Contents:
- Product management in digital business
- Participants
- Relevance
- Structure of the track
- How to prepare
- Benefits for winners
- Product management at ITMO
Product management in digital business
Product Management in Digital Business is a new track of the competition that’s all about developing products and bringing them to the market. Participants of the track will complete the full cycle of creating a digital solution, from an idea to its implementation; along the way, participants will apply the methods and tools of product management on real data provided by the track’s general partner – X5 Group.
With digitalization, businesses can increase their competitiveness, efficiency, and profit by optimizing business processes, lowering expenses, and facilitating decision-making. These conditions call for new products and those who manage their development. Product managers developing digital products for business have to be capable of analyzing the market to understand user demands and the best ways to meet them. In this way, such managers are translators from the language of business into the lingo of both users and developers. In order to create a popular solution, product managers need to be able to work with big data, classic and strategic management, the methods of sociology, cognitive sciences, psychology, as well as be able to work in an interdisciplinary team. This profession lies at the intersection of social and exact sciences.
Participants
The competition is open to Bachelor’s, Specialist’s, and Master’s students in both offline, hybrid, or online programs.
Registration for the competition is open until November 11. You can use your existing Yandex account or create a new one. To sign up for the contest, simply fill out the form on the official website and choose the tracks you want to pursue; you can choose as many tracks as you like. To complete the registration process, you’ll have to upload a scanned copy of your student ID or a certificate confirming your student status.
Photo by Alex Strechyunas / ITMO Mediaportal
Relevance
Join the track if you want to learn more about product management – even if you aren’t studying in a related program. This track will be of interest to anyone studying economics, business informatics, innovation studies, and information technologies.
Structure of the track
As per the contest’s rules, the tasks cannot be revealed in advance; to prepare, participants can use the demo version that will become available on the contest’s website in October. All updates will be published on the contest’s social media.
The track Product Management in Digital Business will include two rounds.
Selection round. This will take place online on November 14 – December 1. Participants will have to solve tests in various formats: multiple choice, short answers, or long-form answers. This round is meant to test a participant’s systems thinking and knowledge of product management tools and their applications when working with digital products. For instance, students will have to apply the Jobs-to-Be-Done concept and calculate a product’s key metrics: retention coefficient, conversion, and DAU.
Final round. This round will take place in March-April, 2026. In this round, participants will have several days to design an MVP of a digital product and its market strategy. The tasks for this round will be based on real-world business tasks of the track’s general partner, X5 Group. Finalists will also work with depersonalized user data.
These projects will be defended in front of the expert committee with leading product managers and product development consultants of partner companies, as well as faculty of ITMO and other Russian universities. Participation in the final is an opportunity to showcase your skills in front of potential employers and management experts – and ask your questions to experienced professionals.
Photo by Mikhail Mirushchenko / ITMO Mediaportal 
How to prepare
- Look through the demo tasks that will be published on the official website by late October.
- Revise all the key concepts and methods in classic and strategic management related to product development.
- In terms of reading materials, it’s recommended to peruse Henri Fayol’s General and Industrial Management, as well as this guidebook on innovation economics and technological entrepreneurship (in Russian).
- Watch open lectures by Mikhail Pokidko, a lecturer at ITMO’s Faculty of Technological Management and Innovations (in Russian).
Benefits for winners
Medalists of the I Am a Professional Competition receive monetary prizes: bronze medalists – 100,000-150,000 rubles; silver – 150,000-200,000 rubles; and gold – 200,000-300,000 rubles.
Moreover, winners and medalists get access to the I Am a Professional career portal with job and internship postings, career consultations, and all kinds of online events from partner companies. Additionally, all categories of winners can get internship offers to these companies and benefits when applying to Russian universities, including ITMO.
Photo by Kirill Dzhenzherukha / ITMO Mediaportal
Product management at ITMO
At ITMO, product management is taught at the Faculty of Technological Management and Innovations – both at the Bachelor’s (in the Technologies and Innovations program) and Master’s levels:
In the program Digital Products: Development and Management, students learn to design digital solutions and manage them in such fields as edtech, gamedev, retail, ecommerce, and fintech. Here, students master not only product management fundamentals, but also efficient communication with development, marketing, and design teams. They also get to practice these skills in collaboration with experts from partner companies.
In the online program Product Design (ITMO and Netology), students learn to analyze user product experience and tailor it to a particular target audience, as well as create convenient and user-friendly interfaces and texts and apply the product approach to digital solutions. Additionally, students master methods for conducting research, interviews, and analysis of products’ economic efficiency, data collection and processing, as well as tools for design of digital services and more.
