Becoming a product manager in a ‘productized world’

By Sachin Waikar and LeeAnn Shelton

Welcome to the second installment of our series, “Predictions on Jobs,” in which our faculty share the latest trends in hiring across a variety of career fields. Today, we’re discussing tech and product management with Mohan Sawhney, a professor in Kellogg’s MBA programs and a globally recognized scholar and speaker on innovation. 

The need for good product managers is growing exponentially. Why? Because the business world is becoming increasingly “productized.” 

Here’s what that means, says Mohanbir Sawhney, associate dean of digital innovation and clinical professor of marketing at Kellogg. In general, product managers guide the development of a product or feature, using customer insights to get business, technology and design teams on the same page and managing every phase of taking it from idea to reality: from planning to development to launch and improvement. 

In this post, Sawhney discusses the opportunity landscape for those aspiring to product management and how Kellogg prepares MBA students to excel in this role. 

Product management in technology firms

Tech remains a highly attractive sector for MBA graduates. In fact, the industry is one of the top destinations for Kellogg graduates. For MBA students in particular, career paths in technology “boil down to product management and product marketing,” Sawhney says. 

That raises the question of how to become a skilled product manager or marketer. “To answer this question, we need to understand what these professionals actually do, what deliverables they create,” Sawhney says. “For example, they may create user persona, user stories, Total Addressable Market (TAM) estimates, wireframes, and go-to-market strategies.” 

These deliverables are shaped by tools — product management tools, software tools, AI tools and more. “Product Management software tools are critical to your success as product managers.” That reality motivates the curriculum of Sawhney’s Product Management for Technology Companies class, where students “go through the whole product management process from conceptualizing opportunities to thinking about the product concept and converting it into a product design and then taking it to market.”  

This Spring, Sawhney redesigned his product management course ground-up to incorporate the latest developments in Generative AI. “Students learn best practices and frameworks and work on a capstone project that incorporates specific Generative AI tools at multiple stages,” he says. He and his team added lab sessions, as well, where students learn to use key tools in hands-on sessions.  

“I’m working with companies that build the tools to bring the best to Kellogg. My students use state-of-the-art generative AI tools,” Sawhney says. For example, all students have access to latest Generative AI tools like Perplexity Pro, and project management tools like Notion.

Beyond the tech field 

Product manager roles are commonly found in technology companies like Microsoft and Apple. But there is a vast universe of product management roles in services firms. For example, the financial services firm Vanguard has 1,000 employees in product management roles, Sawhney notes. “They’re building the mobile app, building the website, building the tools as part of ‘digital product management,’” Sawhney says. Banks, insurance companies, consulting firms, and law firms all have such product management needs.  

Professional services firms increasingly feature digital products that are embedded in services. “Say you’re doing tax and audit at Deloitte, and you start to automate some of those services with AI,” Sawhney says. “Now this productized service needs a product manager.” 

“The product DNA has to be developed within every professional services firm,” he continues. That means there's a rising need for product manager roles in consulting, banking, insurance, analytics, and many other professional services sectors. Kellogg, with faculty like Sawhney, can help anyone make the most of a product management career in any sector.

The Kellogg Advantage 

From coursework to extracurricular activities to a growing and supportive alumni network, Kellogg’s degree programs are helping students land their dream jobs in product management. Here’s why: 

• A degree program like no other. The MMM program is an immersive dual-degree program in which students earn an MBA from Kellogg and an MS in design innovation from Northwestern’s renowned  Segal Design Institute at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. Graduates gain a strong foundation in both business and design, and alumni have gone on to lead product and design teams at a variety of well-known companies including Google, BCG, Zillow and more.
  
  
• A dedicated pathway and courses. Many aspiring product managers also enroll in the Two-Year MBA Program, or the MBAi program, where they enjoy a dedicated Technology Management Pathway with a wide variety of courses focusing on product management, product marketing management and business operations and strategy. “The curricular pathway at Kellogg is really well-developed,” Sawhney says.
  
  
• Robust extracurricular opportunities. Kellogg boasts an active student-led Technology Club. They host many networking, learning and social events every year. A highlight is the annual Technology Conference, which welcomes industry leaders to campus every year. 
  
  
• Leading executive education opportunities. For those further along in product management and marketing careers, Kellogg offers online executive education, including several programs Sawhney runs: Product Strategy, Chief Product Officer, and a Product Management professional certification. Together, his product management courses have enrolled over 10,000 students from over 100 countries. “When you look at the impact and number of people we have reached, we can confidently say that Kellogg is the top business school in developing product managers”, Sawhney says.
  
  
• A large, growing alumni community in tech. More than 1,300 alumni have product manager or product marketing manager in their job titles. And, a large percentage of Kellogg graduating classes enter the tech industry, many in locations on the West Coast. Top tech firms including Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft regularly recruit and hire Kellogg students. In recent years, almost 25% of the graduating MBA class has been employed by the technology industry, commonly in product management and product marketing roles. 
  
  
• Career guidance tailored for you. Our Career Management Center at Kellogg offers unlimited one-on-one coaching to students, a dedicated research specialist to help you chart your professional path, and resources that extend even after graduation. For those particularly interested in technology, we have a well-rounded suite of opportunities to educate students on careers in product management through panels with alumni, interviewing workshops specific to technology roles and over 15 technology-focused CMC Industry Advisors to offer guidance. Lastly, annual treks to San Francisco, Chicago, New York give students insight into product management roles from alumni and industry professionals.  

Read next 

Curious about what an MBA in tech or product management at Kellogg can do for you? Follow the links here to read about students and alumni in tech and discover the latest research from our faculty on innovation. Or, explore our degree programs to find the right fit for you.