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USC Marshall Launches Product Management Minor

USC Marshall Launches Product Management Minor

Designed for students from all undergraduate majors, the minor centers on identifying market needs, managing teams, and developing new products.

by: Alexander Bernard
08.05.26
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Featured

  • Gordon Ho

    Gordon Ho
    • Professor of the Practice in Management and Organization
  • Nan Jia

    Nan Jia
    • Department Chair of Management and Organization
    • Capt. Henry W. Simonsen Chair in Strategic Entrepreneurship
    • Professor of Strategic Management

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USC Marshall School of Business is launching a new Product Management (PM) minor in Fall 2026. Throughout the 16-credit program, students will learn to identify key market needs, align teams, and manage product development and distribution.

The minor will be open to all USC students, including those from within Marshall. Gordon Ho, professor of the practice in management and organization and faculty lead for the minor, believes the interdisciplinary nature of the PM program will empower students to collaborate with new voices and innovate across fields.

“All industries rely on products and services to succeed. No products, no services, no business,” Ho explained. “Within USC, we have this wonderful intersection of different disciplines. We’re in this great community where AI is thriving, where products across media, sports, and healthcare create a thriving marketplace. This is the time for USC to put its stamp on the area of product management.”

The professor stresses that the minor will extend far beyond theoretical lessons, providing students with a hands-on experience that prepares them for whatever their chosen professions may be.

“A lot of companies really want previous product management or product-relevant experience,” Ho observed. “We try to do that through hands-on projects — the ability to work as a team to actually get a product out the door, launch it, get customers, get results. I think that also improves the chance of people who have the minor to get that internship or maybe get that product-adjacent job.”

To ensure students have industry exposure, Ho plans to leverage the Trojan Family through alumni speakers from leading organizations such as Disney, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Fanatics.

“The Trojan Family is one of the differentiators for why we are able to launch this product management minor now,” Ho said. “If you look at our guest speakers, we have people across the industry and the majority of them are alumni who are thrilled to talk about their roles in product management or related fields … They’ve all said two things. One, I wish this program existed when I was here. And two, I’m so glad to be participating in giving back through this product management minor.”

The minor’s courses will span across Marshall departments of management and organization, marketing, entrepreneurship, data sciences and operations, and business communications and also include electives from Viterbi TAC and Iovine and Young Academy (IYA). Core topics will include customer discovery, product strategy, prioritization, product requirements, agile execution, stakeholder alignment, metrics, go-to-market planning, and AI applications. These subjects will then be applied through case studies, team negotiations, digital product development, and AI enabled prototypes.

While Ho highlights the need to incorporate AI into the minor’s curriculum, he also emphasizes that the program will develop human leaders capable of thriving in a technology-driven world.

“One of the key components that we try to stress is the role that you have to play in aligning teams,” Ho said. “How do you connect people across different disciplines? Might be research, engineering, design, marketing. How do you get all those teams aligned around the vision, around the priorities of the roadmap? That takes leadership skills, that takes human negotiation and persuasion skills, all things that we include within our minor.”

If you say, ‘There’s got to be a better way,’ then it sounds like you want to build products and you want to get into the field of product management or a product-adjacent field.

— Gordon Ho

Professor of the Practice in Management and Organization / Faculty Lead, Product Management Minor

The professor has been teaching product management courses for years along with minor co-developer Nan Jia, department chair of management and organization. In that time, he’s found success with students across USC schools, from inside and outside Marshall.

“Product Management with Professor Gordon was the most transformative course I’ve taken at USC,” said Joseph Solomon ’26, a Marshall graduate and master’s student at the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy. “If you’re passionate about tech, startups, or innovation, this class is a game-changer.”

For Ho, this minor is a perfect opportunity for any student who wants to make an impact in their careers. In fact, he believes the program may be more relevant to different majors than students realize.

“In terms of the product management minor, I would ask a student, ‘Do you enjoy talking to people and learning about what problems they have?’ If you say, ‘There’s got to be a better way,’ then it sounds like you want to get into the field of product management,” Ho said.

Students interested in the minor can find more information about eligibility requirements and how to submit an application on the Marshall Minors website.

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