on situation, complication and resolution, executive updates that bring bad news early, and the rhythm for handling tough questions from a managing director.
You will then work on the people around a decision: stakeholder maps with stance and influence lines, negotiating through interests instead of positions, managing up, DACI so every decision has one approver, disagree and commit, and product reviews that end in decisions. The last two lessons look at your own career: a full PM interview kit with worked answers for product sense, metric drops, estimation, strategy, behavioural and AI questions, and a guide to your first 90 days, career ladders, coaching other PMs and moving teams from feature lists to outcomes.
The lessons follow one bet at Mangrove Market, a fictional grocery chain: counting the 300 fastest-moving items every day in 320 stores to cut missing items in 'Now' delivery orders, from the decision memo and the 20-minute meeting with the managing director to the negotiation with the head of store operations who opposed it. Every lesson has a podcast episode, filled-in templates you can copy, practice tasks with model answers and flashcards. This is the final course of the Product Manager path, and it ends with a capstone pitch and a free certificate.
What you will be able to do
- Write one-pagers and decision memos that put the ask first, judge every option on the same criteria and get a decision in one meeting
- Match the process to how reversible a decision is, turn one-way doors into two-way doors, and run a pre-mortem that changes the plan
- Present a business case answer-first to a managing director, with sales and margin, a low case and gates, and handle tough questions in one sentence with one fact
- Map stakeholders by stance, interests and influence, negotiate trade-offs through interests, and run decisions with DACI and disagree and commit
- Prepare for PM interviews across product sense, execution and metrics, estimation, strategy, behavioural and AI questions with a six-week practice plan
- Plan your first 90 days, read a career ladder, coach other PMs and move a team from feature lists to outcomes
Syllabus
5 stops, about 3 h in total. Each stop fills in when you complete the lesson.
Writing for decisions
Most of a PM's influence travels in documents. This lesson shows you how to write the one-pagers and decision memos that get a clear yes or no from a busy leader in one meeting, how to match the effort to how reversible the decision is, and how to find the ways a plan will fail before you commit to it.
Decision memosOne-pagersPre-mortemsOne-way and two-way doors
Executive updates and presentations
Senior leaders give you a few minutes and a lot of questions. This lesson shows you how to lead with the answer, frame a proposal as situation, complication and resolution, write updates that bring bad news early, present a business case to a managing director in 20 minutes, and handle the tough questions calmly.
Answer-first communicationExecutive presentationsBusiness casesHandling tough questions
Stakeholders, negotiation and leading without authority
A product manager needs many people to act and manages almost none of them. This lesson shows you how to map who matters and whom they listen to, negotiate trade-offs through interests instead of positions, manage up, make every decision with one clear approver, commit to decisions you argued against, and run product reviews that end in decisions.
Stakeholder managementNegotiationManaging upDACIProduct reviews
Breaking into product: PM interviews
PM interviews test how you think, out loud, under time pressure. This lesson takes each common question type (product sense, execution and metrics, estimation, strategy, behavioural and AI products), shows a structure and a worked answer for each, and ends with a six-week practice plan you can start today.
PM interviewsProduct senseMetric diagnosisEstimationBehavioural stories
Growing as a PM
The last lesson of the track is about the long game: starting a new PM role well, reading a career ladder, coaching other PMs, building a small product team, and moving a team from building lists of features to owning outcomes. It ends with what to do next with everything you have learned.
First 90 daysCareer laddersCoaching PMsBuilding product teamsEmpowered teams
Capstone: Twenty minutes with the managing director
A realistic project with a rubric and a model answer.
Final exam and certificate
10 questions drawn at random, 70% to pass.
Capstone project
Twenty minutes with the managing director
You have 20 minutes with Mangrove Market's managing director to win funding for one bet from your earlier capstones, such as expiry dates at receiving, the cycle-count module, Mangrove Plus or the AI assistant for store managers. The head of store operations opposes the bet, finance has not yet seen your numbers, and the festival season starts in two months. Write a two-page decision memo with the ask in the first lines, a pre-mortem and a clear statement of which parts are one-way and which are two-way doors. Build a five-slide, answer-first deck with action titles. Map the stakeholders and plan how you will work with the head of store operations through her interests. Prepare and rehearse answers to the five toughest questions the managing director is likely to ask. Close with a 90-day plan for the PM who will own the work after approval.
You will hand in
- A two-page decision memo: question title, the ask, recommendation, options on the same criteria, pre-mortem, door types, gates and a review date
- A five-slide answer-first deck whose titles alone tell the story, plus an appendix list
- A stakeholder plan: map with stance, interests, measures and influence lines, the interests worksheet for the head of store operations, and a DACI for the main decision
- A question bank with the five toughest questions, a one-sentence answer and the evidence for each, rehearsed aloud
- A 90-day plan for the owning PM: listening tour, early win and what they will own by day 90
Check what you know
Already know some of this? Answer 5 quick questions, one from each lesson, and we will mark the lessons you can skim. It takes about 3 minutes and nothing is graded.
Questions
Do I need to finish the earlier product courses first?
Product Thinking Foundations and Strategy, Priorities & Roadmaps are recommended, because this course assumes you can state a problem, set outcome goals and build a roadmap. The capstone asks you to pitch a bet from an earlier capstone, but a real decision from your own work is just as good.
I present to a managing director at work. Which lessons should I read first?
Start with Writing for decisions and Executive updates and presentations. Together they give you a decision-memo template, a one-pager, a five-slide answer-first deck outline, a money slide with low, base and high cases, a question bank and a weekly update format, all filled in for one worked example.
I'm not a PM yet. Is this course useful for me?
Yes. Breaking into product is written for engineers, analysts, operations people and graduates preparing for PM interviews, with worked answers and a six-week practice plan. The writing and stakeholder lessons help in any role where you need decisions from people you don't manage.
Does the interview lesson describe a specific company's process?
No. Processes differ between companies and change often, so the lesson covers the question types most PM interviews use and how they are usually scored. Always read the guidance of the company you are applying to.
What happens when I finish this course?
Pass the final exam to earn the course certificate. This is the last course of the Product Manager path, so once you hold every course certificate in the path you can claim the path certificate. The last lesson ends with suggestions for turning your capstones into a portfolio.
Is it really free?
Yes. Every lesson, podcast episode, exercise, quiz, final exam and certificate is free. The labs and their templates for real work are free too. Plus and Premium add every lab challenge, weekly extras and a mentor on top, and they never lock the tools or the courses.
How long does it take?
Each lesson shows an honest time for reading and doing. Most people finish a course in two to four weeks at three or four hours a week.