Product Management: Exploring the Product Business

Description

As a product manger or a member from a product team, it can sometimes be a struggle to understand the strategy and how to build your own vision of a product using qualitative and quantitative data. In this course, Exploring Product Business Foundations, you’ll learn how to create business and product strategy. First, you’ll explore creating and maintaining product vision. Next, you’ll learn the product roles that are essential to the success of a product team and how they best work cross-functionally between sales, success, marketing, and engineering. Finally, you’ll discover how to create and communicate a product road map within any organization. When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge to succeed on any product team and the knowledge of which levers to pull within product to maximize product-market fit.

Description

According to an Alpha 2020 product management report, a clearer product roadmap or strategy is at the top of the list for business priorities. In this course, Exploring Strategy & Vision, you'll learn how to turn a product idea into a product strategy that solves customer pain points and aligns with business strategy. First, You'll explore the concept of developing product ideas. Next, you'll discover how to create a product vision statement. Finally, you'll tie everything together by conducting market research and analysis. By the end of this course, you’ll know how to develop a product vision based on customer needs as well as market opportunities, and then use those insights to create a product strategy and roadmap that aligns with business goals and objectives.

Description

Let’s face it, managing strategy and vision is an exciting but complex proposition. As a product manager, we are asked to solve market problems that are aligned with our organization’s strategic goals and objectives. In this course, Managing Strategy and Vision, you will learn how to use product management concepts and frameworks to collaborate and engage with business leaders to create new strategies. First, you’ll explore how to assess the external business environment and industry. Next, you’ll discover internal business, stakeholder, and customer needs. Finally, you’ll learn how to deliver the new strategy in a presentation. At the end of this course, you’ll be equipped with the skills and knowledge to master the creation of a strategy and vision.

Description

Once an organization has finalized its strategy and vision, implemented a sales function, and has a thorough understanding of the product’s finance, a new product development (NPD) process can be used to refine or create new products and services. Most practitioners find themselves as a participant or leader in their organization’s NPD process by accident without any formal training. In this course, Managing New Product Development, you’ll learn the steps product managers and other stakeholders use to take an idea from conception to product launch. First, you’ll explore the phases, stages, and gates of common NPD processes. Next, you’ll discover items typically in and out of scope of an NPD process as well as operational management considerations. Finally, you’ll learn how to produce and present a new product presentation for approval. When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge needed to manage new product development.

Description

This course will help people new to product or project management be able to create a project plan to help guide the development of a product through to completion. In this course, Managing Product Design & Development Projects, you’ll learn foundational knowledge on how to create a project plan by following a seven-step process. First, you’ll explore using the seven-step process to create a draft plan. Next, you’ll learn about how to ask for feedback and implement feedback comments. Then, you'll look at how to deal with negative feedback of your work. Finally, you’ll learn how to use a cookbook of project management tools that you can use straight away to create a killer project plan. You'll look at Gantt charts, Swot analysis, Stakeholder matrices, RACI matrices, cause and effect diagrams and risk analysis heat maps. When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge of product and project management needed to create project plans to help see a product through from inception through to delivery.

Description

A company has a business strategy and vision, but how do those translate to the product? Do people within the company know the why and the what behind what's being built into product? In this course, Exploring Product Roadmaps, you'll learn how to communicate the planned product features and offerings and how they align with the company strategy. First, you'll explore what a product roadmap is, its purpose and what it should contain. Next, you'll discover how to gather requirements from stakeholders, how to prioritize all these inputs, and address the challenges in product roadmap creation. Finally, you'll learn how to update the roadmap as your product evolves. By the end of this course, you'll be able to align your product offerings with the company strategy and communicate it clearly through a product roadmap.

Description

There are many different methods to produce products. In this course, Exploring Product Operations, you’ll learn to create and maintain an iterative product plan with scoping the main product efforts along with technical stakeholder management skills, as well as making software development flows well defined and efficient.

First, you’ll explore how to define a mission, vision, and values by going through strategy key points and shaping them around the project plan and their main details by facilitating technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Next, you'll learn how to apply lean and design thinking practices on the product development level and making them efficient by applying best lean flow practices in detail.

Finally, you’ll discover how to build and improve a skateboard plan by scoping product discovery, design, development, deployment, and processing data feedbacks on the double diamond methodology example.

When you're finished with this course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge of exploring product operations end-to-end, needed to manage and optimize the operational processes in the software product development.

Description

Once an organization has finalized its strategy and vision and has its product sales function in place, Product Managers are tasked with understanding the mechanics of financial statements to manage product performance. Product Managers contribute to the financial forecasting process as well as defining product pricing using industry and competitive information. In this course, Exploring Product Finance, you’ll discover tools and frameworks used to support the organization in managing product finance. First, you'll see how to define and practice understanding financial statements including the income statement and balance sheet. Next, you'll learn how to define forecasting terms and explore a practical forecasting model. Finally, you'll explore pricing models and considerations that will impact your forecasting and financial statements. At the end of this course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge of exploring product finance needed to contribute to strategic discussions with business leaders.

Description

A successful go-to-market plan product launch paves the way for you to develop future products. In this course, Managing Product Marketing, you’ll learn to work effectively with your product marketing team so you can bring products from idea to market with the greatest success. First, you’ll explore the role that product marketing plays, understand how to create a marketing plan, and align key product and customer metrics. Next, you’ll discover how to effectively communicate the message about the product. You are the product expert and it is your job to be able to explain why this product and what the customer will gain by purchasing it. Finally, you’ll learn how to work with product marketing for a successful launch. It is their job to ensure the word gets out about your amazing product. You need to be there to ensure it is properly communicated. When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge of working effectively with product marketing needed to effectively launch a product.

Description

Once the organization has finalized its strategy and vision, sales stakeholders are charged with helping achieve corporate and business goals. They do so by selling the organization’s products and services to paying customers. The sales function contributes to revenue by developing new relationships, cross-selling to existing customers, and proposing new channel partnerships. In this course, Exploring Product Sales, you’ll cover tools and frameworks sales stakeholders use to support the organization in executing strategy and vision. First, you’ll define sales role and responsibilities within an organization. Next, you’ll review the sales process including sales planning, opportunity development, and delivery. Finally, you’ll create a business development strategy using key components. At the end of this course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge of exploring product sales needed to contribute to strategic discussions with business leaders.

Description

In this course, Exploring Customer Support, you’ll learn to appreciate and interact with the Customer Support function from a product management perspective. First, you’ll explore what the purpose, roles and process are related to Customer Support. Next, you’ll discover what a Net Promoter Score (NPS) is and what it means for your product. Finally, you’ll learn how to leverage an Experience Brief to document a vision of Customer Support. When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge of the Customer Support function and NPS needed to communicate and align on a Customer Support experience for your product.

Description

Professional services can help you to achieve a certain objective or address a problem in your current organization. In this course, Exploring Professional Services, you’ll learn to collaborate with professional services to maximize their added value to your organization. First, you’ll explore what are some common terminologies used in professional services and the resources needed Next, you’ll discover the different roles and responsibilities as well as the process for collaborating with professional services Finally, you’ll learn how to create an Experience Brief to align customer value with professional services offerings. When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge of collaborating with professional services needed to maximize their added value to your organization.