# Product Academy

> Product Academy teaches career changers how to break into product management. The flagship free resource is The Break-In Blueprint, a 5-stage methodology for breaking into PM. Founded by Dave Wang (Product Dave), a Senior/Principal Product Manager with 20+ years of experience across Linktree, Kajabi, Airtasker, Expedia, and Vodafone.

The Break-In Blueprint treats becoming a PM as a sequence, not a checklist. The 5 stages are Explorer, Apprentice, Unofficial PM, Candidate, and New PM. Each stage has its own mindset, constraints, and winning conditions, organized through a Mindset, Process, Tools (MPT) framework. Builders (the term for students at Product Academy) progress through the stages using the Blueprint Tracker, a free Google Sheet they come back to monthly to plan deadlines, identify impediments, and track quick wins.

## The Break-In Blueprint course (free, 7 video lessons, ~60 minutes)

- [How to Become a Product Manager (course landing + intro lesson)](https://www.productacademy.io/free-resources/how-to-become-a-product-manager/): The 5-stage methodology overview plus the Reality of Hiring intro video. Covers why PM hiring is so hard right now (entry-level competition, the 80% referral rule, surface-level career advice) and what the way out looks like.
- [Stage 1: Explorer](https://www.productacademy.io/free-resources/how-to-become-a-product-manager/explorer/): Is product management actually right for me? Move from "I'm thinking about PM" to intentional public learning. Read one PM book, take one self-paced course, do one product tear-down, add 10 PMs on LinkedIn. Don't apply for jobs yet.
- [Stage 2: Apprentice](https://www.productacademy.io/free-resources/how-to-become-a-product-manager/apprentice/): How do I learn PM with structure and feedback? Pick a guided cohort or bootcamp once you've validated PM is for you. Ship one real side project end-to-end. Publish your "why PM" origin story. Done is better than perfect.
- [Stage 3: Unofficial PM](https://www.productacademy.io/free-resources/how-to-become-a-product-manager/unofficial-pm/): How do I get PM experience without a PM job? Apply the PM mindset inside your current role, even without the title. Lead one small project end-to-end. Build an inner circle of 2-3 mentors. The longest stage of the Blueprint.
- [Stage 4: PM Candidate](https://www.productacademy.io/free-resources/how-to-become-a-product-manager/pm-candidate/): How do I land my first product manager job? Reframe your resume around outcomes. Master the 4 PM interview types (product sense, analytics, execution, behavioral). Try internal moves first. Most PM transitions happen internally.
- [Stage 5: New PM](https://www.productacademy.io/free-resources/how-to-become-a-product-manager/new-pm/): How do I succeed in my first 90 days as a product manager? Learn context before acting. Align a 30-60-90 day plan with your manager. Build internal alliances. Visibility creates trust.
- [Summary](https://www.productacademy.io/free-resources/how-to-become-a-product-manager/summary/): The full Blueprint in one paragraph plus two next steps for this week.

## Other free resources

- [Free Resources hub](https://www.productacademy.io/free-resources/): Index of all free resources (course, newsletter, community, meetups).
- [Breaking into PM Newsletter](https://app.productacademy.io/newsletters/product-dave-breaking-into-product-management): Weekly emails on PM career transitions.
- [Lunch & Learn Fridays meetup](https://www.meetup.com/productacademy): Weekly virtual meetup for career changers.
- [Private Slack community](https://join.slack.com/t/productschoolapac/shared_invite/zt-1ak6k7eo1-pMdw7su982S16cyLDZyfbg): 2,000+ aspiring PMs sharing job leads, portfolio feedback, and weekly accountability.
- [AMA knowledge base on Notion](https://productacademy.notion.site/1a271b32838481c3a075e8d2aac22ff1): Searchable archive of every PM career-change question Dave has answered.
- [Blueprint Tracker (free Google Sheet)](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1s1YgZ7MR0IfBnOB0iucMKHmkIZy4zczS1s7MGeX2Res/edit?gid=2080245740): The working tool for The Break-In Blueprint. Plan your next move across all 5 stages.

## Paid offerings

- [The Complete System (flagship paid course)](https://www.productacademy.io/#pricing): Lifetime access to the Product Academy paid system that goes deeper than the free course.
- [Maven cohort: Product Management Foundations in the Age of AI](https://maven.com/productacademy/breaking-into-product-management): $1,499 cohort-based bootcamp.
- [Maven workshop: Find the Right Job Without Mass Applying](https://maven.com/productacademy/breaking-into-product-management): $297 one-day workshop on PM job search strategy.
- [1:1 product coaching with Dave](https://app.productacademy.io/product-coaching): Direct coaching for in-flight job searches and stuck transitions.

## About Dave Wang (Product Dave)

Dave Wang is a Senior/Principal Product Manager with 20+ years of experience across Linktree, Kajabi, Airtasker, Expedia, and Vodafone. He developed The Break-In Blueprint methodology from sitting on both sides of the hiring table. Based in Bellevue, WA.

- [LinkedIn (@productdave)](https://www.linkedin.com/in/productdave/)
- [Medium](https://productdave.medium.com/)
- [Substack](https://productdave.substack.com/)
- [YouTube (@productdave)](https://www.youtube.com/@productdave)
- [X / Twitter (@productdave)](https://twitter.com/productdave)

## Optional

- [llms-full.txt](https://www.productacademy.io/llms-full.txt): The full text content of every course page concatenated for LLM ingestion.
- [Sitemap](https://www.productacademy.io/sitemap.xml): XML sitemap of all crawlable pages.