Achieving Leadership in Product Management

Overview

Achieving Leadership in Product Management

Organisations are frequently conflicted and confused about the role of product management and make contradictory demands of the product management function. Product managers are often too absorbed in tactical fire fighting and problem solving and lack the skills or authority to be proactive. Despite this product management has never been more popular as organisations of all types seek to improve their financial performance and minimise inefficiencies through better management of their product assets. In this context leaders of product management functions are doubly challenged - how can you evangelise product management to get the support across your organisation you need to be successful and how do you develop product managers and product management processes so that the function is capable of providing effective product leadership?

This three day course has been designed to help senior product managers develop a thorough understanding of what it takes to become product leaders and a plan for how they will get there.

This training may be available onsite; please contact us if you are interested.

Audience

This course has been designed specifically for managers of product managers and senior product managers seeking promotion into such a role. It is particularly appropriate for those responsible for improving product management processes and practice within their organisations. Knowledge of basic product management concepts and theory will be assumed.

Skills Gained

• Build a vision for product management in your organisation and understand how to articulate that vision and implement it
• Understand the range of roles and structures possible for product management and choose the most appropriate for your organisation
• Identify the major challenges for product managers and develop strategies for dealing with them
• Identify the skills and characteristics of successful product managers for your environment and understand how to develop them
• Apply classical and contemporary thinking in product lifecycle concepts to your situation
• Assess the current situation of a portfolio of products and devise appropriate strategies to maximise performance across the portfolio using partnerships, channels, pricing and marketing communications
• Address common financial challenges in product management with confidence
• Understand how to assess costs, profit and return on investment and thus prioritise projects and develop appropriate product plans
• Design an effective NPD (New Product Development) strategy that contributes to improved performance in your organisation
• Improve existing NPD processes and manage them more effectively
• Gain a better understanding of customer requirements and how to use them appropriately in NPD
• Develop and execute successful launch strategies
• Understand the requirements of being a product leader and how to achieve it by working through others
• Discover sources of further support and information

Course Outline

DAY ONE

Introduction

Product Management Today and Tomorrow

• Evolution of the classical product management role and current trends and changes in product management organisation and responsibilities
• The pros and cons of product management
• Product management in context - in different industries and different types of Organisations (e.g. b2b, b2c, services, national and multinational Organisations)
• Roles, responsibilities and characteristics of effective product managers now and in the future
• Critical areas of expertise for product managers today: the product management body of knowledge
• Self Assessment Tools - introduction to a range of assessment tools designed to help you and your Organisation improve the skills and practice of product management
• Developing a vision for product management

Product Lifecycle Management

• Classical PLC concepts and management
• Extensions of and challenges to conventional PLC concepts
• Classical and contemporary portfolio and product lifecycle strategies
• Product lifecycle management revisited in the Information Age - IT assisted Product Lifecycle Management; a cross functional approach for all product lifecycle stages

DAY TWO

In Life Product Management

Evaluating and optimizing product performance

Product fact books and dashboards

Developing a strategic framework

• Role of planning and risk management
• Market and environmental analysis
• Information requirements
• Understanding value and assessing opportunities
• Portfolio strategies
• Relationship based strategies
• Go to market strategies
• Working with sales

Creating and managing customer demand

Developing and managing partnerships and channels

Managing stock and capacity for goods and services

Pricing and Financial Management

• Practical financial challenges in product management
• Understanding costs, revenue and profit
• Investment appraisal techniques
• Managing costs and prices
• Trends in pricing techniques and pricing management

Marketing communications techniques and strategies

• Interactive marketing
• Branding in the Internet Age

DAY THREE

New Product Development

• Different ways to achieve innovation in product portfolios
• What research tells us about NPD success and best practice
• Understanding market and customer requirements
• Specifying new products
• Developing NPD strategies
• Alternative NPD processes

Launching Products and Services

• Lessons from leading product launches: the pitfalls to avoid and the strategies to employ
• Key issues and steps in the launch - planning and execution
• Accelerating the take - up of new products
• Launch checklists

People Issues in Product Management

• Being a product leader
• Working through others - achieving results through formal, informal and virtual teams
• How to introduce and develop product management in Organisations
• Developing product management skills in yourself and others
• How to keep up - the thought leaders in product management and sources of information

Developing and Delivering a Product Leadership Vision

• How to get there - turning a vision into a plan