Welcome to this hands-on course designed to help Product and Program Managers harness the power of Large Language Models (LLMs) in their daily work. Hi👋 - I'm Erik Howard, and I've created this material to share practical prompt engineering techniques that can help you become more effective and efficient in your role.
As AI tools like Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and others become increasingly powerful, the ability to effectively communicate with these models is becoming an essential skill for product professionals. Rather than just using AI for basic questions, you can leverage these tools to help with complex tasks like user research synthesis, stakeholder communications, roadmap planning, and much more.
This course I created focuses on practical applications specific to product management work - not theoretical AI concepts or generic prompting advice. By the end, you'll have concrete techniques you can immediately apply to save time and improve your work output.
By completing this 5-day course (plus bonus module), you'll gain:
- A clear understanding of how LLMs work and their capabilities/limitations
- 6-10 reusable prompt templates tailored to PM/PO tasks
- A practical checklist for refining and improving your prompts
- A starter playbook for integrating AI into your daily workflow
- Guidelines for ethical and effective AI use in team settings
A brief overview of the course structure and what you can expect to learn. We'll set the stage for how AI can specifically benefit product managers with the right prompting approach.
Learn the basics of how Large Language Models work (without the math), their key capabilities and limitations, and the fundamentals of good prompt construction. You'll practice converting vague stakeholder requests into clear, effective prompts and see the difference in quality between good and bad prompts.
Master essential techniques like role prompting, few-shot learning, chain-of-thought reasoning, and output constraints. The exercises include creating a Product Requirements Document (PRD) using these techniques and tailoring outputs for different stakeholders.
Take your skills to the next level with meta-prompting, advanced summarization techniques, information extraction and categorization, and multi-perspective analysis. You'll practice analyzing user feedback and conducting competitive analysis with these powerful approaches.
Learn to critically assess LLM outputs, identify subtle errors and hallucinations, and develop iterative prompting strategies that improve quality. The practical exercise involves taking a flawed product roadmap and transforming it into a presentation-ready deliverable through systematic prompt iteration.
Apply everything you've learned to real PM workflows like decision support, stakeholder communication, and backlog management. You'll develop a personal 30-day plan for integrating AI tools into your routine and learn to measure the ROI of your AI usage.
Navigate important considerations around data privacy, content attribution, avoiding over-reliance, and addressing bias in diverse team settings. The practical exercise guides you in creating ethical AI guidelines for your product team.
Each module is designed to be completed in about 1-2 hours. I recommend:
- Read through the day's content
- Complete the exercises with an LLM of your choice
- Try the homework assignments with your actual work tasks
- Review the next day's content with your learnings in mind
You can complete the entire course in a week of focused study, or spread it out over several weeks as your schedule allows.
I've put significant time into creating this free resource because I believe these skills will become increasingly valuable for product professionals. My goal isn't to turn you into an AI expert, but rather to help you apply these powerful tools to the work you're already doing – making you more efficient, insightful, and effective.
I would love to hear your feedback about the course - what worked well, what could be improved, and how you've applied these techniques in your organization. Feel free to reach out with your thoughts and experiences. Also consider subscribing to my newsletter, LLM Wire, for updates on prompt engineering and related topics.
Happy prompting! ✨
Erik Howard
Start your journey with the Introduction and then proceed to Day 1. 🚀