Online Master of Science in Product Management Curriculum

This course provides a foundational understanding of the product management role and the scope of responsibility for the product manager. The course will explore PM processes, strategies, and tools, with an emphasis on business-focused decision-making within the Five Product Movement model.

The course introduces students to the leading theoretical approaches to product management, including Agile, Scrum, Kanban, and Waterfall approaches. Students will apply these methods to real-life product management situations.

Information is crucial to the role of the product manager. Collecting, mining, and analyzing data, from historical production costs to web analytics, from sales figures to customer retention rates, is central to effective product management. This course will cover essential techniques and software for managing data and to explore the ways in which we can make sense of data and apply insights to practice and discuss the ethical implications of data collection and analysis.

A product manager must direct operations across multiple functional areas, at varying levels of the organization. The ability to communicate clearly and effectively with multiple stakeholders is key to success in this field. This course will develop students’ understanding of the foundations of effective professional communication to diverse audiences through readings, discussion, and oral and written work.

This course is centered on the vital “middle” stages of the product management life cycle — the Development and Operations stages. This course will examine various approaches to product development and survey the production process from procurement through delivery.

This course focuses on the role of the customer in shaping product management. Students will learn to evaluate marketing insights concerning customer behavior, demand, and pricing and incorporate this knowledge into a strategic, ethically informed approach to product development and management.

In this course, students will explore services and product service systems, with an emphasis on the management of the entire product life cycle for services. For their final project, students will design a product launch for a new digital service.

This capstone course is centered on a term-long integrative team project, in which students will construct a complete product roadmap from ideation through the entire product management life cycle, in conjunction with faculty and industry mentors. The course will place the product management process within a holistic understanding of how marketing, R&D, procurement, manufacturing, sales, finance, IT, and other business functions impact product management.

This course covers the specific needs of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and biomedical sectors for research-centered product management. Students will gain extensive familiarity with the rules, regulations, and best practices for the industry and with US and international approval processes, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the EU European Medicines Agency (EMA).

This course will focus on the crucial early stage, largely preclinical research phase in the product management life cycle in the life sciences. The course will explore emerging research techniques and innovations, such as gene splicing, bioprinting, tissue engineering, and the use of artificial intelligence in the drug discovery process.

This course examines the product life cycle in the context of the information technology sector. The course will discuss the unique challenges, such as shorter product life cycles, continuous updating, security testing, and uncertain intellectual property protections of the IT sector and provide industry-specific tools and techniques for product management.

This course is centered on understanding the creative process in Information Technology, from ideation through beta testing, from a product management lens. Students will learn to manage standard operating procedures for software, application, and/or website development as well as scheduled and unscheduled updates.

This course will explore the specific needs of the financial services industry for product management, including the design, marketing, and administration of retail and business financial products. Students will gain expertise in the range of financial products, from investment to insurance, credit to savings, and in how to launch new financial services to various customer segments.

This course focuses on the development of new financial products across the breadth of the financial services industry. Students will gain expertise in assessing the potential profitability, market demand, and selling/promotional channels for new business and retail financial service offerings.