Product management is one of the most interesting and growing job sectors in the hi-tech industry. But what is Product Management, why is it important and how can you learn this craft? Those are the questions we'll be answering in this course taught by Leon Malalel, Product expert and instructor at the Technion Institute of Technology.
Product management is one of the key processes in any technology organization that produces products and solutions. The process enables a holistic view product life cycle and includes the idea stage, business planning, problem and solution definition (problem-solution fit), requirements, development guidance, marketing positioning, product launch including market exposure and sales assistance.
Unfortunately, most new products fail, mainly because of business parameters. One of the main reasons for product failure is lack of an effective product management process and structure in place.
In this course you'll learn:
• Product management tools, approaches and best practices
• Product marketing tools
• How to conduct market research
• Lean Startup methodology
and more!
Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
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Syllabus
It's November 2nd, 2016 and Microsoft is launching a new product: Microsoft Teams. Across the country, Slack, a start-up that has spent the last seven years building an extremely similar product - reacts swiftly. The next day, a full page ad appears in The NY Times. It’s a letter, from Slack to Microsoft: "Dear Microsoft, Wow. Big news! Congratulations on today’s announcements. We’re genuinely excited to have some competition."
The product wars have begun!
Join Leon Malalel, a Product Management veteran with extensive experience in global, multinational enterprises and startups to learn the ins and outs of this interesting domain.
Product management is one of the most sought after jobs on the market, and with good reason! Being part of building something and bringing it to market is fascinating and challenging and involves teamwork, grit and discipline. During this course you'll be learning all the skill you need to succeed in this fun but challenging domain.
This lesson will start with the basics, answering some key questions: • What is a product? • Why do products fail? • How can you know in advance if your product will fail? • How can you make your product succeed?
What is the role the product manager? What are your responsibilities? Should you focus on marketing or on R&D? These are some of the questions you'll learn in this lesson. We'll also cover: • The changing market environments and why it matters • The product life cycle • Product "envelopes"
Is their a method to getting product management right? Is there a correct order in which to do things? How do you know what activities are dependent on other teams and what you should get done on your own? In this lesson we're learning the answer to all these questions. You'll learn: • What a methodology is and why it's important • What's unique about the product management methodology • The product management methodology
Competition is what keeps most entrepreneurs awake at night. But what's the right way to approach your competiton? What do you need to know about them and how seriously should you take them?
In this lesson you'll learn: • How to conduct market analysis • The 6 goals of the market analysis • Why a competitive landscape is important • 4 categories of competitors • How you should deal with different kinds of competition
Good product management starts with understanding and talking to your customers. You have to have a keen understanding of the problems you're solving and how your customers use your solution. In this lesson you'll learn: • 8 methods for talking to customers • When to talk to customers • A powerful technique for researching your market
One of the most important documents for a new product or business is the business plan. In this module you'll learn: • What goes into the business plan • Why it's important • Who to present it to and how
What do Airbnb and Disney have in common? What can you learn from the about your users? Understanding your users, who they are and how they use your products is critical for your products succes. In this lesson you'll learn: • The three questions of product strategy • How to build a user person and use cases • What the Market Requirements Document is
Time to start defining your product! But where do you start? First is product research, then it's on to defining your product based on all the market research you've done up to now. That is what this lesson is about. You'll learn: The 3 goals of product research • 5 customer centric lenses for defining your solution • 4 technical lenses for defining your solution • How to use innovation
How can you decide which features go into your product? How do you know which to work on first and which later? Once you've decided, how do you convey this important information to your team in a clear way? This lesson will cover that! You'll learn: • How to structure the Product Requirements Document • How to build a product roadmap • How to communicate these important deliverables to your team
Ever had something fail because of miscommunication? If so, you’re not alone! Miscommunication and unaligned expectations are incredibly common in the workplace. In order to get around them, we must understand where these miscommunications come from and how we can avoid them.
This is especially critical when two teams are working together. Especially teams as different as R&D and product management. So join us for some insight into where communication goes wrong and what system to put in place so that you can avoid it.
You'll learn: • Why goes wrong between Product Management and R&D? • How to manage tensions with the Product Delivery Process • How to use the ARCI model • How to adjust to R&D’s work process
Storytelling is important in product marketing, but how do you know what story to tell? What about your product should you emphasize and what shouldn't you? Should you change your products positioning based on who you're targeting? In this lesson you'll learn: • Why product positioning is critical to product success • How to position your product and craft a positioning statement • The difference between sales and marketing
Your product is ready, the features are set, you've positioned it as well as possible and it's time to launch! The only thing left is actually selling it. So who's in charge of selling your product? The sales team of course. Working well with your sales team is a unique and challenging task. There are some "inside information" you need to know to do it well. In this lesson you'll learn: • How to work with sales on a personal level • What information you need to get from sales to improve your product • How you can help the sales team succeed
Welcome to the last lesson of this course where we'll be discussing product strategy! What are the high level goals of your product? How does it connect to the rest of your company's goals? How can you analyze your product? In this lesson you'll learn: • What product strategy is • How to analyze your product using four frameworks: Ansoff's growth matrix, the BCG box, SWOT analysis and Porters 5 forces model For any questions on the course feel free to reach out to Leon Malalel at leon.malalel@gmail.com