Course

Course Time:
Fall 2026: Monday 10:00pm - 1:00pm;
Spring 2027: Tuesday 12:00pm - 3:00pm

Course Description

Product Managers play an increasingly critical role in modern technology companies. They are charged with ensuring an organization is laser focused on creating valuable and highly usable products and services, to address pain-points and unmet-needs for their target customers. In this course, students will learn essential Product Management skills by putting theory into practice, on a product or idea of your choosing. You will learn techniques to accelerate product success and avoid common mistakes. You will work in a team comprising of students from engineering, design, business and other backgrounds. This will simulate real-world cross-functional environments where people with different skills collaborate to build a successful product.

Learning Outcomes

  • Experience a live development of a product within the context of a product development process
  • Learn common methods used in product management
  • Gain experience needed to work as product managers in real life environments.

Footnotes

  • Workload hours/week outside of class are expected to be 3-4 on average while maintaining student learning.
  • ChatGPT is allowed since product managers and industry leverage, but activities remain designed to think critically and demonstrate learning.

Who is this class for?
Students from all majors, both undergraduate and graduate, are welcome and encouraged. This course is recommended for any student who wants to explore life as a Product Manager, may work in a related field closely with Product Managers, or is interested in exploring a career that spans many aspects of business and technology.

***Instructor Permission is required to enroll in this course by completing the application survey.***

Application

Spring 2027 Application

  • Cal Students: Please apply with your CalCentral berkeley.edu email by 12/6/2026 or 1/3/2027 PST to receive enrollment decisions around mid-December 2026 and early-January 2027.
  • Global / International Students: Please ALSO apply on CalCentral by 1/10/2027 PST to receive enrollment decisions in January 2026. For questions, please contact scet-academics@berkeley.edu 

You must commit to attend the full 3 hour-class per week, and conduct team and individual work for another 3-4 hours per week, on average. Class is only open to Juniors and above.


Video

Spring 2022 Top Project

Watch a pitch from Team SolTix that wants to empower people to do more with their tickets.

Project Samples

Google Maps Trips

Smart Speech

Instructor

Jim Morris

Jim is a Silicon Valley founder with over two decades of experience, including an IPO ($450 million) and a buyout ($168 million). These days he coaches product leaders and teams, with a focus on finding product-market fit, accelerating growth, and building AI into product practice. His clients range from startups to Fortune 100s across industries and business models. He holds a BS in Computer Science from Stanford and lectures on Product Management at UC Berkeley and Stanford.
Jim Morris headshot

Jim Morris