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10 Great Free Online Courses for Product Management

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The title of product manager is fairly new—only gaining steam over the past twenty years. But most experts agree this diverse role consists of overlap in three main areas: business, technology, and user experience. Several years ago, technology entrepreneur Ben Horowitz defined a product manager as “the CEO of the product”, and this is an excellent way of describing the job title. But in practical terms, product managers spend their days completing a wide array of tasks, making this an ideal position for those who enjoy challenge and variety.

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Disclaimer: Some courses may include an affiliate link. Courses were chosen first based on the methodology with affiliate links only added after the ranking was complete.

Because the role is so fluid, there is a never-ending learning curve in product management, which means that even seasoned PMs will benefit from ongoing education in the field. But those who are new to product management will also find plenty of opportunities to get their feet wet by participating in a variety of free online courses in product management. In this article, we present some excellent no-cost courses for those at all stages in their product management careers. 

Featured Programs

We’ve sorted the free online product management courses using a unique methodology we developed that lists the most helpful and robust courses first. However, there is something valuable to be gained from each of these offerings, whether you are looking for an introduction to product management or you want to improve upon your current PM skill set.  

At the end of this review for free product management courses online, we’ll take a closer look at what is expected of a great PM and answer some frequently asked questions about online product management courses. 

Ranking 10 Free Online Courses for Product Management

1. Digital Product Management 

Offered University of Virginia via Coursera

We chose the University of Virginia’s Digital Product Management course as the best free online course in product management for two reasons: It’s a five-month specialization that is one of the more ambitious courses we’ve come across. Plus, it’s designed with digital, rather than physical products in mind, which gets right to the heart of modern product management.

Because it’s a specialisation, the offering consists of a series of courses, including:

• Digital Product Management: Modern Fundamentals

• Agile Meets Design Thinking

• Hypothesis-Driven Development

• Agile Analytics

• Managing an Agile Team

Notably, each of these courses can also be taken individually for students who want to pick and choose which subject they want to learn most. The entire specialization can be completed in audit mode at no charge, which allows students to access all of the course material including lectures, readings, and exercises. Graded components of the class and certification are offered for a fee. Financial aid may be available.

Cost: Free

Certificate: Yes, with a fee

Time to Complete: Five months

Curriculum: Introductory to intermediate

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

• Well-designed interface

• Taught by Alex Cowan from the Darden School of business 

• Subtitled in English, Chinese, and Arabic

Cons:

•Certification and graded components are only available with a paid membership

2.  Product Management Fundamentals

Offered by University of Maryland via edX

During this four-week free online product management course hosted on edX, students will learn from Dr. James Green, the Director of Entrepreneurship Education at University of Maryland, College Park. While certification is optional for a fee, you can work through each of the lessons at no cost, making this one of the best choices on our list of free product management courses online. 

There are four modules in all, each taking between two to three hours each, so you won’t have a huge time commitment. But don’t let the brevity of the course fool you—it’s packed full of useful information. Topics include:

• The responsibilities and duties of the product manager, including an overview of the competencies and skills needed in the role.

•  How to manage innovative product teams through the whole product development life cycle.

•  An overview of various marketing challenges, common mistakes, marketing, and understanding your customers

•  Revisiting customer development and how market type affects strategy

•  Segmenting the market, solving customer problems, and expansion. 

This is an introductory course and part of a professional certification in product management, so it’s a great jumping off point for students who want to dig deeper into the subject. 

Cost: Free

Certificate: Yes, with a fee

Time to Complete: Four Weeks

Curriculum: Introductory 

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

• Terrific introduction to a broad subject

• Examines the most critical skills needed as a PM

• Over 11,000 students have enrolled

Cons:

• Only offered in English

3. Becoming a Product Manager

Offered by LinkedIn Learning

Many people with premium LinkedIn accounts are unaware that the social media site offers thousands of free online courses for their members. You may have been familiar with the platform—which was previously called Lynda—before it became LinkedIn Learning. Most courses even offer a shareable certificate or badge that students can add to their profiles to highlight their marketable skills. 

This free online course, Becoming a Product Manager, is just one of several offerings in PM that you will find on the site, and it’s well worth looking into. Students who complete the course will be equipped with an excellent overview of what it means to be a PM by exploring topics like:

• The title of a product manager

• Differences between project and product managers

• Various roles in product management

• Agile, lean, kanban, and scrum

• Customer development

• Wireframing

• Phases of the product life cycle

• How to monitor your competitors

• Designing and running experiments

• Working with designers, executives, and engineers

This is a great course to take if you like milestones, as there are 13 chapter quizzes for students to monitor their progress. You’ll receive a certificate of completion when you have finished, and you can access the course on your smartphone, tablet, or laptop. If you do not have a premium LinkedIn membership, you can sign up for a 30-day trial membership that should give you more than enough time to complete this (and several other) courses. However, if you don’t want to get charged, be sure to cancel before your free trial expires. 

Cost: Free Try a free trial for Linkedin Learning.

Certificate: Yes

Time to Complete: 11 hours

Curriculum: Introductory

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

• Download a completion certificate when you have finished

• Interactive with quizzes to test your progress

• Easy-to-navigate platform

 Cons:

• Need to cancel the membership after the trial to avoid being charged

4. Brand and Product Management

Offered by ie Business School via Coursera

With over 45 on-demand videos, 14 readings, and eight quizzes, this brand and product management course on Coursera is a well-rounded offering for students who want to learn how to effectively develop product and brand strategies. 

It’s taught by a professor of marketing at the ie Business School and has 1700 positive reviews. Students will learn about the architecture and management of brands and products as well as how to bring a strategy to life both in house with team members and externally with a target market.   

The online product management course can be taken for free in audit mode, which gives students access to all of the learning materials they need. However, those who want certification or graded projects and exams will need to upgrade (although it’s not a requirement). 

You can sign up with an email and start immediately. No credit card information is required, and the course can be taken at your own pace. 

Cost: Free

Certificate: Yes, with a fee

Time to Complete: 15 hours

Curriculum: Introductory 

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

• Subtitled in Chinese (Traditional), Vietnamese, Korean, English, and Mongolian

• 95 percent positive reviews

• Includes quizzes to help you assess your progress

Cons:

• Certification not offered at the audit level

5. Achieving Product-Market Fit

Offered by University of Maryland via edX

To be an effective product manager, it’s vital to understand who your target customer is, their underserved needs, and the features and user experience you can offer them with your product. That’s what this free product management course offers. It’s hosted on edX and taught by James Green, a faculty member at the University of Maryland in College Park. During the course you will learn how to:

•  Use market segmentation to learn about your target customer

•  Identify the needs of your customer and connect those needs to an opportunity for marketing your product

•  Identify underserved customer needs. 

•  Define your value proposition by focusing on the needs your product might address

•  Figure out your products MVP feature set and create a prototype

•  Apply UX design to the prototype and test it with real customers

•  Incorporate the Lean Product Process to revise your hypotheses based on the results of your testing

It takes about four weeks working two to three hours each week to complete this well-reviewed free product management course online. However, since it is self-paced, you can actually complete it in a much shorter amount of time if you choose. Auditing the class is free on the edX platform. If you want to obtain certification you will need to upgrade to the paid version. 

Cost: Free

Certificate: Yes, with a fee

Time to Complete: Four weeks

Curriculum: Introductory to Intermediate

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

• Practical and useful information that goes beyond theory

• Part of a professional certificate in product management

• Well organized into a seven-step formula that can be applied to any product

Cons:

• Certification not offered at the audit level

6. Product Design

Offered by Google on Udacity

If you’re considering moving into product management, Google’s product design course on Udacity is a unique course option. It’s designed to help you take an idea from your head to the design table so you can transform your product idea into a business. Taught by industry experts at Google, you will learn through a blend of theory and practical hands-on learning, the process of product validation, best UI/EX practices,  Google’s Design Sprint, and how to identify and measure important metrics.

There are four modules in all, and it is intended to be taken over a four month timeframe. Interactive quizzes, a student support community, and rich learning content make this a top choice for free online product management courses. 

Cost: Free

Certificate: No

Time to Complete: Four months

Curriculum: Intermediate

User Experience: Good

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

• Offered by Google

• Interactive and thorough

• Student support community is a plus

Cons:

• Certification not offered

7. Introduction to Software Product Management

Offered by University of Alberta via Coursera

For those who want to specialize in software product management, this is the top-rated choice when it comes to free online courses. Offered on Coursera by the University of Alberta, it’s a five-hour offering covering Agile software development as well as software project and product management. 

There are two modules. The first covers the role of software product managers, where students will hear from software industry representatives about the career path itself. The second module covers core values, philosophy, and principles of Agile software development. It also touches on the four foundational areas of software product management and how each plays a part in making better software. 

The free product management online course is for beginners, but can be challenging. It is taught by associate professor Kenny Wong and is part of a larger Software Product Management Specialization offered on the platform. Each course in the specialization can be audited for free, and if you wish to obtain certification you can sign up for the paid portion of the course. As always, this is optional on Coursera, and financial aid may be available. 

Cost: Free

Certificate: Yes, with a fee

Time to Complete: Varies

Curriculum: Introductory to Intermediate

User Experience: Good

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

• Flexible deadlines that work with your schedule

• Subtitled in English, Korean, and Spanish

• Easy to sign up and get started immediately

Cons:

• Certification is at the paid level only

8. Product Masterclass: How to Build your Product Career

Offered by Product School

Whether you’re just starting to explore a career in product management, or you’re a seasoned pro, this free course by Product School is a fantastic choice. We’re not sure how long it will run as a free offering (It’s normally $999), so get it while it’s hot!  The course is designed to help you land your dream job in product management and it combines five of Product School’s top product talks into one crash course.

The speakers are authors, experts and product managers who are working at top-tier companies. Each lesson in this free online course for product management is an hour long, and is designed for you to listen at your own pace. There are no hoops to jump through here, and no paywall. Just sign up using the email of your choice and you’re ready to begin. 

It’s worth having a look around Product School’s website for other resources as well. They run frequent promos on some of their other training courses, and they have daily online events, conferences and webinars on the schedule too.  

Cost: Free

Certificate: No

Time to Complete: Varies

Curriculum: Introductory 

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

• Easy-to-use platform with no commitments

• Offered by a community of experts in the PM field

• Engaging and inspiring lectures

Cons:

• Certification not offered

9. Strategic Social Media Marketing

Offered by Boston University via edX

Learn from the experts at BU about how product managers can and should leverage social media to inform their decision-making about their products and brands. The free online course covers all the major platforms; Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram. You’ll learn how to create engaging content for social media, find influencers to help you promote your product, and measure the success of your campaign.

Almost 100,000 students have enrolled in this excellent free PM course, which is taught by a Senior Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Marketing at Boston University. If you want to learn from the best about how to develop the best social media marketing strategy for your product launch, this course is not to be missed. Topics covered include:

• A strategic perspective on social media marketing

• Leveraging networks

• Creating engaging content 

• Social media listening and co-creation

• Assessing social media ROI

• The role of social media in the organization

It’s free to take the course in its entirety in audit mode on the edX learning platform. Students can pay a fee if they wish to obtain a certification. 

Cost: Free

Certificate: Yes, with fee

Time to Complete: Six weeks

Curriculum: Advanced

User Experience: Excellent

Quality of Instruction: Excellent

Pros:

• College level course at no charge

• Access from any browser, including mobile

• Part of a MicroMasters program

Cons:

• Undergraduate level marketing and statistics is a prerequisite

10. Becoming A More Strategic Product Manager

Offered via Highbrow

Highbrow prides itself on being the solution to bridging the knowledge gap between real textbook knowledge and the media. They strive to provide learners with an easy way to gain new knowledge in just a few minutes a day. While this free online product management course is not going to win any awards for being in-depth, it can be a great ancillary option to some of the other choices on our list, and it’s surprising how much information you can process in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee.

Becoming a More Strategic Product Manager is free and delivered to your inbox in bite-sized lessons daily for ten days. Just sign up with your email and wait for the knowledge to come to you. If you’re pressed for time but are curious about the role of product management, this course may be just right. 

Cost: Free

Certificate: No

Time to Complete: 10 days

Curriculum: Introductory 

User Experience: Good

Quality of Instruction: Good

Pros:

• Short and sweet

• Easy-to-digest lessons 

• Perfect for those who are crunched for time

Cons:

• Probably  too short and basic for advanced learners

Frequently Asked Questions About Free Online Product Management Courses

While the ultimate role of a product manager is to guide the success of a physical or digital product, the position is much more complex than than. In this section, we will take a more in-depth look at product management. 

What Does a Product Manager Do?

Product managers are leaders who help steer organizations into making decisions about the products they offer, so they first work on developing a deep understanding of those products and how they impact the target audience. They spend a lot of time analyzing the competition and market conditions to find out what customers want, and then providing a vision of the products that will meet those needs. 

Before a product is even created, a PM has to define the who, what, when, and why of the product and then lead a team in the effort to design and create it from conception to launch. But often, they wear other hats, too. They may be responsible for promoting and marketing the product, managing the sales aspects, and even working with logistics to ensure product delivery.

Not every product manager will wear all these hats. In larger organizations, they may be part of a team that works together to meet these goals. But no matter the size of the business, they are always in a leadership capacity. For this reason, it’s vital that product managers develop certain skills to be effective.

Skills Needed To Be a Good Product Manager

On the topic of the necessary skills for product managers to have, it’s easy to get a bit overwhelmed. Since PM’s have such a varied role within an organization, it would seem like they need to know a bit about everything to get along well in the position. This is only partially true. More important than starting with a full set of skills is the ability to learn quickly and acquire expertise with ease as it is needed. So, even though PM is a leadership role, adaptability and teachability is one of the secret keys to success in the field.

Beyond the capacity to learn and adapt, some other important competencies include:

• Leadership 

• Analytical abilities

• Time management

• Communication

• Computer, technical and software skills

• Marketing and business knowledge

• Multitasking and a strong ability to prioritize

• Detail-oriented

• Able to handle constructive criticism

What Type of Education Do You Need To Be a Product Manager?

Typically, to apply for a position in product management, you will want a bachelor’s degree in business or a related field of study such as  marketing, economics, management, advertising, communications, or public relations. However,  it’s worth pointing out that a combination of any bachelor’s and the right skillset can land you a job as a product manager under the right circumstances. For example, a degree in agriculture may be preferable if the product is farm equipment, or technology majors might find their niche in software product management. 

I Have My Bachelor’s Degree, but How Can I Break Into Product Management? 

If you have your sights set on a career as a PM, the best thing to do is start by gaining a strong understanding of the role by taking some free online courses in product management. Understanding the position theoretically can help you determine if it’s the right path for you. 

You can also take paid online courses that offer certificates in product management. Although a specific certification is not required to become a product manager, every bit of experience you can gain is a help. You can also try to obtain an internship, which will give you the opportunity to hone your skills. 

Who Should Take Free Product Management Courses?

Anybody who is interested in a career in product management can take free online courses, but those already in the role as a PM can benefit greatly from them as well. Whether you are looking to land your first job, get a promotion, or increase your overall value as a team member at your organization, free courses are the way to go. You can try them out with no financial risk, and most are short enough that the time invested is minimal.

What Are the Requirements and Prerequisites?

While there are generally no restrictions to take a free course in product management, you will want to check the details for each class listed as some are more technology intensive than others. 

How Long Do Free Online Courses Take?

The majority of the courses on our list are self-paced, so time for completion will vary. Nearly all of the courses on our lists can be started immediately upon registration, and in some cases you don’t even need to register at all. 

While some of the offerings have suggested time frames, you can almost always speed up or slow down the process depending upon your previous commitments and personal schedule. The exception to this is where a course clearly states that it starts on a specific date.

Remote learning is all about flexibility, and it’s one of the things students love about this type of educational opportunity. Since you can go at your own pace, there is plenty of room to fit coursework in between your job, family life, and other activities.  

 

What Is the Average Salary of a Product Manager?

According to Payscale, product managers make between $55,000 and $122,000 annually, with some senior level or software product managers making up to $200,000 yearly. Naturally, this figure varies depending upon location.  

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