If you’ve recently taken an interest in product management, you may have noticed that there’s a subset of designations in this space that have the word “growth” thrown in everywhere – Growth Product Manager; Product Growth Manager; Product Manager, Growth; and Product, Growth.

And no, these aren’t just fancy synonyms for the same job. A quick Google search for the term “growth product manager” shows close to 7.5 billion results – nearly double what you get when searching “product manager.”

Udacity is excited to announce early access to the upcoming Growth Product Manager Nanodegree program.You can enroll today in the first course from the program, Growth and Acquisition Strategy, available for enrollment today at 30% off!  

Not only will you be able to get a head start on the full Growth Product Manager Nanodegree program, available in June, but taking this course will unlock 30% off the price of the full Nanodegree. All progress in this course can be applied towards graduation from the full Growth Product Manager Nanodegree program.

Product managers face a common challenge in the nascent stages of creating a product: finding the ideal methodology. While there’s a wide assortment of methodologies to choose from, each one has its own principles, rules, practices, processes, and pros and cons. And, there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach. 

The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines product management methodology  as a “framework that is used to structure, plan, and control the process of developing an information system.” 

Think of these methodologies as a series of steps that a product manager needs to execute (with the help of a team, of course ) to design, develop, and test a product toward its successful launch/ release. While it shares a certain degree of overlap with project management, product management is restricted to managing the life cycles of products only – from their birth (ideation/ design phase) to their distribution (market launch/ release).

However, with so many product management methodologies to choose from, how do you cherry-pick the best one for your product? The short answer is — it depends. The right methodology depends entirely on the variables you’re working with – primarily your timelines, flexibility, and budget. 

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach, there’s also not just one approach that’ll fit the bill. You may find that a combination of methodologies, such as Agile + Waterfall, may be right for your team.