Mini-CEOs, business drivers, strategic leaders—product managers are known as the powerhouses of a company.

Grasping an idea and delivering functional, user-friendly, and profitable software, is a critical, high-pressure role. Doing that while managing (remote) teams, analyzing data, and focusing on customer experience, is why employers value product managers.

Today the average salary of a product manager is around $130,000, some even earning around $200,000.

But the job isn’t easy. Reddit often has people share their experiences of how demanding the profession is. This proves that while technical skills are key to product management, so are soft skills (communication, critical thinking, leadership, and more).

The Microsoft AI Product Manager Professional Certificate program on Coursera helps you learn these skills and be industry-ready for the role.

With 120 hours of course material, it’s your gate pass to becoming a product manager who isn’t overwhelmed every step of the way, but knows what they’re doing.

This certification program also teaches in-demand skills like AI, analytics, and UI/UX design, helping you become more valuable with every product you build.

Why Learn Product Management?

As a product manager, you’re responsible for the entire lifecycle of a software project—ideation, development, launch, growth, maturity, and retirement.

Your role typically involves:

• Defining the product strategy
• Creating and managing the product roadmap
• Collaborating across teams
• Aligning stakeholder interests
• Executing the product launch
• Ensuring that the product meets business and customer needs

With the tech boom still at its peak and the modern workforce evolving, companies need someone who can manage cross-functional teams, take day-to-day product-related decisions, and build a consumer-centric product.

There are 12,000 product manager jobs on LinkedIn today. This demand exists because an efficient product manager can be transformative for an organization’s performance. They focus on the customer, and this can:

• Enhance customer experience and company profits (customer-centric companies earn 60% more profits)
• Grow revenue 3.5 times faster
• Improve customer retention and cut company costs (just a 2% increase in retention can cut costs by 10%)

This makes product management a critical role for growth today.

Plus, with AI in the picture, a product manager can bring more value to a company by adapting to it and analytics for decision-making.

The Microsoft AI Product Manager Professional Certificate helps you with this. It offers lessons in core principles and modern, in-demand skills that will make you a better decision-maker and analyst.

Learn from a Detailed, AI-focused Inclusive Curriculum

This program bridges the gap between the current industry demands and the professional readiness of (aspiring) product managers. The focus on AI integration and Microsoft’s technology ecosystem enables beginners to be more valued by employers.

The curriculum is designed for beginners and career changers, so it’s accessible, comprehensive, and practical. You’ll work on activities that strengthen your grasp, such as market analysis, security assessments, launch simulations, and post-launch management.

It includes five courses.

1. Enterprise Product Management Fundamentals

You’ll learn core PM concepts and methodologies and master the end-to-end product development process while establishing business and customer needs. You’ll also understand security and compliance, and how to manage cross-functional teams.

2. Market Research and Competitive Analysis 

This course focuses on data gathering and interpretation using Power BI (Microsoft’s data visualization tool) for visualization and business intelligence. You’ll identify product gaps, assess competitive landscapes, and generate new product ideas through B2B (business-to-business) market research techniques.

3. Product Strategy and Roadmapping

In this course, you’ll align product vision with business goals. Using Microsoft Project, you’ll create cloud-aligned roadmaps, manage milestones and timelines, and develop priority-setting frameworks.

4. Product Design and UX/UI Fundamentals

You’ll learn how to collaborate with design teams using Microsoft’s Fluent Design System (Microsoft’s design language). You’ll also apply design thinking principles to create user-friendly interfaces and build based on customer expectations.

5. Product Launch and Post-Launch Management 

This course covers launch strategy, execution, and lifecycle management. You’ll go through launch simulations, learn performance optimization, and quality assurance planning, and plan product retirement strategies.

By the end of the program, you will be able to collaborate with cross-functional teams, conduct quality checks and tests, execute software deployments, and conduct a successful product launch.

Get Career-ready Skills

The curriculum is filled with activities that will ingrain product management skills in you.

Core product management skills

You’ll learn the basics—release plans, buyer personas, marketing strategies, etc. But you’ll also master underrated aspects that separate successful product managers from average ones, such as business analytics, strategy and roadmapping, and data-driven decision-making.

AI-specific skills

Using Generative AI can increase a product manager’s productivity by 40%. You’ll use tools like Copilot (Microsoft’s AI tool) to enhance product planning, marketing, and sales. You’ll also design AI features for existing platforms, conduct competitive analyses, and optimize product performance.

Technical and design skills

The program will teach you how to use Power BI for business intelligence and data-driven decision-making. You’ll analyze markets with data, apply UX/UI to large-scale business software using Microsoft’s Fluent Design System, and develop cloud strategy using Azure (Microsoft’s cloud computing platform) for scalable product development.

Product launch and management

You’ll plan launch and post-launch activities. You’ll develop marketing and sales strategies, ensure product quality, and plan and implement product updates and enhancements.

The program pushes you to build a portfolio that will highlight your technical strengths and professional skills. Apart from projects and simulations, you’ll also have mock interviews to help you get hired.

Flexible, Self-Paced Learning

The program is entirely self-paced and 100% online. You can access content via the web or mobile, learning whenever and wherever based on your schedule.

The free audit option lets you explore course materials before committing financially. If knowledge, instead of certification, is your priority, you can audit every course for free. And if you’re keen on the certification, but have financial restrictions, you can opt for financial aid.  Coursera also offers a 7-day free trial to access the material, and the program is included in the Coursera Plus subscription which you’ll get at a 40% discount for the first three months.

Overall, the program aims to be accessible to working professionals, career switchers, and international learners.

The Benefits of a Microsoft Certification

A Microsoft certification validates your resume and is evidence of your skills. The globally recognized certifications prove you’re competent and that you’ve learned from industry leaders and world-class instructors.

It helps you grow faster in an organization—35% of technical professionals say getting certified increased their income and 26% got promoted because of it. Certified employees also earn 15% more, and are nearly 20% more productive than un-certified ones.

With over 2 million companies using Microsoft, employers prefer hiring someone who knows how to work across MS Office 365.

The Cons

Despite its strengths, the program has some limitations.

As a newly launched certificate, you won’t find first-hand learner experiences, making it difficult to assess the program outcomes.

This certification is designed for beginners and entry-level associates, but it cannot replace hands-on experience. Most product manager jobs require years of practical experience, and some companies even prefer to promote one internally. While the certificate offers comprehensive training, it’s not equivalent to real-world experience.

Another drawback is that it teaches learners strategies focused on B2B companies. While learners with a B2C (business-to-consumer) background can get core knowledge, the curriculum is more B2B oriented.

The Bottomline of the Microsoft AI Product Manager Professional Certificate

If you’re serious about breaking into AI product management, particularly in large-scale environments, this certificate offers a deep, structured learning experience, extensive activities, and an industry-recognized certification.

It won’t replace experience, but it offers an entry point into one of tech’s most exciting career paths. In a market desperate for qualified AI product managers, take the Microsoft AI Product Manager Professional Certificate program on Coursera to qualify as a standout product manager. To get unlimited access to this and more courses, sign up for Coursera Plus and get a 40% discount for the first three months.

 

This article was produced by the Class Central Report team in partnership with Coursera.