Industrial/Technical Product Management

Overview

The truly excellent product manager must have a diverse range of skills at hand: a knowledge of finance, production and marketing; the ability to create a clear organisational structure; and the ability to communicate with other departments and senior management.

As a product manager in industrial or technical industries, you will find this comprehensive course an essential tool in your professional development and probably the most relevant course of your career. You'll learn how to implement process and organisational improvements that will have an immediate impact on your product performance. Ultimately, you'll be able to launch new products with the best chance of success.

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

Audience

Managers who need to develop strategic and tactical plans to improve the competitive position of their organisation including: Marketing & Sales Managers, Business Development Managers, Market Research Managers R&D Managers, Research Analysts, and Product Managers.

Skills Gained

Delegates will learn to:

• Organise their product management function
• Implement a product planning and development system
• Co-ordinate and implement new product introduction
• Ensure other departments clearly understand your working relationship
• Ensure market research provides you with the relevant market information
• Ensure their pricing strategies meet your financial objectives

Course Outline

DAY ONE

Defining the Industrial/Technical Product Management Position

• Duties of the industrial/technical product manager
• Definition by category
• Key vs. secondary duties
• Relationship with other departments
• Engineering; Manufacturing; Research & Development; Marketing; Market Research;
• Marketing Communications; Sales; Customer service; Finance and Accounting; Management information Services; Legal
• Industrial vs. consumer product management

DAY TWO

Product Management and the Marketing Process

• Generic marketing strategies
• Cost; Differentiation; Focus; Fragmented industries; Emerging industries; Declining industries; International marketing
• Profit impact of market strategies
• Six key competitive factors
• Explanation of PIMS database
• Translation of PIMS to market strategy
• Analysing market opportunities
• Customer analysis and segmentation
• Competitor analysis
• Internal company self-assessment
• Product life-cycle analysis
• Strategies in introduction; growth; maturity; decline
• Product life extension strategies
• Frequency usage; Varied usage; New users; Exclusivity; Modularity; Design factor increases; Design factor lean outs
• Pricing and product life cycle
• Classic pricing strategy; Pricing theory

DAY THREE

Product Planning and Development (PP&D)

• Setting objectives for PP&D
• Review overall company objectives
• List company resources
• Choose PP&D objectives
• Product management's organisational strength for PP&D
• Product management as focus of PP&D
• Corporate venture groups
• New product department
• Vice president / director of marketing
• Research and development
• Marketing research department
• Formulating PP&D plans
• Develop PP&D budget
• Search for product ideas
• Screen new product ideas
• Appraise new product ideas
• Conduct break-even analysis
• Determine cash payback period
• Return on investment
• Prepare product specifications
• Develop prototype
• Plan and execute market test
• Prepare preliminary production plan
• Final management review

Forecasting Methodologies

• Existing forecasting models
• Choosing a forecasting model
• Preparing a forecast for management

Interpersonal Skills Lab for Product Managers

• Behavioural theory
• Values theory
• Marston's four factor (DISC) theory

Suggested Follow-on Courses

• Industrial/Technical Product Management - Phase II
• New Product Introductions and Fast to Market Strategies
• Using Market Research to GrowYour Business
• Getting ResultsWithout Authority
• Value Based Pricing