ROI on AIPMM Certification

[Craig Huber]

In a meeting yesterday with a recruiter, he mentiond that AIPMM Certification demand is increasing at certain employers. The cost is non-trivial ($1295 for the prep course and exam fee, if I am reading the AIPMM website correctly). Have those of you who are certified found the ROI strong? Does it vary by industry, or other variable(s)? Have others found employers asking for the AIPMM certification? So far, I have been able to stand on just my past achievements. I am wondering if in today's job market this certification could be used as a screening qualification to help one candidate with certification get into the interview loop over another without the certification, all else being relatively equal.

[Seth Nesbitt]

Craig, I have noticed an increase in interest in AIPMM Certification - both from companies as well as PMs. For someone with extensive experience I think it matters less, but if people are in their first few years as a PM it could be highly relevant. In this job market any edge is worth looking into.

[Bruce Scheer]

Nice discussion guys...prompted me to "google" AIPMM. Their certification testimonials certainly play up the "recruitability" angle for others who are interested / have a point of view to share:

From the AIPMM site: http://aipmm.com/html/certification/

What do certified product managers have to say:

"Thanks again for a wonderful workshop. I am really pleased with the CPM/CPMM certifications. It’s fantastic to have an official third party validation of my skill set in product management and product marketing that I can show prospective employers. The certifications have differentiated me from other candidates and have helped me get additional interviews. Furthermore, I believe they were instrumental in helping me get an outstanding job offer last week!" - Michael Jouaneh, MBA, CPM, CPMM

"The exam itself was a challenging (and humbling) experience. It measures thorough understanding of the essential product management principles. I will certainly recommend it to others, and look for certified candidates when I hire product managers. Congratulations to AIPMM on setting a long-needed bar to measure competence in this field!" - Linda Merrick, CPM -P5Group

“The Certification is like an insurance policy for both company and PM. It takes away a lot of the risk in hiring for such a critical position” states Alyssa Dver, CPM/CPMM author of the book “Software Product Management Essentials: a hands-on guide for small and midsize businesses” and writer for BusinessWeek Magazine.

"Establishing a common measurement of Product Managers' ability is an important step toward greater recognition of this critical role's importance across industries. I applaud the AIPMM for leading the way." - Mara Krieps, CPM - Product Management Consortium

“There is definitely a sense of pride in knowing that I proved to myself and others I know the best practices for Product Management. In addition, recruiters have said it makes my resume stand out from the rest.” Holly Hansen, CPM/CPMM

“The certification is a rite of passage… it certainly helps to confirm one’s own abilities as a product manager.” Linda Underwood CPM/CPMM

[Mara Krieps]

Craig, thanks for starting this discussion. I've heard that P&G is planning to have their PdMs get certified through AIPMM - that would be the strongest testimonial yet.

There are much more cost-effective ways to prepare for the cert exam. Pardon the shameless self-promotion, but Pivotal Product Management offers a free Certification Glossary and Study Guide to all comers - just email [e-mail] to request them. Also, there's a local (Seattle) 1/2-day prep course that costs less than $500, and is next offered on June 12 - see www.pivotalpm.com for details.

Finally, you might want to see the free webinar on AIPMM that describes the certification process (and benefits) in more detail - see http://www.aipmm.com/podcasts/archives/000215.php.

Hopefully this provides some additional value to the discussion.

[Farhad Rostami]

As some additional perspective, P&G has a very thorough set of internal processes/ methodologies used to guide brand management and initiative launch efforts. These processes govern how concepts are developed, tested and supported on the front end to the downstream project management efforts taking these efforts to production and market-- at least this was my perspective having been there and gone through those courses several years ago.

From my experience most fortune 500 companies value external certification as a way of broadening internal practices by bringing best in class benchmarks back to the company. However, this does not typically imply advancement/ promotion, but more a reflection of the individuals commitment to the profession and career path.

[Sabra Goldick]

At a former employer, I tried to add AIPMM certification onto my annual goals (training budget). My manager's response was that he was more interested in my work experience than certification.

This was 1-2 years ago, so maybe its importance has increased since then. Or perhaps this is a symptom of small company vs. enterprise. Small employers care most about accomplishments and referrals from past positions. Education and certification is a lower priority for them.

If you're seriously consider this investment, first I'd speak with someone in HR at the 5 employers who interest you the most. Ask how much weight they give AIPMM certification over other factors. Their responses will be great input for your decision because (I'm guessing) your question is really about these employers, no the market in general.

[Harvey Andruss]

Hi folks:

Without exception accomplishment trumps certification, but if process is a problem at a given company, certification can lend credibility to bring in best-practices. As stated above, certification does show commitment to the craft, which as we all know, is such an ambiguous role at most companies. If P&G started it all with Ivory Soap as Product Management 1.0, maybe we've come along to Product Management 1.5 since the 1950s and are perhaps entering the 2.0 era with social marketing and more dialog with customers and end-users. Professionalizing the role now finally is helpful for those whose on-the-job-training has not provided enough breadth (rounds out your experience and knowledge) and most of us have focused on certain elements of the Prod Mgmt role during our careers, but probably not all of them. The MBA used to be "the ticket", but now there seems to be a new focus on product management since it's not part of the MBA curriculum in any depth at most institutions (although some of you may know of Univ. of Wash Software Product Management Certificate; we have a Prod Mgmt Certificate out of the Univ. of Minnesota, where I'm from, also).

It IS an interesting subtext to see private firms vying for professionalization of the role here, whereas other roles, such as Project Management or Business Analyst, have their own industry organizations (PMI, IIAB) -- although they have SIGs for product marketing and product development. There is a product development and management association (PDMA) with its own certification (NPDP) as well as the American Marketing Association's Certified Professional Marketer (AMA CPM). All of them are "useful", but they don't focus on Product Management per se.

But think about it for a moment...if functional expertise is the foundational trapezoid at the bottom of the pyramid and industry expertise is the next level of expertise sought by employers, the most important one, the apex of the pyramid, is that which aligns with the distinctive competence of the firm, no matter what your function or industry background is. If you have unique talents and insight of how to amp the company's mission statement and reason for being with their target markets, who cares what you do? The point is, Prod. Mgmt is a great vantage point to discover and develop that, but it's not the only place and I would argue, much like Rick Chapman recently in another blog, that Prod. Mgmt isn't always the best role to do that. Rather than become a commodity with all these Product Management capabilities and process knowledge, it might help to focus more on the SWOT for the firm and what you bring to the table that can maximize them, including but not limited to, getting to know the key people within the firm, as well as the key customers or thought-leaders in target market segments (new or old). Disruptive innovation has often come from outsiders or edge-cases who were too dumb or naive to know that "it's just not done that way".

Seth Godin recently blogged about focusing on the new niche first since there's less competition (he's anti-MBA too, btw)...a McKinsey consultant boldly stated to a crowded room I was in that the main Intellectual Property of Prod. Mgmt was how they segmented the market. I'd argue that it's also how they connect the IP of the company to that segmentation and to new niches. Your insight about how to solve a problem of a market segment or niche uniquely by virtue of your understanding of your (key) people and its key customers and prospects is more valuable than general industry knowledge and functional capabilities. I stress "people" because capital, technology and know-how always starts with "somebody".

I guess I'm arguing a specific kind of depth as more important than breadth, however breadth doesn't really hurt anything...but it could be a distraction....Eli Goldratt used to argue that the 80/20 rule wasn't enough; you have to find the most important thing first and make sure it gets done or you create a bottleneck in the critical chain (the critical path of several projects sharing resources)...so it's more like 99/1, and then 99/1 again and again.

A guy I used to work for used to say "I'd rather be effective than right" about every time he got up in front of a group. I used to mutter under my breath "..but somebody better be right, or nobody's effective!" But I digress. If I've allowed to to think about your role and what you bring to the party at your company and markets with or without certification, then maybe I was effective. Perhaps you will decide to get certified since it's an easy slam-dunk, so why not? Certification will never hurt, but is it the best use of your time right now? If so, go for it! In these troubled times, esp. if you're in transition, it might be the right thing to do.

Best,

Harvey Andruss, from Minnesota
@harva