This document discusses how product manager certification benefits individuals, products/product lines, organizations, and the profession as a whole. It begins by clarifying terminology and exploring how occupations become professions according to sociological models. It then explains how AIPMM certification demonstrates knowledge mastery and application, providing career advantages for certified product managers. Certification benefits products/lines by driving best practices and a big-picture view. Organizations gain highly skilled employees who understand roles across functions. Finally, certification adds credibility and status to the profession while allowing flexibility.

1. Product Manager Certification:
Good for You, Good for the Profession
@paulagray
Director of Research & Knowledge Development
Association of International Product Marketing & Management
www.aipmm.com

2. Paula Gray
AIPMM Anthropologist
Our Speakers

3. What We’ll Cover
 Clear up some terminology
 Sociology of work: how an occupation
becomes a profession
 How a product manager’s AIPMM
certification benefits:
 Themselves
 Their product/product line
 Their organization
 The profession as a whole
 Product Manager personal SWOT analysis

4. Terminology

5. Product Management

6. Product Manager

7. Sociology of Work: How an Occupation
Becomes a Profession

8. Dr. Harold Wilensky, Sociologist
1. People begin doing the work
2. Training programs are established
3. A professional association is formed
4. Credentials or licensing is developed by the
association
5. A written, formalized Body of Knowledge is
published
Believed occupations
progress through a
predictable set of
steps that result in
the occupation
attaining the status
of a “profession.”

9. Dr. Andrew Abbott, Sociologist
1. Classifying the issue/concept/problem
2. Reasoning about it
3. Taking action on it
Believes professions
“hold the
jurisdiction” for
executing tasks and
the knowledge
required to do it
successfully.

10. The Road to Profession
P&G Brandman
PDMA
Gorchels
AIPMM
Pragmatic
Marketing
280 Group Haines
LawleyDver
Dozens of books
ProdBOK®

11. Dr. Wilensky’s Process
 People start doing the work
 Training programs established
 Professional association formed
 Credentials offered through association
 Written Body of Knowledge published
 Procter & Gamble “brand man” 1931
 Pragmatic Marketing 1993, 280 Group 2003
 AIPMM founded 1998
 AIPMM Certified Product Manager® launched
2004
 AIPMM publishes ProdBOK® 2013

12. AIPMM Certification

13. Certification: What It Is:
Demonstration of:
• Knowledge Mastery
• Application of Knowledge
• CPM® CPMM®

14. Certification: What It’s Not:
Answer to every
situation, but rather
a system for finding
answers

15. How a Product Manager’s Certification Benefits
Themselves/Their Career

16. Certification Benefits the Product Manager
 Provides a gap analysis
 Fills in knowledge/skills not gained during
formal education
 Resume differentiator for advancement

17. How a Product Manager’s Certification Benefits Their
Product/Product Line

18. Certification Benefits the Product or Product Line
 Product management process
driven by best practices
 Big picture view
 Insight from outside the domain

19. How a Product Manager’s Certification Benefits
Their Organization

20. Certification Benefits the Organization
 Highly skilled individual able
to see the big picture
 Able to manage according to
overall organizational
objectives
 Able to communicate cross-
functionally
 Understanding of roles and
responsibilities outside their
own team

21. How a Product Manager’s Certification Benefits the
Profession as a Whole

22. Certification Benefits the Profession
• Creates a repeatable process and methodology
• Adds credibility and status to the role
• Does NOT restrict the profession or the process but
rather allows flexibility based on best practices

23. Product Manager Personal SWOT Analysis

25. Q & A Session
Ask questions. Our team is standing by to
help.
The webinar slides will be posted to our
website and our
http://www.Slideshare.net/aipmm
The webinar recording will be posted at
http://www.AIPMM.net
for members

26. Upcoming Webinars
Check our next webcast:
Adopting ABM to Optimize Product Marketing and Improve Sales Success
WWW.AIPMM.COM/NEW-EVENTS
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