What certifications do product manager do?

NONE Actually. There are 2 types of product managers – the ones who look for such product management certifications and then there are ones who actually go ahead and build great products. Take a look at some of the most successful product managers globally – they aren’t really the ones who chased certifications (most never had any certifications). They just focused on building products for their customers.

A lot of *product management certificate sellers* are snake-oil-salesmen. They allure you with job opportunities etc – but hardly focus on ensuring you learn product management from first principle thinking.

Product management certification might work for freshers but even there, be assured that no (new age) company/startup ever hires a PM based on certifications. Never. EVER. The basic premise of this ‘product management certification’ confusion is that one wants to enter the product management domain and the hope is that a certification will help. Right? But, that’s not the case at all. Companies look for skills you bring to the table, your curiosity, ability to think products, solve for customers etc. I’d strongly suggest not to chase certifications – instead, chase learning from first-principle thinking and implement those in your org (or a hack project) – that’ll give you a lot more confidence and credibility! This has been our approach at NextBigWhat’s product management course (yeah, we do give you a certificate but we ensure your ‘curious self’ is awakened and you actually implement what you learn at product-management bootcamp programs).