Roman's Product Strategy & Roadmap

Roman’s Product Strategy & Roadmap course is a comprehensive look at building product roadmaps and strategies that work. What makes this course different is that it zeroes in on these topics only. In comparison to other courses that try to do and teach everything at once, this class ensures that your learnings are up to industry standards - which is great. Descoping it in this manner allows for a more tangible and intimate understanding of this PM function, which is right considering this is a course targeted for professionals with industry experience.
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The classes are intensive, albeit short. There are only 20 allotted seats in the 3-day period so your 5-hour class pretty much ensures you the opportunity to ask questions and interact closely with the mentor/s and other students. The fact that this course requires some prep work is also a public-facing indicator that the pace will be fast.

This course is best for students already in the tech industry, more relevantly working in product capacity, or otherwise benefitting from learning the ins and outs of creating their organization’s product strategy and roadmap through an instructor-led workshop filled with real-world examples.

Likewise, product-led organizations wishing to upskill their product team will also greatly benefit from this.

Learners say:

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'A fantastic course with excellent tools to build on!' − Elise Morgan, Head of Product at Just Eat

'I loved the course! Each section was concise, to the point, and well planned out. Roman explained everything really well and gave real life examples that can be easily applied to our own products and organisations.' − Alex Williams, Senior Product Manager at Alcumus

'Roman’s product strategy course is probably one of the most valuable courses that I’ve ever attended. The unique and dynamic structure of the course really aided my own learning and allowed me to apply my previous knowledge in a practical way right from the beginning. I cannot commend Roman highly enough. His courses are a must-attend for anyone wanting to improve their product owner knowledge and skills.' − Seth Rubin, Head of Product at Webgains

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This course can be considered supplementary coursework after Co.Lab’s Product Management track. While Co.Lab’s PM track is for beginners looking to get solid theoretical and practical foundations, this course is for more advanced product professionals who need expert advice in creating product strategy and roadmap for digital products.

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Co.Lab focuses on providing you with real-work, cross-functional experience by building an MVP with developers, designer, and an industry mentor, whereas this course dives deeper into the details of actually running a product in a corporate environment.

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Cost

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This course costs around $1300 USD and is almost thrice more expensive than Co.Lab’s Product Sprint ($500 USD), but less than Co.Lab’s Bootcamp ($3800 USD). That being said, a direct price comparison is not apples to oranges factoring in that these are providing fundamentally different offerings to separate audiences.

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Co.Lab is meant for new product learners so Sprint and Bootcamp are longer at 4 weeks and 8 weeks respectively. This course can be taken in 3 days and under 15 hours because they are targeted for professionals with a more advanced understanding of product and with pre-defined role responsibilities, such as product managers, Scrum product owners, product executive, and similarly product-adjacent roles.

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Learning Outcomes

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It is unknown whether this course provides a certificate of completion. In Co.Lab, you will get a Certificate of Completion as well as a student portfolio.

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However, our focus at Co.Lab is to help learners gain confidence, credibility and tangible experience, beyond just the certificate. Portfolios with Co.Lab are just the end result - the work involves speaking to real users, doing market research, and potentially working with a team to build out a real MVP.

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Additionally, Co.Lab portfolio are hosted publicly for you to share with recruiters, hiring managers and supporters. You can check out other student portfolios here.

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Personal Brand Support

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Co.Lab’s programs are unique in that we focus on helping you stand out from the crowd, by building your personal brand and community online.

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Co.Lab's Sprint and Bootcamp programs also have a robust Build in Public program, where you get to share your wins and learnings to your professional network - ensuring you remain visible to recruiters and hiring managers.

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Lastly, both program grants you entry to an exclusive Discord community of tech professionals where you can get advice, networking opportunities, and referrals.

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Mentorship

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Co.Lab also has weekly mentor check-ins to ensure that you're guided appropriately by industry professionals.

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In fact, your spec in the Sprint & Bootcamp programs will be personally given feedback on by your mentors. It will also be published on Co.Lab's website and posted in Co.Lab's social accounts.

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There will also be an end-of-cohort celebration where top students get to present their product idea to the public.

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Curriculum Content

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Both this course and Co.Lab demonstrate the importance of product thinking in managing products.

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In this course, you will learn how to ‘build, validate, and update a strategy across the product life cycle, how to systematically derive the product roadmap from the strategy, keep it up to date, and connect it to the product backlog. You’ll have the opportunity to create a vision, strategy, and roadmap for your own product during the training thereby transferring theory into practice. Additionally, you will learn how to manage a product portfolio and align the strategies and roadmaps of its members.’

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Whereas in Co.Lab, you will learn about the fundamental concepts an entry-level Product Manager should know. You will also have the chance to apply your learnings and build your own spec, and get a certificate of completion at the end.

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Instructor-led vs Cohort-based Learning Experience

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This course is instructor-led and Roman himself will lead the class. There there will be a mix of lectures, discussions, hands-on exercises, and plenty of Q&A. Classes are usually limited to 20 people and you get to use the tools that are used in the workshop.

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With Co.Lab's Product Management Sprint and Bootcamp program, you are in a cohort-based model with built-in accountability. You go through the program with other learners. You get to share your learnings, compare and contrast ideas, and provide you with real people who can be your sounding boards. Lastly, you decide as a team what kind of tools to use, when to meet (although there are designated check-in dates), and be generally in-charge of how to manage and lead a development team.