Product Management Modular Training
We’ve all been there.
You find yourself in a new role, and you’re drinking from the fire hose from day 1. You’re working like a crazy person but still not seeing meaningful results. You know you need some training, but how will you find the time? Even when you can carve out a day, the next day you’re back in the rat race, with no time to implement everything you heard the day before.
Since you haven’t been trained in all the fundamentals, you’re not productive, so you have to work harder; but without that foundation, you’re spinning your wheels. It’s a vicious cycle.
On the other hand, maybe you have been trained in the basics, but it’s difficult to put it them into practice with no roadmap of how to do it in your environment. Should you approach product rationalization the same way for desktop instruments as you do for the consumables that go with them? What if your product launch is for regional customers vs global ones? If the training was somewhat generic, how are you supposed to use it?
Product management tools only add value when they work in your company, for your products, in your markets.
Take Your Product Management Skills from Good to Great
Once you’ve learned the skill and how to apply it in your company, it’s time to take the effectiveness and results to the next level by learning how to apply that skill across different business processes.
Understanding pricing methodologies and then being able to apply the principles for a new product launch vs developing a business case vs rationalization and obsolescence are very different things. It’s within this understanding of how to apply the skills where the exponential value is derived, and how results go from good to great.
How My Modular Product Management Training Works
My modular Product Management training can help you end the vicious cycle of non-productivity.
Start by taking my Product Management Self- Assessment to identify specific skills upgrades that are needed.Â
Utilizing the Self-Assessment to identify the key skills that need to be upgraded, I’ll teach you about the basic building blocks and provide you with a Product Management tool kit. Next, I’ll coach you on how to implement these skills for your products, markets, and customers. Once you’ve mastered this, then I’ll show you how to apply the tools for different business processes.
I can also work with any existing templates you and your organization may have, or I can provide templates along with a “How To” Guide at the end of training for reference.
Once training is complete, I offer unlimited remote support in order to continue providing the coaching you need to ensure successful implementation. This can help turn your training into a powerful weapon which enables you to drive results for your organization every day, while also accelerating your career trajectory.
Want to know how you stack up? Take my Product Management Self-Assessment to identify specific skills upgrades that may be needed. Download the PDF, or take the on-line survey to get a free analysis and see how your skills compare to your product management peers.
The matrix below illustrates the key core competencies that are building blocks for Product Management.
Click on any ✓ to get a more detailed description of how the tool will be applied in different business processes for optimal impact.
BUILDING BLOCKS
BUSINESS PROCESS
CORE COMPETENCIES
Product Line Management
Product Launch
Business Case Development
Strategy Development
Financial metrics for product line management
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- Understanding cost structure, as well as cost and revenue levers to improve profitability
- Understanding revenues, margins profitability by market/customer/region
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- Aligning business case with key company metrics for ROI, break even, EBITA, etc.
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- Investments and on-going costs required to implement strategic options;
- P&L impact
Market segmentation
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- Understanding vertical vs horizontal segmentation;
- By market, product, region and customer
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- Utilizing segmentation to identify primary, secondary and tertiary targets for new product launch
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- Understanding value drivers and decision making criteria unique to each segment to help identify the optimal target segment(s) for investment
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- Identifying hurdles, success metrics and risk profiles unique to each segment to guide strategy decisions.
Market models and market sizing
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- SAM (serviceable addressable market) vs TAM (total addressable market);Â
- Tops down vs bottoms up methodology
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- Utilizing different segment sizes and growth rates to help guide New Product Development and other investments
- Incorporating sensitivity analysis into market sizing
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- Understand different market segment sizes and growth rates to ensure the target segment opportunities will be sufficient to achieve company’s financial goals
Financial Sensitivity Analysis
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- Understand the sensitivity of each elements of any analysis to determine how changes in each element affect the outcome.
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- Understand the sensitivity of forward looking projections of share, price, revenue and margin in order to frame best case, worst case and most likely case scenarios
Cannibalization
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- Understanding new product impact on existing product(s) revenues, margins, and overall profitability;
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- Understanding the net impact a new product will have on existing product revenues, margins, and overall profitability;
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- Understand how cannibalization may serve to support long-term business strategy (i.e. move customer base to a new platform over time)
Competitive Analysis
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- Understanding all key aspects for differentiation: technical/functional, organizational, channel, service/support
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- Developing win/take share strategy and tactics as well as strategy to defend against competitive threats to accelerate new product sales
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- Utilizing competitive analysis to develop assumptions for modeling out investment financials with realistic forecasts for new products
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- Identifying factors that may impact the future competitive landscape, and developing options for response into the strategic plan
Customer and market input
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- Utilizing both qualitative (Voice of Customer) and quantitative (surveys, market research reports) market research
- Understanding when to utilize qualitative vs quantitative
- Learning to use customer input to identify opportunities, and quantify weaknesses and threats                Â
Voice of Customer (VoC)
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- Understand how to use qualitative, interview based market research for complex, multi-faceted objectives,
- Understand wants vs needs and how to quantify the value of each
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Utilizing VoC during the Launch Planning:
- Developing the value proposition, differentiated product positioning;
- Final pricing validation
- Understanding which segments value your value the most
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Utilizing VoC to develop business case:
- Customer decision making, and change triggers required for taking market share:
- Incentives to change
- Obstacles to be overcome
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- Identify future trends facing customers and quantifying how those trends will impact their strategy
- Understand opportunities to align with customers’ future strategic shifts, as well as risks to current business
Market research reports and customer surveys;
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- Understand how and when to use quantitative market research methods (surveys, market research reports)
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- Understand how to incorporate data and statistical analysis into a business case to create data based foundation for assumptions
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- Understand how to utilize market research reports to identify industry/market trends and how they will impact current strategy
Driving New Product Development Stage Gate process.
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- Understand the stage gate process for new product development:
- Role/responsibilities of the PM during each stage
- Deliverables at each gate
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- Getting new projects into the NPD funnel and developing full analysis to commercialize new products;
- One time investments and on-going support costs;Â
- Incorporating risk mitigation plan
Real/Win/Worth for evaluating new opportunities
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- Real/Win/Worth assessment tool for evaluating new opportunities:
- Is the market REAL?
- Can you compete and WIN?
- Does the WORTH meet/exceed the company’s financial hurdles?
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- Incorporating all aspects of the RWW into the business case:
- Develop assumptions for product adoption and market share;
- Develop financial projections
Influencing stakeholders (cross functional, executives)
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- Understand how each stakeholder has a different but connected purpose in the business, and understand their role, how they are measured and what they require in order to be influenced
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- Identify priorities and levers that are most influential with different types of leaders and/or different functions;
- Understand how they like to receive and process information, and make decisions in order to build and communicate a business case that will gain approval
PricingÂ
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- Understand different pricing methodologies;
- Pricing new products vs. existing products;
- Implement pricing actions and assessing annualized $ impact
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- Developing a value-based pricing strategy that benchmarks against both existing products as well as competitive products/technologies;
- Creating clear price/performance fences between new and existing products
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- Understand how pricing for new products will impact pricing for existing products;
- Incorporating the net impact in the financial analysis
Commercialization/New Product Launch
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- 3 phases of new product launch:
- Planning (9-12 months prior);
- Launch Execution (Launch date to 6-12 months post launch);
- Launch Audit (9-18 months post launch)
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- Understand all of the costs required to support new product commercialization;
- Communication plan for up to 12 months post launch;
- Samples, initial inventories;
- Service support
Launch Planning
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- Identify all launch plan elements as well as the timeline required for the critical items;
- Marketing and Sales strategy, training, Customer Service/support plan
- Develop regional launch tactics with Sales, Field Marketing
- Creating and aligning launch goals with Sales, Operations, Product Development and Service
Launch Execution
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- Developing and executing the Product Introduction Package (PIP);
- Align with Sales to develop Sales Plan of Action (Sales POAs) with specific targets and milestones;
- Develop launch cadence to continuously build momentum during year 1
Launch Audit
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- Driving Continuous Improvement by assessing results vs original launch goals
- Quality, performance, customer feedback
- Financials, market share
Marketing Communication Strategy and Planning
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- Developing MarCom strategy to support overall marketing strategy, and develop a comprehensive plan which effectively communicates value to target audiences
- Understand the tool types and frequency needed to continuously reinforce messaging
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- Developing an effective MarCom plan to support a product launch during each phase of the launch cycle;
- Target audience, message, value, tool, effectiveness measurement
- Customize messaging to resonate with different regions, customer segments;
- Create and manage the budget, timeline
Portfolio management:
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- Managing a balanced portfolio that drives revenue and optimizes profitability;
- Focusing R&D spend on innovation, platforms and derivatives vs sustaining engineering
Product Roadmaps
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- Developing a 3-5 year roadmap that illustrates the evolution of the product line, including the value and the timing of new products as well as product obsolescence
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- Understand how to incorporate technology, market, and organizational drivers into the roadmap to guide the strategy;
- R&D, operations, sales and customer support roadmaps are aligned with timing and resource requirements
Product Life Cycle Management
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- Understanding the different phases in a product life cycle;
- Optimizing financial results during each phase
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- Identify different support requirements, marketing tactics, costs associated with different phases of their life cycle;
- Assess impact on profitability
Product Line Obsolescence and Rationalization
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- Identifying product lines to rationalize: low volume, revenue, margin
- Transitioning customers to new products while maintaining revenue and margin;
- Product obsolescence plan, pricing actions, timing, customer notification and financial impact
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- Cost and margin impact from decreased volume;
- Incremental costs associated with supporting the impacted product lines;
- Support costs post obsolescence