Product Design & Management
Plan ethical discovery around decision-relevant questions
Product Design & Management teaches how to decide what to ship when markets, infrastructure, and user behaviour vary across African contexts — without treating a continent or country as one user segment.
LEARN ethical discovery, problem framing from evidence, opportunity selection, prioritisation, responsible MVP slicing, experiments with decision rules, outcome metrics, and stakeholder communication. BUILD an Evidence-to-MVP Product Decision Sprint and a Local Service Product Learning Plan. GROW evidence-led product judgement you can communicate to leaders, partners, and teams.
This programme focuses on product thinking and decisions — not a coding bootcamp, not senior product management certification, and not a complete UX design degree. Completing it earns an Africoders Certificate of Completion. Paid UX or agile specialist courses may supplement — they are not required.
What you will learn
- Plan ethical discovery around decision-relevant questions
- Frame problems from evidence without embedding a preferred solution
- Map actors, workflows, constraints, and exclusion risks
- Prioritise opportunities transparently and communicate what will not be built
- Slice a responsible MVP around the riskiest assumption
- Design experiments with thresholds and decision rules
Who this course is for
- Founders and operators making product decisions under real constraints
- Associate PM aspirants and delivery collaborators
- Builders who must communicate trade-offs to leaders and partners
- Designers moving toward product generalist roles focused on decisions and evidence
Skills you will develop
Product discovery · Problem framing · Opportunity selection · Prioritisation and trade-offs · MVP slicing · Product experiments · Metrics and guardrails · Outcome roadmaps · Stakeholder communication · Decision documentation
Prerequisites
- Basic familiarity with a digital product or service
- Willingness to interview, observe, analyse, and revise assumptions
- Access to simple document, spreadsheet, and prototyping tools
- No coding or recruitment experience required
Who this is for
- Founders and operators making product decisions under real constraints
- Associate PM aspirants and delivery collaborators
- Builders who must communicate trade-offs to leaders and partners
- Designers moving toward product generalist roles focused on decisions and evidence
Prerequisites
- Basic familiarity with a digital product or service
- Willingness to interview, observe, analyse, and revise assumptions
- Access to simple document, spreadsheet, and prototyping tools
- No coding or recruitment experience required
Skills you’ll develop
Course completion demonstrates these skills. Verification requires assessment or reviewed challenge work.
What you will build and prove
- Practice: Practice: Products, outputs, and outcomes
- Project: Capstone: Local Service Product Learning Plan
- Final assessment: Product Building for African Builders assessment (pass 70%)
Course journey
Learn → Practice → Build → Prove. Lessons teach the idea. Practice applies it. The project is what you can submit as evidence.
- Product Thinking in Context
- Discovery and Evidence
- Problem Framing
- Opportunity Selection
- Prioritisation and Trade-offs
- MVP Slicing
- Prototypes and Product Experiments
- Metrics and Measurement
- Roadmaps and Bets
- Stakeholder Communication
- Shipping and Learning Loops
- Product Building Capstone Studio
Practice
1 optional practice exercise — apply what you learned. Practice is not required to complete the course.
Assessment
- Product Building for African Builders assessment · pass mark 70%
Prove
Course completion means finishing required lessons , required assignments , the course project , and the course assessment . That grants a certificate of completion — not a professional certification. Optional practice does not block completion.
Builder Passport evidence is awarded for the completed project, not for watching lessons or passing a quiz alone.
Curriculum
Week 1: Product Thinking in Context
- Products, outputs, and outcomes Preview Practice 30min
- African market realities without stereotypes 30min
- Learning as the unit of progress 30min
Week 2: Discovery and Evidence
- Writing useful research questions 30min
- Choosing discovery methods 30min
- Synthesising evidence responsibly 30min
Week 3: Problem Framing
- Jobs, pains, and desired progress 30min
- Actors, systems, and constraints 30min
- Testing the problem frame 30min
Week 4: Opportunity Selection
- Opportunity solution trees 30min
- Sizing without false precision 30min
- Ethics and exclusion checks 30min
Week 5: Prioritisation and Trade-offs
- Choosing a prioritisation model 30min
- Dependencies and sequencing 30min
- Saying no with evidence 30min
Week 6: MVP Slicing
- MVP as a learning vehicle 30min
- Vertical and workflow slices 30min
- Manual operations and service boundaries 30min
Week 7: Prototypes and Product Experiments
- Matching experiments to assumptions 32min
- Defining success before testing 32min
- Interpreting mixed results 32min
Week 8: Metrics and Measurement
- Outcome, driver, and guardrail metrics 32min
- Funnels, retention, and cohorts 32min
- Instrumentation and data quality 32min
Week 9: Roadmaps and Bets
- Outcome-based roadmaps 32min
- Bet briefs and decision records 32min
- Capacity, interrupts, and portfolio balance 32min
Week 10: Stakeholder Communication
- Communicating for the decision 32min
- Handling disagreement and escalation 32min
- Demos, narratives, and expectation setting 32min
Week 11: Shipping and Learning Loops
- Release readiness and rollout 32min
- Feedback without roadmap capture 32min
- Post-launch reviews 32min
Week 12: Product Building Capstone Studio
- Discovery pack and product thesis 32min
- MVP, experiment, and measurement plan 32min
- Decision narrative and learning review 32min
Free to enroll — no purchase required.
Instructor: Africoders
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