Mastering Product
Strategy Course NEW

Yes — and especially so. Most senior PMs have developed strategy instincts through experience, but instincts without a structured framework are hard to communicate, teach, or repeat. Many of our senior PM students have said they came away with tools and frameworks that bridged the gaps they didn't even know they had. Mastering Product Strategy gives you a repeatable process — the Product Kata applied at the leadership level — so you can create, communicate, and maintain strategy in any context, not just the one you happen to know well.

Yes. The frameworks in this course apply directly to AI products — and in many ways are more important for AI product leaders than anyone else. When the technology can build almost anything, the question of what to build and why becomes the defining challenge. Without a structured strategy process, AI teams are especially prone to building impressive things that don't move the business forward. The course covers how to analyze your current state, set a clear product vision, define strategic initiatives, and communicate direction to executives and engineering — all of which are critical for leading AI products effectively. The fundamentals of good product strategy don't change with the technology stack.

Mastering Product Strategy is an online, self-paced course for senior PMs, Directors, and VPs who need to set product strategy — not just execute it. It covers the full strategy process across 7 units, from analyzing your current state through to communicating strategy to executives and building roadmaps that reflect strategic intent. The course is built on the Product Kata framework from Escaping the Build Trap, applied at the leadership level.

The course is designed for senior PMs ready to move beyond execution into strategy, Directors and VPs accountable for product direction, CPOs stepping into a new organization or leading a strategy reset, and product leaders who have the experience but have never had a structured framework for strategy. Enterprise teams also use it to develop product leadership capability across the organization. If you're new to product management, PM Foundations is the right starting point.

The course is designed for busy working leaders. Lessons are around 10 minutes each — easy to fit in between meetings or during a commute. Most students work through the course over 10–12 weeks alongside their full-time role. 12 months' access means there's no pressure to rush, and students can revisit any lesson, framework, or case study any time.

PM Foundations is great for early-career and experienced individual contributor PMs, covering the complete PM workflow: discovery, prioritization, roadmaps, and stakeholder management. Mastering Product Strategy is for senior PMs, Directors, and VPs who need to operate at the strategic layer: setting product vision, translating company goals into product direction, and communicating strategy up to executives and down to teams.

The course is built around the Product Kata framework applied to strategy, and introduces the Strategy Memo, the Product Strategy Canvas, and roadmap frameworks designed around strategic intent rather than feature lists. You'll also work with tools for current state analysis, market and customer segmentation, and executive communication — applied throughout two real-world case studies: Pencil and StoreFlow.

That's exactly the right question to ask. The honest answer is: it depends on what the missing middle is costing you. If your team is executing well but no one can articulate the strategy, if priorities shift every quarter, or if you're spending time re-explaining direction instead of setting it — then the cost of not having a repeatable framework is already significant. Most students complete one unit per week alongside their full-time role. The frameworks are designed to be applied immediately, so many leaders start using them in their real work before the course is finished. A clear, communicable strategy is also a force multiplier — when your team has a shared direction, every decision, every roadmap, and every conversation with stakeholders becomes faster and more aligned. The question isn't really whether 10 weeks is worth it — it's whether another year without a structured approach is.

Yes — the course is designed specifically for working product leaders. There are no fixed schedules or live sessions for the self-paced track. Units are broken into structured lessons you can fit around meetings and travel. Lessons are around 10 minutes each — easy to fit in between meetings or during a commute.

Yes. For organizations developing six or more product leaders, there is an optional Live Strategy Lab add-on. The cohort runs over 12 weeks with one 1-hour live coaching session per week, scheduled around your team's availability. Between sessions, students work through the course materials asynchronously. In each live session, they apply the frameworks directly to your organization's real products, context, and priorities, with expert coaching and peer feedback from the cohort. Every session produces a tangible output, and by the end students leave with a complete strategy memo and a narrative ready to communicate to executives and stakeholders. Talk to our team about deploying the course for your organization.

The Live Strategy Lab is an optional coaching add-on for teams of six or more product leaders taking Mastering Product Strategy together. As well as working through the course, students apply the frameworks directly to your organization's actual products, context, and priorities — with expert coaching throughout. The output is a working strategy document. Sessions are scheduled around your team's availability.

Yes. Students who complete Mastering Product Strategy receive a shareable product strategy certificate issued by Product Institute and signed by Melissa Perri — a recognized product management thought leader and author of Escaping the Build Trap. The certificate can be added directly to your LinkedIn profile, making it easy to demonstrate your product strategy credentials to employers, peers, and stakeholders.

The course was created by Melissa Perri, Founder of Product Institute and author of Escaping the Build Trap (O'Reilly Media). Melissa has taught Product Management at Harvard Business School and advised Fortune 500 product organizations worldwide. The frameworks throughout are drawn directly from her book, her teaching, and her strategic advisory work. 5,232 product leaders have taken Mastering Product Strategy.