In today’s fast-paced world of business and technology, it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that certifications alone define your capabilities as a project or product manager. Over the years, I’ve completed certifications like the Google Project Management via Coursera and earned my CSPO (Certified Scrum Product Owner) via Scrum Alliance. I’ve also taken few micro-certifications. While these courses taught me valuable knowledge about tools, frameworks, and methodologies, the truth is, project and product management goes far beyond certifications.
These programs helped me understand the core elements and gave me exposure to important practices in the industry. However, I truly mastered these skills only by getting my hands dirty, leading teams, and solving real-world challenges. I’ve realized that project and product management can’t be entirely taught in a classroom—it’s about leadership, handling tough situations, and making decisions when everything’s on the line.
Leadership Over Certifications
Being a project or product manager is more about leadership than technical expertise. Leadership is a skill that isn’t granted by a certificate; it’s developed through experience. Some people excel in technical skills but struggle with leadership, while others naturally have the ability to inspire, organize, and lead without formal training.
Simon Sinek, a leadership expert, illustrates this well with his example from the Marine Corps. He explains that potential officers undergo six weeks of intense training where they can quit at any time. This training is designed to weed out those who don’t want to be leaders. As Sinek puts it, “The first criterion to being a leader is you have to want to be one.” Leadership is tough—it can be thankless, lonely, and incredibly challenging. But in project and product management, it’s what makes the difference between success and failure.
One thing I’ve learned from my experiences is that no certification can prepare you for the real-world challenges you face in the field. For instance, I once led a project demonstration where everything seemed perfect—until the solution failed due to an unexpected angle of sunlight affecting the camera. This was something we hadn’t encountered before, and no textbook or course could have prepared me for the heat of that moment, both literally and figuratively. I had to accept the failure gracefully and quickly think on my feet, acknowledging the problem while managing the client’s expectations, all while battling my own internal guilt.
Balancing Personal and Professional Commitments
Being a project manager often requires balancing personal and professional responsibilities—another aspect no certification can fully prepare you for. I remember a time when my employer used me as an example of dedication to others because I traveled across the country for a work commitment the day after my wedding. This might seem extreme to many, but I had made a commitment well before my marriage date was set. It was my responsibility to manage both my personal and professional commitments, and I did so by discussing it with my family and gaining their support rather than walking away from the commitment.
Leadership in project and product management often means making these tough calls—balancing your time, keeping your promises, and staying accountable, no matter how challenging the circumstances.
Practical Experience vs. Theoretical Knowledge
It’s easy to say things like, “know your customer” or “interview your users,” but putting these principles into practice is much more difficult. During one project, I found myself standing next to an attendance device at a hospital, observing how random person interact with the device and how staff used it to clock in and out. On the surface, this might sound simple, but the discomfort of standing there as a stranger, taking mental notes on behavior, is not something a certification teaches you. It’s the hands-on learning and the real-time observations that help you understand your customer in ways a classroom cannot. A funny aspect, a guest used this device to many times on different days to comb hair.
Another time, I launched a solution for a client whose business handled thousands of dollars in weekly transactions. The pressure of ensuring nothing went wrong was immense. I couldn’t sleep or eat, not because it was part of my job description, but because I knew the stakes were incredibly high. I stayed awake, monitoring every detail, even though I wasn’t being paid for those extra hours. Certifications can teach you how to plan for a launch, but only experience can prepare you for the reality of it.
Leadership in High-Stakes Situations
Leadership is about how you handle pressure, especially when things go wrong. Simon Sinek often speaks about leadership as the responsibility to help those around you rise, even when it’s hard. Leadership isn’t about delegating tasks or following a checklist—it’s about stepping up when the stakes are high and taking responsibility for the outcome.
No certification prepared me for the time when I was in front of a room of clients, sweating both from the physical heat and the internal pressure, when a solution failed due to a reason no one could have foreseen. Leadership, not certification, is what allowed me to remain calm, accept the failure, and offer a plan for improvement.
Handling Unique Challenges
Every project brings its own set of unique challenges, and learning by doing is the only way to normalize those experiences. Certifications are useful for providing a foundation, but it’s the real-world situations that truly shape you as a manager. Whether it’s troubleshooting technical failures on the fly, balancing personal and professional commitments, or standing by a solution you launched while facing the risks, the true essence of project and product management lies in how you navigate uncertainty and lead in moments of crisis.
Conclusion: Experience Over Certification
In the end, while certifications like the Google Project Management Course or CSPO have given me valuable tools, the reality is that project and product management is about leadership, not certificates. It’s about having the ability to make tough decisions, take responsibility, and guide a team through unexpected challenges. Certifications provide a strong foundation, but leadership is something you develop through practice, persistence, and navigating real-world challenges. Leadership is a skill anyone can learn, but it’s only mastered through experience. As a project or product manager, your real growth happens when you’re in the field, handling situations no certification could have ever predicted.