Product Management is a renewing or, in some ways, emerging field - and it is critical to our nation's competitiveness. Product Managers most often lead large-scale software teams, and they must consider all aspects of the product: the customer, the government, and the technology. Doing this well doesn't mean reversing into waterfall from agile, or jumping into delivery without a plan. Product Management has matured with technologies from DevOps, the Lean Startup, Design Thinking, and Agile at Scale to enable fast learning and delivery. The main function of a product manager is to plan and the way they do it is by testing hypotheses with prototypes, discovery groups, split testing, and other means of fast feedback.

This course explores what's possible with modern product management in the government. It separates dogma from science about how to use agile techniques and when to use them to scale up delivery. It provides a look at who's using modern Lean-Agile Product Management to deliver everything - from spacecraft to aircraft to software. Most importantly, this course provides a solid foundation for those just learning about or refreshing their knowledge on product management so they can engage in informed conversations on how to improve delivery of products that customers love and work for the government.

We are the government, and the government is us. We are also all the government's customers, whether directly or indirectly. From the frontlines to the phone lines, from the military service to health and human services, we all benefit when we serve either the public directly or indirectly with better products. Let's start the customer-centric government movement right here, by getting smart on what is product management and how it can force us to think in terms of value and speed of relevance our products provide.