I graduated from the international MBA program of AUEB in 2014, under a scholarship I got from a startup competition. It was an interesting and useful program for someone that tried to build a company, and I have been using many learnings since then, especially during the different scaling phases of ORFIUM.
What PMs gain with an MBA
In practice, every MBA and business program will stay behind in the latest developments; there are so many frameworks and concepts that can’t be taught within some weeks, and many theories also need validation before they become part of the curriculum. So, why should a Product Manager want to join an MBA?
The most useful courses for me were:
Marketing - I was able to understand what a marketing plan is, when and how it is developed, and business-wise what it is considered as marketing. When you see “Product” as part of the 4Ps you realize why only Product-driven companies can fully empower PMs, and typical organizations see Product under the Business function; this is their common sense.
Finance - You must know the difference between the Present and Future Value, and what Net Present Value is when you try to pitch about revenue streams and projects. You will have to work with the finance guys to pitch your ideas.
HR - An MBA gives you some good tips for proper People Management. Old-fashioned, but useful. You learn how to think in an objective way. You will have to build your own hiring handbook, nothing useful here.
Economics - When you are a product manager, you need to study how social/buyer psychology affects demands and pricing. There are some nice ideas. You can later read some more interesting things about customers’ behaviors, but it helps.
Strategy - I learned about Porter and studied some interesting use cases. He is the essence of strategy. He is the essence of strategy. Read Understanding Michael Porter and you are more than fine.
And… that’s it. I learned many other things that allow me to understand how other business guys that took an MBA think and talk, which is always useful. It was interesting also to work in teams, you realize that if I hadn’t a good team, my program would be tougher; that’s a useful correlation with real-life and product teams.
When you graduate an MBA program, you know how and why business guys are thinking like this. You know their terminology, habits, what they perceive as common sense. What they expect from you, what to listen to.
MBAs should teach Product Management
The MBA programs have to be updated and add a Product Management course, or some lectures, for reasons of mutual understanding. Such a course will (a) allow the business people to better understand, collaborate, and design processes where Product Managers are enablers of constant innovation based on quantitative research, and customer feedback, and not just implementors or policies and business plans. In parallel, (b) a product manager will be able to improve her skills, while tools and techniques used by PMs would be useful for Marketeer, Business, and Sales; in the end, a PM has “copied” practices from many fields.
Business people don’t understand why a Product Manager should have ownership. If they haven’t attended a Product company before, they believe they have to lead because they know what the customers want. They should have the final saying, because they understand the market.
If you join a company without a product strategy and sense on the leadership level, you will have to talk a lot with the business teams, educate them, and work together on smaller deliverables to convince them when you are right and why products scale.
Leaders should know about Product Management
We shouldn’t expect someone to read an article in HBR about Product Management to understand the importance of Product Development or to start a product transformation. Leaders should learn about what a Product Manager is and what can do, during a business program like an MBA.
As you learn about economics or finance but you are not an economist or trader, similarly, someone should know about Product Management during an MBA program.
Business Schools should start teaching what a Product Manager is in their curriculum, and why good PMs and product-led founders are key factors to some of the greatest corporations out there. If business people realize that good PMs are the glue of many different functions and can amplify their commercial efforts, they will team up with them instead of fighting for getting more control.
This is where the CEO and the organization has to build a product culture to incorporate and onboard newly onboared business guys. If someone with authority has previous product experience and understanding as well, a company will understand the advantages of a product-driven organization.
Should a PM take an MBA?
So, the question remains if you should take an MBA as a PM. I would say that if you have the financial capacity and the time available, it won’t hurt you. Eg Amazon likes PMs with an MBA. In my opinion, paying $100K or more for an MBA doesn’t worth it. Mainly what an MBA offers you is a network of people that could hire you, but instead, you could save your money potentially for a good portfolio or if you want to spin off your own startup.
MBAs look ideal for consultants, to deliver to corporates what they want; reasonable and well-documented studies that provide security to managers and executives.
As a PM you will get some boost in your learnings and in your career, but if you have the discipline and a good advisor, follow some online courses and workshops, you could get more value and save your money; you could take a 6-8 weeks program instead, eg Reforge, and read some target books in the area you feel weak.
Reforge accepted me last week. I had never heard of them before, and my initial impressions are very positive. I've also just found the CloudTeams Playbook in the latest newsletter. Great content overall, thanks for helping us rookies.