Financial Fluency for Product Leaders
4.7
(15 ratings)
4 Weeks
·Cohort-based Course
Get hands-on learning the essential financial skills you'll need to succeed as a product executive.
Financial Fluency for Product Leaders
4.7
(15 ratings)
4 Weeks
·Cohort-based Course
Get hands-on learning the essential financial skills you'll need to succeed as a product executive.
Course overview
If you want to succeed in the C-Suite and in front of a board...
As a product leader, you're not expected to be an accountant. However, finance is the common language at the C-suite and board. To succeed, you need fluency in relevant aspects of corporate finance. Without it, you won't be taken seriously. This class will expose you to the essential areas in a rigorous manner.
The class is a mix of lecture and structured exercises/cases based on real scenarios. We'll then constantly tie our financial analyses back to strategic product decisions. Ultimately this is a product leadership class, just with a focus on finance.
Class 1: Learn how an income statement tells a story and feeds into product decisions
Class 2: Best practices for modeling, using models for alignment, and communicating your analyses to the C-Suite/board
Class 3: Revenue models, packaging/bundling, and pricing
Class 4: Business valuation, differences in owner/investor classes, and why this is crucial for product leaders to understand
The classes themselves are 90 minutes, with an additional weekly Q&A session (optional) and take-home assignment.
Each week there is a modeling exercise. We begin classes 2, 3, and 4 with a detailed examination on an optimal way to approach the analysis. Our focus isn't on the spreadsheeting but rather (a) how to think through critical risks, opportunities, and assumptions, (b) forecasting possible scenarios, and (c) examining how it might be best presented to a senior audience.
The Q&A sessions are open-ended. Topics we've covered in past include:
- how these concepts can help you diligence a company you are thinking about joining
- differences b/w how these concepts might apply in startup vs scale-up vs large-enterprise contexts, as well as innovation vs product-improvement contexts
- real examples of how making a financial case enabled an important project to get approved
- a challenge a member of the cohort is tackling at work
NOTE: this class is a "partner" class with my Modeling Business Impact class on Maven (https://maven.com/giff-constable/intro-to-business-modeling) — it doesn't matter which one you do first.
Who is this class designed for?
01
Mid-to-senior product managers who want to speed their path to a leadership role.
02
New product VPs who want to shore up gaps in their skillset and be more successful in the hot seat.
03
Design and engineering leaders who want to increase their influence over strategic business decisions.
What will you gain by taking this class?
Be seen by the CEO, the board, and other execs as a strategic business thinker, not just a product thinker
Build fluency, and thus credibility, in the common language at the C-suite
Build more compelling cases for your product initiatives, improving alignment with other execs
Expand your "systems thinking" beyond product features to the entire business model
Ultimately, level up a critical skillset you'll need in order to succeed as a product executive
This course includes
8 interactive live sessions
Lifetime access to course materials
1 in-depth lesson
Direct access to instructor
3 projects to apply learnings
Guided feedback & reflection
Private community of peers
Course certificate upon completion
Maven Satisfaction Guarantee
This course is backed by Maven’s guarantee. You can receive a full refund within 14 days after the course ends, provided you meet the completion criteria in our refund policy.
Financial Fluency for Product Leaders
Course syllabus
Week 1
Oct 15—Oct 20
Events
- Oct
15
Class 1: How income statement tells a story (and can also mislead)
Class 1: How income statement tells a story (and can also mislead)
Tue, Oct 15, 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM UTC
- Oct
18
Roundtable 1
Roundtable 1
Fri, Oct 18, 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM UTC
Modules
- Assignment: Which project do you recommend?Assignment: Which project do you recommend?1 Project
Week 2
Oct 21—Oct 27
Events
- Oct
22
Class 2: How a leader uses models to inform, align, and drive decisions
Class 2: How a leader uses models to inform, align, and drive decisions
Tue, Oct 22, 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM UTC
- Oct
25
Roundtable 2
Roundtable 2
Fri, Oct 25, 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM UTC
Modules
- Assignment: Price Increase Modeling ExerciseAssignment: Price Increase Modeling Exercise1 Project
Week 3
Oct 28—Nov 3
Events
- Oct
29
Class 3: Revenue models and pricing
Class 3: Revenue models and pricing
Tue, Oct 29, 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM UTC
- Nov
1
Roundtable 3
Roundtable 3
Fri, Nov 1, 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM UTC
Modules
- Assignment: Model the impact of designAssignment: Model the impact of design1 Project
- Pre-watch on business valuationPre-watch on business valuation1 Lesson
Week 4
Nov 4—Nov 8
Events
- Nov
5
Class 4: Business valuation, owner types, and what this means for product leaders
Class 4: Business valuation, owner types, and what this means for product leaders
Tue, Nov 5, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM UTC
- Nov
8
Roundtable 4
Roundtable 4
Fri, Nov 8, 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM UTC
4.7
(15 ratings)
What students are saying
Intro to the class
Here's 1 min and 30 seconds on what this class is about!
What people are saying
Cindy Liang
Daniel Pardes
Florence Jumpp
Brian Orloff
Meet your instructor
Giff Constable
Giff Constable has coached hundreds of actual and aspiring product leaders as both a practicing executive and as a highly-rated teacher at NYU's Stern School of Business, Product Faculty, and also in private workshops to companies like Mayo Clinic, Priceline, Hearst, American Express, Steelcase, and many more.
Giff Constable was the Chief Product Officer at Meetup, the CEO of Neo Innovation, and VP of Product at Axial. He is the author of Talking to Humans and Testing with Humans, both core curriculum in university entrepreneurship and product programs around the world.
However, before all the product work, he was an investment banker at Broadview Jefferies helping tech companies sell or go public, and also led sales and business development at several startups. Along that journey, he learned how companies are valued, the importance of revenue model on product success, and how to use finance to make product, design, and engineering stronger inside an org.
Join an upcoming cohort
Financial Fluency for Product Leaders
Cohort 6
$800
Dates
Payment Deadline
Bulk purchases
Course schedule
90min live class / week + office hours
Tuesdays: 90 min class
12pm - 1:30pm Eastern
90 minutes of hands-on, case-based learning and group discussion around one core topic.
For this cohort, classes will be held Oct 3, 10, 17, 24.
Fridays: 60 min optional Q&A
1:30pm - 2:30pm Eastern
A chance to meet with Giff and other peers in the cohort and dive deeper into anything covered in the Tues class and the take-home exercises.
Take-home assignment
The best way to learn these concepts is to do them. After each class, you'll be given a structured assignment and classes 2, 3 and 4 begin with a detailed walkthrough on a recommended approach to each one.
Modeling 101 Tutorial
If you haven't spent a lot of time modeling out initiatives in spreadsheets, this free tutorial, built in Google Sheets, will expose you to best practices and the most common approaches and formulas you'll use.
Get this free resource
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if I can’t make a live session?
I work full-time, what is the expected time commitment?
Do I need to be a spreadsheet jockey?
What level of financial knowledge do I need already?
I have an MBA. Will I find this class useful?
Join an upcoming cohort
Financial Fluency for Product Leaders
Cohort 6
$800
Dates
Payment Deadline
Bulk purchases