CMU · Product Management Academy · 2024 — Present
PMA.
President, Product Management Academy at CMU.
President of CMU's Product Management Academy, a two-semester program training 60+ students per year in user research, product strategy, and real-world execution through industry partnerships and hands-on projects.
President · CMU Business Technology Group · 2024 — Present
the program
How the program works.
PMA evolved from a skills workshop into a structured two-semester program. The first semester builds foundational PM skills: user research, product sense, PRD development, and presentation. The second semester deploys those skills on real company partnerships, where members act as an on-campus research arm for startups and produce deliverables that directly influence product roadmaps.
10 exec members. 30 members per cohort. Two cohorts per year.
60+
students trained per year
2
company partnerships secured
project 1 · industry presentation
Project 1: Industry presentations.
Members apply the CIRCLES framework to solve genuine product pain points for companies including Tesla, Waymo, and Airbnb. Each team presents to external judges recruited from industry: Duolingo and PNC judged the most recent cycle, providing professional-grade feedback on problem framing, solution design, and business case.
project 2 · company partnership
Project 2: Company partnership.
PMA partnered with Perflection AI, a sports analysis startup, placing 20 members into active user research and product strategy roles. Members conducted user interviews, developed PRDs, and built a market expansion strategy delivered directly to the founder.
The project was structured to train members in client management, founder alignment, and the full product research cycle: not just the skills, but the judgment required to use them under real constraints.
speaker series
Speaker series.
Each semester includes a speaker series bringing in PMs from Big Tech and startups to share how their specific companies work: not generic PM advice, but the actual texture of how decisions get made at different organizations and scales.
running the org
Running the org.
Leading PMA meant running weekly exec syncs, managing project oversight across 6 teams simultaneously, coordinating external company relationships, and designing the curriculum from scratch each semester. The operational challenge was keeping 10 exec members aligned on priorities while giving each enough ownership to drive their area.
A formal program playbook was developed to standardize handoffs, define exec roles, and create a repeatable process for the next leadership team.
Recruitment
Defining the intake process, interview structure, and cohort composition each semester.
Curriculum
Designing project briefs, workshop content, and the speaker series from scratch each cycle.
Partnerships
Sourcing and managing external company relationships and judge recruitment.
where it's going
What comes next.
The longer-term vision for PMA is a continuous professional pipeline: foundational skills in the fall, experiential company projects in the spring, and an alumni network that stays connected after graduation. The current structure proved the model works. The next step is making it permanent.
