Product Management

You leave with five product documents you can talk through with somebody who asks.

nine weeksonlinesix to nine hours a weekin Englishfree

You write each one from a blank page. You walk through each one on a live call - the last with someone from Relativity.

Is this you?

People join this academy from one of three places.

You work in tech, but not as a product manager.

As a project manager, tester, analyst or designer you already do part of the job, without a method and without it on your CV. Here you take five projects from a customer's problem to the requirements and explain your decisions on each.

You have years of experience in another field.

Finance, logistics, research, design. You know your field from the inside, and tech companies ask for product experience. Here you write five product documents you can show and talk through in an interview.

You are finishing your studies and choosing between product, analysis and engineering.

Here you spend nine weeks doing what a product manager does, and find out whether it fits before you choose.

This question comes up in project 3.

Data after launch. A senior PM reads your report and can say what you recommend and which data points it stands on.

The first page of a Product Performance & Iteration Report with four section headings: Metric Tree & Key Outcomes, Interpretation & Insight, Iteration Proposal and Reflection.

line 3 of 5 · the project 3 call

Which number in the launch data looks like progress, and what do you read in its place?

You learn to tell a number that only looks like progress from one that shows it.

You point at it, say what it hides, and show the metric you read instead.

Five projects.

Each one starts with a task and an empty document, with no template.

nine weeks, one project open at a time

A slide from a deck titled My First Week as a PM at Relativity, listing its four sections: Relativity Overview, The PM Role in the Triad, Case Insight and Personal Learning Plan Highlights, beside a strip of the deck's slides.

First week at Relativity

1 week

Somebody who has never worked at Relativity reads your deck and can say what Relativity does and how a PM works with Engineering and Design there.

A one-page Opportunity Canvas with seven labelled boxes: Problem / Opportunity, Who's Affected, Current Behaviors, Pain Points, Desired Outcomes, Assumptions / Unknowns and Potential Opportunities.

Discovery, in two parts

1 week

Somebody reads your canvas and knows what the problem is, who it affects, why it matters, and where opportunity might exist.

Data after launch

2 weeks

A senior PM reads your report and can say what you recommend and which data points it stands on.

A slide from an Executive Strategy Deck listing its six sections in order: Strategic Recommendation, Metric Tree, OKRs, Prioritization Summary, Outcome Roadmap and Decision Log, beside a strip of the deck's slides.

Strategy and prioritization

2 weeks

Leadership reads your deck and knows which path you recommend, which segment you optimize for, and which segments you are not prioritizing.

The first page of a Product Definition & Delivery Package with four headings, from the Product Requirements Document to the first-increment plan and risk register, next to a second document titled Bringing Stakeholders Along.

From requirements to stakeholders

3 weeks

An engineer and a designer who did not attend your meetings read your package and could begin building the first increment.

plus a stakeholder update on the same feature

Inside one project.

the same five steps, in this order

step 1 of 5

A real problem from Relativity's work

It opens with one to three readings and an exercise on somebody else's work.
step 2 of 5

You write it

You hand in the finished work. If you change something after that, you hand in the new version, as many times as you need.
step 3 of 5

Your cohort sees it

The cohort sees your work, and you see theirs.
step 4 of 5

You revise

If it needs it, you come back with a new version and say what changed in it and why.
step 5 of 5

You explain it out loud

Screen shared, at an hour you announce. Somebody who already defended this project takes it, usually a person from your cohort. While nobody has, we take it. On project 5 a mentor from Relativity takes it together with a classmate.

defendednot yet

Not yet goes back to the same person for another round, as many times as it takes.

What you walk out with.

Three questions people ask somebody entering the profession, and what you answer them with.

they askShow me something you made.

Five product documents, each started from an empty document: a deck, an opportunity canvas, a data report, a strategy deck and a requirements package.

they askCan you walk me through your thinking?

You did it five times, screen shared, to somebody who asked questions.

they askHas anyone from the industry seen your work?

A mentor from Relativity ran your project 5 defence, together with a classmate.

A certificate with your name, for five defended projects.

Relativity.

Relativity makes RelativityOne, software that law firms, companies and government agencies use to sort and search the documents of a legal case. People from Relativity are the mentors.

Founded in 2001. The academy programme started in 2020 and has been called Relevate since 2025.

Careers at Relativity ↗

where they are

Chicago (HQ)
Kraków
London
Sydney

Headquarters at 231 S. LaSalle, Chicago - 100,000 sq ft.

what they put their name on

Justice for Change
Stellar Women
Rel Labs
AI Visionaries
Relativity Academic
Relevate - you are here

built with

One Million Degrees
Braven
Year Up
Hearty Foundation

Great Place to Work Certified 2025-2026 · Chicago Tribune Top Workplaces 2025 · Diamenty Forbesa 2023 (Poland)

1,500+

people worldwide

~650

of them in Chicagoland

300k+

users of RelativityOne

~40

countries; users include 198 of the Am Law 200

None of this came from a curriculum.

Why Relativity runs this

It came from people at Relativity who showed up. Three and a half minutes on how the programme started and what it is for.

Sean Neilsen · Manager of Talent Pathways programming, Relativity

Plays here - nothing starts on its own.

Mentors.

Gabriela Mis

mentor

Matt Johlie

Abhishek Sarihan

Mateusz Zmuda

Hannah Woodruff

Ivan Alfaro

Erin Tomine

Three things we agree on.

What the nine weeks take, and the one thing we ask for.

B2

English, every day.

Every call, every review and every defence is in English. You do not need to be fluent - you will be using it every day, and that is how it gets better.
6-9 h

A week, across nine weeks.

Three evenings, rather than one long weekend a month.
+1 round

When a call ends in 'not yet'.

You hear what to change, you change it, and you show it again to the person who asked for it, as many times as it takes.

one more thing

A bad day costs nobody a place. What we ask for is respect - for the people whose work you read, and for the people reading yours.

Ready when you are.

October 27

free, start to finish

Join · October 27

Tell me when a new cohort opens

one mail per cohort · unsubscribe in every mail

What people ask before they join.

Do I need a CV or a test to join?

No. You fill in one screen with your name and your email, and you are in the cohort on the same click.

I am over 30 and come from another field. Can I join?

Yes. You need to be 18 or older. Nobody asks for a degree, your field or a CV.

Do I need to have worked as a product manager?

No. Project 1 starts with what a product manager at Relativity does and how they work with engineering and design. It is not project management: a project manager sees that a thing gets built, a product manager decides what to build and why.

How is this different from a postgraduate course or a PRINCE2 certificate?

There is no knowledge exam here. You write five documents a product manager writes at work, and somebody asks about each one on a call. PRINCE2 and PMP are project management certificates; this academy teaches product management.

Do I get a mentor on every project?

No. Somebody who has already passed the project takes your call, usually a person from your cohort, and while nobody has, we take it. On project 5 a mentor from Relativity takes it, together with a classmate.

What language is it in?

English: the reading, the calls and the reviews. If English is not your first language, you need B2 when you speak.

Will I get a job at the end?

Nobody can promise that, and we do not. You leave with five product documents - a deck, an opportunity canvas, a data report, a strategy deck and a requirements package - and five calls behind you.

What if these dates do not suit me?

Leave your email under the cohorts. You get one mail when a cohort opens, with its dates.

Does it cost anything?

No, from the first project to the fifth. There is no paid second stage. You sign no contract, and you can leave at any time. nerds.family runs the academy, and Relativity, a company from Chicago, pays for it because it wants to meet people by their work.