How to use AI Product Academy, and why it works
AI Product Academy is a free, self-paced learning portal for anyone moving into AI product management or AI building. Most of the learning happens inside it: short lessons, each with an animated scene, a worked example, a try-it task and a quick check. A study buddy shapes the plan around your goal, your time and your energy. The academy picks one for your goal, and you can swap it any time.
It is built for two people. The learner wants a clear path, real practice and proof of skill. The mentor wants to guide without building a curriculum or chasing progress by message.
Start in 5 minutes
- Open the academyAny modern browser works, on a phone or a laptop. For the free in-browser AI, use Chrome or Edge on a laptop.
- Create a free accountEvery learner signs in. Your account keeps your progress on every device. If you used the academy on this device before accounts were required, that progress moves into your account at your first sign-in.
- Train your learner twinAbout two minutes. Your goal, starting point, rhythm, how you learn, how your buddy should coach you, how well you know the core courses, and one warm-up question. Your twin fills in beside the questions as you answer, then hands you a plan and a first lesson. Retrain it any time from My twin.
- Take the 1-minute tourYour buddy spotlights the parts of the app one at a time: Up next, the check-in, your week, courses, notebook, progress, search, sessions and the buddy itself. Your first lesson gets its own short tour. Replay it from Settings, or search for "tour".
- Open TodayYou see one lesson marked Up next, with its scene already playing. Tap how your energy is, from 1 to 5. Your buddy reshapes the week around it.
- Press Start lessonSix minutes later you have finished a lesson, answered a check and saved a note. That is a complete day.
Low on time? One lesson a day finishes a course in a week. The Paths page orders all 15 courses for your goal.
Inside a lesson
Every lesson opens full screen and shows one idea at a time, so there is nothing else to look at. The progress bar at the top shows every step. Tap any step to jump to it.
Why it matters, in two sentences.
An animation that shows the idea moving. Replay or enlarge it.
Two or three short sections. Save any of them to notes.
A worked example from real work.
Optional. Plays inside the lesson in YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode.
A 10-minute task on your own work. Your answer saves to notes.
One question with instant feedback and the reason.
What to keep, with the sources the lesson draws on.
Your buddy coaches you inside every lesson
Your buddy floats in the corner of every lesson and watches how it lands: time on each step, skimming, stepping away, and your answers. At the right moments it asks you to summarize an idea in your own words or write a note. It scores each summary for recall, shows what you covered and what to think about, and saves it to your course notes. Tap your buddy any time to summarize, take a note, get a quick fill-the-gap question, or ask anything.
- Active asks after every idea. Gentle asks after the ideas, at takeaways and at the end. Quiet waits until you tap it.
- At the end you get your buddy's read on the lesson, with focus, pace and recall, plus a two-line teach-back.
- If you skim with low recall twice, your buddy checks in more often for a while. When recall stays strong, it eases off.
Notes and your buddy stay beside you
Notes opens your course notes next to the lesson. The Ask button opens a chat that knows which step you are on, so "explain this more simply" works.
Shortcuts
→ next step, ← back, 1 to 4 answer a check, Esc close. Anywhere in the academy, Ctrl K or / opens search.
Without JavaScript, every lesson still shows in full on its course page, including the scene and the answer to the check.
The daily and weekly rhythm
Tap your energy on Today. On a low day, your buddy moves short lessons up and parks anything long. Finishing a lesson counts toward your daily minutes and your streak.
Start session in the top bar runs a timer with a before and after check-in: energy, focus, intention, then minutes, energy and confidence. These feed your trend charts.
A two-minute reflection: wins, struggles, one change, what helped most, and your hours for next week. Your buddy adjusts the plan to match.
Find your way around
Up next, your energy check-in, this week's plan with ticks, your streak and a map of every course.
All 15 courses in 4 tracks. Filter by track, or search courses and lesson titles.
The path shows every stop as a trail. Tabs: Path, Practice, Case study, Checks, Notes, and an optional Go deeper.
Your lesson path ordered for your goal, plus optional outside programs and syllabus maps.
Every note in one place. Select text anywhere and choose Save to notes.
Minutes, energy, lessons, checks, reflections and plain-word insights.
Questions for AI PM and AI builder rounds, each with a model answer and follow-ups. Run a timed mock, see your readiness, and build interview stories you can tell in 2 to 3 minutes.
On Today. Tell it your week in plain words, like "I have 3 hours" or "skip tomorrow". It shows what changes before you apply it, and answers "Am I on track?"
Four modes. Tutor explains and quizzes. Interview asks a question and grades your answer. Plan edits your week. Lenses gives three views on one question: theory, practice and industry.
Glossary, every case study, a tools atlas and an honest look at paid programs.
Optional. Course certificates, a 15-question final and three capstones.
Theme: Auto, Light or Dark, in the sidebar, in Settings, from search, or inside a lesson.
Optional by design
Nothing is locked. Every lesson in every course is open from day one. Three things are switches, not requirements.
On a course page. Planned courses come first on Today. Leave it off and your buddy still suggests the course when it fits your goal.
Finish every lesson in a course, pass its Foundations check, and pass its Mastery check with 80% or more. A certificate from AI Product Academy appears with your course score out of 100 and a grade: Distinction from 90, Merit from 80, Pass below that. Print it or save it as a PDF from the Certificates page.
A tab on every course with outside courses and guides, from Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and others. Useful, never required.
Levels and checks
| Checkpoint | When | Pass mark | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lesson check | End of every lesson | One question | Instant feedback. Retry as often as you like. |
| Foundations check | After a course's Foundations lessons | 2 of 3 | Completes the core course with its lessons. Practitioner lessons lead your plan. |
| Practice task | Optional | Done-when checklist | A real piece of work for your portfolio. Adds "With practical project" to the certificate. |
| Mastery check | Certificate | 4 of 5 | With every lesson and the Foundations check done, the course certificate appears. |
| Course score | On the certificate | Out of 100 | Mastery check 50%, Foundations check 25%, lesson checks right first time 15%, recall measured in lessons 10%. Best attempts count. |
| Final assessment | Any time, signed in | 12 of 15 | The academy certificate. The academy's server marks it, so the verify page can say the score was checked. Three marked attempts a day; the answers and explanations show once you pass. |
| Capstone | End of your path | Rubric | A portfolio project that mirrors real AI product work. |
How it adapts to you
Your buddy combines these signals to pick what comes next. All of it runs in your browser.
| Signal | Where it comes from | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | Add to my plan, and interests at setup | Planned courses come first |
| Goal | Setup or Settings | Courses central to your goal rank higher |
| Momentum | Lessons you have started | Courses in progress stay near the top |
| Checks | Lesson and course checks | The Foundations check appears when you are ready |
| Energy | Today check-in and sessions | On low days, short lessons move up and long items wait |
| Weekly hours | Setup and weekly reflection | This week's plan fits your time budget |
| Confidence | After a session | Courses you rate low get a nudge |
| Feel | "How did that feel?" after a lesson | Recorded for you and your mentor to spot lessons that were too hard or too easy |
| Knowledge map | Twin training and the warm-up question | Courses you know least join your plan first. Strong ones point you to the Foundations check |
| Learning style | Twin training | Videos, reading or hands-on items get more weight |
| Recall | Summaries and teach-backs scored in lessons | Low recall makes your buddy coach more. Your mentor sees average recall |
Your buddy and AI options
The academy picks a buddy for your goal when you start. Pick another in Settings, and the app calls it by its name. Every buddy answers the same way, so this guide says "your buddy".
What your buddy does
- Explains any idea with a short header, bullets and a table when it helps, then checks you understood with one question
- Quizzes you and grades your answer
- Knows the lesson step you are on
- Runs interview practice and grades your answer against a rubric
- Changes your weekly plan when you tell it about your week
- Answers questions about your own notes: summaries, flashcards, gaps
- Saves a note when you type "note:" followed by the note
Pick how your buddy thinks
Gemma in this browser is the default. On a laptop with Chrome or Edge it downloads once and then runs on your device. On mobile data it waits for your tap. To change it, open Settings, choose a provider and press Turn on.
| Option | Needs | Cost | Good to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built-in coach | Nothing | ₹0 | Answers from the academy's own content. Works everywhere, instantly. Used on phones, and wherever Gemma cannot run. |
| Gemma in this browser (the default) | Chrome or Edge on a laptop with WebGPU | ₹0 | A one-time download of about 0.7 GB, cached after that. The model files are served from the academy's own site when available. Nothing you type leaves your device. |
| Gemma through Ollama | Ollama installed on your computer | ₹0 | Stronger answers for learners comfortable installing software. |
| Your own key: Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, OpenRouter or any OpenAI-compatible API | An API key from that provider | Billed by the provider to you | Calls go straight from your browser to the provider. The key stays in this browser only. It is never synced, never exported and never sent to the academy's server. Google AI Studio and OpenRouter both offer free tiers. |
Any model can be wrong, small local ones more often. Your buddy only recommends lessons from the academy, and the lessons stay the source of truth.
Accounts, sync and privacy
| What | In your browser | In your account |
|---|---|---|
| Profile, goal, plan | Yes | Yes, when signed in |
| Lessons, checks, sessions, reflections | Yes | Yes, when signed in |
| Learner twin, recall scores, lesson pulse | Yes | Yes, when signed in |
| Interview scores and saved plans | Yes | Yes, when signed in |
| Notes, case answers, try-it answers, interview answers, stories and plan notes | Yes | Only if you turn on "Sync my notes too" |
| Chats with your buddy, including Lenses | Yes | Never |
| Feedback you send on an answer | Yes | Only when you press send: the question (first 200 characters) and your comment go to the academy owner |
| Feedback about the academy (Help, Send feedback) | No | Your words, the type you picked and the page you were on go to the academy owner. Your email only if you tick the box |
| Weekly digests and summary text | Yes | Only if you turn on "Sync my notes too". Recall scores always sync |
| Your buddy's instructions and memories | Yes | Yes, when signed in |
| Certificates you register | Yes | Yes. Your printed name, the course, score and date can be checked by anyone who has the certificate number |
| Final assessment answers | No | Sent to the academy's server to be marked, then dropped. Only the score, and the certificate when you pass, are kept |
| Your API keys | Yes, for your account only. Removed when you sign out | Never |
Email and password. Data sits in a database protected by row-level security, so each learner can only read their own rows. You agree to this when you create the account.
A learning summary: lessons done, minutes, checks passed, energy trends and when you were last active. Never your notes, chats or keys.
Settings, Your data: Export saves your data as a file and Import loads it. Import shows what a file will change first and never changes your AI settings or keys. Only import files you made yourself or got from someone you trust. Sign out keeps this browser's copy and removes your API keys. "Sign out and clear this device" erases everything, which is right for shared computers.
Supabase stores accounts and progress in its Mumbai region. Vercel hosts the site. Resend sends the welcome email. Gemma's model files download once from Hugging Face into your browser's cache; your questions to Gemma never leave your device. If you add your own AI key, your questions go straight from your browser to that provider.
Settings, Danger zone, "Delete my account and all data" removes your profile, progress, events and certificates from the database. Copies in this browser go when you choose "Start fresh" or "Sign out and clear this device".
Running the program as a mentor
- First session, 45 minutesAgree the goal, look at two job ads together, add two or three courses to the plan, and lock weekly hours and a demo date.
- Weekly 30-minute check-inOpen Progress together: minutes against goal, energy before and after, lessons, checks and the latest reflection.
- Review work, not activitySpend most of the time on try-it answers, practice tasks and the capstone. Ask what failed and why.
- Read the analyticsIn the Supabase dashboard for the projx project, open the SQL editor and run select * from analytics.learner_summary. Two more views help: analytics.daily_activity and analytics.energy_trend.
- Connect real peopleAdd your cohort's Discord, WhatsApp, Slack or Teams link in Settings, Community. It appears in your buddy's Lenses mode.
- End with a demoFive minutes: the problem, the people they spoke to, what they built, where it fails and what they would do next.
Impact
A clear path from Foundations to Expert. Learning that happens in short, focused lessons instead of 40 open tabs. Practice tasks and capstones that become portfolio pieces.
No curriculum to build. One screen to review progress each week. Conversations move from "what should I learn" to reviewing real work.
Near-zero running cost: static hosting and a free database tier. Covers the 11 modules of a leading IIM programme syllabus, plus evals, agile, systems thinking and project management.
Cost to learn the same ground
Program fees as published in September and October 2026. Bars to scale.
The IIM Kozhikode programme whose syllabus this academy follows does not state its fee in the brochure and needs 5 or more years of work experience.
The design leans on well-established study practice: testing yourself instead of rereading, spacing review over days, applying ideas to real tasks, and reflecting on what worked. That is why every lesson ends with a check, a try-it task and takeaways.
Measuring impact
Impact is a claim until it is measured. Track these over an 8-week cohort. With accounts on, the analytics views give the numbers without asking the learner.
| Outcome | Measure | Suggested 8-week target |
|---|---|---|
| Consistency | Days with learning in the last 14 | 8 or more |
| Learning volume | Lessons finished | 30 or more |
| Learning that sticks | Foundations checks passed | 5 or more |
| Applied skill | Try-it answers saved, practice tasks done | 15 and 2 |
| Portfolio | Capstone demo delivered | 1 |
| Engagement quality | Average energy after minus before | 0 or higher |
| Self-awareness | Weekly reflections completed | 6 of 8 |
| Career outcome | Interviews or offers for AI PM or AI Builder roles | Track per learner |
These targets are starting points, not benchmarks. Numbers count only signed-in learners, and a learner's notes stay on their device unless they turn on note sync.
Questions
Do I need an account?
Yes. Accounts are free. You sign in with your email, your progress syncs across devices, and your mentor can see your learning summary.
The in-browser AI will not start.
Open Settings, pick Gemma in this browser and press Check this device. It tests WebGPU, your graphics chip, storage and the download, and says which one fails. Common causes: a browser without WebGPU, graphics acceleration switched off, a private window, or a network that blocks huggingface.co. Press Copy details and send the report to your mentor. The built-in coach always works, and a free Gemini or OpenRouter key is the quickest fallback.
Is my API key safe?
It stays in your browser's storage on this device. It is never synced or exported, and calls go straight to the provider. Use "Forget key" in Settings on shared computers, and set a spending limit with your provider.
My progress disappeared.
Check that you signed in with the same email. Progress syncs to your account, so any browser picks it up after you sign in. Notes stay on the device where you wrote them unless you turn on note sync in Settings.
Do I need to pay for certificates?
No. Course certificates here are free and optional. Outside certificates in Go deeper vary. Your strongest proof is a shipped project.
Are the Lenses views real people?
No. They are AI views labelled theory, practice and industry. To reach real people, use your cohort's community link, shown in Lenses.
How long does the full academy take?
All 75 lessons take about 8 hours of reading, plus try-it tasks. At 6 hours a week, most learners finish the core of every course in two to three months, with practice tasks and a capstone on top.
AI Product Academy companion guide · October 2026
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