Product Influence
Updated Edition
Influence without authority is a skill that product managers must master to excel. You’ll learn simple principles and frameworks to get buy-in from your product team, gain support from partners and stakeholders, and inspire everyone to go above and beyond.
- Course type: Online, self-study.
- Course length: 3 hours of video content.
- Cost: $49
Why learn with us?
Your Instructor: Sondra Orozco
Former Product Lead at Google and Looker. Sondra brings over a decade of product experience and 15 years in tech to our courses. These are the lessons she wished for when she started her career in product management, and now she brings those hard-won lessons to you.
Past companies include: Google, Looker, Upwork, CNET, AOL, and lots of startups. Sondra is currently a consultant to early-stage startups, and head instructor here at Academy of Product Management.
Our approach
You’re already in meetings All. Day. Long.
This isn’t another PowerPoint presentation to zone out to. Nope. Product Managers have trouble learning when they are bored to tears. You're about to be entertained with memorable, in-the-trenches stories and fascinating research. Learning PM skills that boost your career should be as fun as watching a great movie.
How we’ll build your product influence
Part 1: Product Influence
Part 1 / Module 1: Product Influence
- You’ll learn why influence is so critical to a product manager’s success—influence is the tool you’ll use to get buy-in from your team, gain the support of stakeholders, and inspire everyone to go above-and-beyond to deliver excellent products.
Part 1 / Module 2: Principles of Product Influence
- Learn my 8 Principles of Product Influence, simple steps that you can practice to improve at influence.
- Print out our Influence Cheat Sheet with practice tips that you can use every day at work to practice the 8 principles.
- Use our Influence Practice Tracker to set weekly intentions for your practice and track your progress.
Part 2: Product Influence Advanced
Part 2 / Module 1: Influence & Motivation
- You’ll learn about the Law of Reciprocity and why it’s the bedrock of influence without authority.
- Use our Product Influence workbook to uncover the unique knowledge, skills, and perspectives you can use for reciprocity at work.
- You’ll learn why motivation is so powerful and how to leverage it as a tool for influence.
Part 2 / Module 2: Cross-Functional Influence
- You’ll learn how to lead through influence across your organization.
- We’ll meet every group within your organization to understand what they do, what motivates them, and how to apply our 8 Principles of Product Influence to work more effectively with them.
- Use our Product Influence workbook to understand the worlds of all your teammates and stakeholders and uncover practical steps to become more influential with them.
Part 2 / Module 3: When Influence is Hard
- You’ll learn a simple framework for handling situations when influence is tough.
Through it all...
- I’ll share real-life stories and hard-won lessons from my own 10+ year product career. From the highs to the lows, I’ll tell it to you straight and pull out the key lessons.
- You’ll earn an Academy of Product Management certificate when you complete the course.
Course Curriculum
- Intro to Principles of Product Influence
- Principle #1: Build relationships (3:32)
- Principle #2: Build trust (5:11)
- Principle #3: Always explain 'why' (4:04)
- Principle #4: Speak your audience's language (4:38)
- Principle #5: Repeat repeat repeat (3:25)
- Principle #6: Avoid surprises (3:05)
- Principle #7: Be helpful (7:44)
- Principle #8: Show appreciation (3:07)
- You've completed Product Influence! (2:01)
- Quiz 1: Product Influence
- Mid-course check-in
- Introduction to cross-functional influence (1:33)
- Lesson 01: The Product Trio, part 1 (3:42)
- Lesson 02: The Product Trio, part 2 (8:14)
- Lesson 03: The Product Trio, part 3 (7:51)
- Lesson 04: The extended product team, part 1 (5:55)
- Lesson 05: The extended product team, part 2 (3:54)
- Lesson 06: Go-to-market partners (3:53)
- Lesson 07: Leadership approvers (5:26)
- Lesson 08: Launch approvers (4:58)
- Lesson 09: Operational stakeholders (5:00)
- Lesson 10: Handling dependencies (5:09)