King's Product Management Career Accelerator

It’s difficult to provide graduates with the confidence and skills they need to succeed in complex digital environments, and ensure they will be able to design products that realise the needs of business, government, and society. The King’s Career Accelerator achieves that by connecting university and industry in a way that builds on the many strengths of King’s College London’s Department of Digital Humanities.”

Professor James Smithies, Professor of Digital Humanities at King’s College London

Course 1: Understanding User Needs

Through this course you'll gain foundational knowledge, understand the strategic role of UX design in product success, and immerse yourself in fundamental UX design principles.
Learn about UX processes and their critical role within an organisational context.
Understand the significance of UX design in successful product development.
Apply current best practices in user research for a deeper understanding of user needs.
Master key UX design tools and frameworks such as empathy maps, user personas, user journey maps, and jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) statements.
Transform research findings into insightful, actionable strategies.
Use tools like stakeholder mapping and storytelling to effectively communicate your insights to diverse audiences.

Course 2: Designing for User Needs

This course deepens your UX design skills, emphasising the creation of user-centred designs that are intuitive, accessible, and interactive.
Deepen your understanding of Agile methodology and its application in UX design.
Experience the iterative process of designing low-fidelity and mid-fidelity wireframes and prototypes
Harness ideation techniques to fuel creativity and innovation in your designs.
Gain insights into the crucial role of accessibility in UX design.
Learn the basics of interaction design to create user-friendly interfaces.
Develop user flows and information architecture to shape user-centred designs.
Conduct usability tests to gather invaluable user feedback for refining your design.

Course 3: User-centered Product Optimisation

This course equips you with the skills needed for high-fidelity wireframing and prototyping, seamless handoffs to software developers, and post-launch user feedback refinement.
Apply visual design principles to create aesthetically pleasing and effective interfaces.
Explore the inner workings of MVP (Minimum Viable Product) development for achieving product success.
Navigate the technical landscape of development, collaborating effectively with development teams.
Refine your designs based on valuable post-launch user feedback.
Stay ahead by keeping up with emerging technologies and trends in the field.
Create a compelling UX case study based on your work throughout the CA, showcasing your skills and accomplishments as a powerful asset in your portfolio.

Project-based assessments and the Employer Project

As a key component of your learning journey, the Employer Project brings together all the skills you've gained from the first three project-based courses. This project is designed in collaboration with our industry partners, like Creative Navy, to give you first-hand experience in addressing real-world design challenges using the UX design techniques you've learned.

During these six weeks, every deliverable, every decision you make, mirrors the professional environment, accelerating your practical skills and portfolio development.

The Employer Project is more than just a project; it's a powerful springboard into the UX design industry, offering an experience comparable to being on the job.

Tools:

Miro
Figma

Course 1: Product management and strategy

Gain an understanding of product strategy in relation to organisational strategy, and how to ideate and validate new products and features.
Get familiarised with the user through market research in order to assess product-market fit and articulate user problems.
Conduct iterative user research to validate design ideas and inform product design.
Master effective written and verbal communication in different contexts (office and remote) and with different stakeholders.

Course 2: Product design and development

Further build on your product design knowledge, including design thinking, user experience design (UX) and interaction design principles to ensure a product is feasible and usable.
Learn the principles of Agile product development, and how to prioritise tasks to manage product backlog.
Learn how to work with multi-disciplinary teams, with a specific focus on collaborating with designers and engineers to achieve product success.
Gain crucial foundational product design skills, such as the application of various testing and validation methods and tools, and how to manage advanced, technical product development.

Course 3: Launching a product to market

Gain the skills to design an effective go-to-market strategy, as well as planning the activities involved in a product launch.
Learn product growth principles, including growth hacking and principles of product-led growth.
Learn to identify appropriate product metrics and success criteria to continuously improve the product and promote product and business success.

Project-based assessments and the Employer Project

As a key component of your learning journey, the Employer Project brings together all the skills you've gained from the first three project-based courses. This project is designed in collaboration with our industry partners, like DocuSign and SO-SURE, to give you first-hand experience in addressing real-world product challenges using the knowledge and skills you've learned.

During these six weeks, every deliverable, every decision you make, mirrors the professional environment, accelerating your practical skills and portfolio development.

The Employer Project is more than just a project; it's a powerful springboard into the product management industry, offering an experience comparable to being on the job.

Tools:

“I saw this programme as an investment in my career. It’s a stepping stone to a future role that will put me on a higher salary.”

Adam Stead

“It’s exciting to read something one week, and then literally the next week, I am applying it, whether it’s with the activities or with my actual work.”

Kelli Wingfield

“There are elements of theory in the programme, and each one goes directly into a piece of work that eventually goes into a real-life, practical thing that you can show when applying for roles.”

Aoife Duggan

"The programme has given me practical tools that I can pick up and straight away implement in my current role."

Soumya Kaushik

“I’ll be straightforward about it: I do believe the programme can help you get a better paid job. I do believe that because the Career Accelerator helped me to change jobs.”

Gåbriela Romanïni

Prof James Smithies

Professor of Digital Humanities King’s College London

Dr Mark Hedges

Reader in Cultural Informatics the Department of Digital Humanities King’s College London

Janna Bastow

CEO of ProdPad and Co-founder of Mind the Product

Marc Abraham

Group Product Manager Intercom

Randeep Sidhu

Chief Product Officer Reliance Health

Nick Jemetta

Product expert and coach at Stories Matter

Pippa Topp

Product Leader, Consultant & Coach

Simon Elder

Post-graduate student (King’s College London) & Principal Product Lead

How much does this programme cost?

The tuition fee for this programme is £6,000 including VAT. Ask your Enrolment Advisor about Edaid and our other flexible payment plans.

Why choose a Career Accelerator?

Career accelerators deliver the technical skills needed to perform in real-world roles, the understanding necessary to translate those abilities into meaningful value, the human skills crucial for gaining and retaining jobs, and the reflective capabilities essential for ongoing growth.

Do I need to attend classes at certain times?

The majority of learning requirements can be completed asynchronously, in your own time. While attendance is strongly recommended for online webinar sessions and masterclasses, recordings will be made available at the conclusion of each session.

Live classes run mid week and outside of standard working hours. However, there is a weekly class that is timezone-friendly for the UK and South East Asia.

How is the programme delivered?

The programme is delivered entirely online through a virtual learning environment which is accessible from your personal computer or smartphone. Your personal Success Manager will be available to offer support and guide you through your learning journey.

What are the entry requirements?

Entry Requirements:

An academic transcript (a minimum of an undergraduate degree)
A 1-2 page CV demonstrating no less than 2 years of work experience, a supporting letter from your employer (if available)
If you don’t meet any of the above criteria, you can book a call with an Enrolment Advisor for further discussion and consideration.

Supporting documents required:

A 500-word personal statement answering a series of questions provided by an Enrolment Advisor
A copy of your proof of identity in the form of a passport/drivers license or birth certificate
Language proficiency test results (if you haven’t completed university study in English)

What is the role of the industry and employer partners?

These partners add industry experience to coursework development, share tech expertise and play a direct role in the portfolio project design. Through their insight into the ever-changing landscape in the digital economy, they ensure students develop skills aligned to workplace demand, offer exposure to employer networks and open up access to job opportunities.