Product Management 101

We introduce the course in this lecture, with objectives and course structure. We also talk about the purpose and work of product management.

In this lecture, we talk about the strategic role of product management, and how product managers can get buried in the tactical elements of their job, and underinvest in the more strategic elements. A self-assessment is attached.

In this lecture, we discuss customer analysis - and why a deep and intuitive understanding of our customers is the foundation of excellent product management.

Interviewing and observing customers in their office or home - is one of our best approaches for understanding needs and motivations.  In this lecture, we discuss interviewing skills and question types.

We'll talk about interviewing customers, step-by-step, using San Diego-based startup Aquaai as our example.

Let's do a practice interview with Uber, Lyft, or another ridesharing service

Personas are a very useful way for us product managers to capture and share customer insight.

The Kano model is an excellent tool for analyzing customers needs.  In this lecture we discuss how to separate user needs into basic, performance, and attractive needs.

We look at London-based publishing marketplace site Reedsy, and practice using the Kano model

The companies KeepTruckin and Steelcase do a nice job with customer research. In this lecture, we look at their work with electronic logging devices and office chairs.

Test your knowledge around customer analysis, ethnographic research and the Kano model.

In this lecture, we talk about market analysis and identifying market segments.

We look at how to profile market segments in this lecture.

This lecture focuses on the quantitative side of market segmentation - clarifying market size and growth.

Test what you have learned about market analysis and market segmentation.

In this lecture, we discuss why we should analyze competition, and talk about direct competition and disruptive technology

In this lecture, we look at analyzing direct competition, with a focus on competitors' revenue, market share, and longer-term trends

We focus on analyzing our direct competitors' strategy, strengths, weaknesses, gaps, and go-to-market approaches in this lecture.

In this lecture, we talk about competitive positioning, and using a competitive positioning matrix.

We look at side-by-side product comparisons of our products vs. competitors, and discuss competitive product teardowns. Competitive analysis templates are attached to this lecture.

In this lecture, we dive into disruptive technology and why companies (and product managers) get blindsided.  We use Kodak as an historical example and autonomous vehicles (trucks and cars) as a current example.

We wrap up our lectures on competitive analysis, and talk about on-going competitive monitoring.

We'll talk about product vision, product objectives, and product strategy - and why we do all this work.

We'll talk about how to craft a product vision and objectives in this lecture, with an example.

Create product objectives for an oyster technology mobile application in this practice activity.

We'll talk about four steps to create a product strategy: Reviewing our goals and insights, finding our best strategic options, evaluating and comparing our options, and picking 1-3 to take forward.

Let's track the success of our product strategy over time. Are we making progress toward our product vision and objectives?

Check what you have learned about strategy development.

We'll talk about the importance of prioritization in this lecture, and introduce the example of eBird

We look at various styles of roadmaps in this lecture - charting our longer-term product evolution

Objectives and key results (OKRs) convert a longer-term strategy into this quarter's goals. We'll talk about how to create and use OKRs in this lecture.

Using eBird as our example, let's write an OKR

We'll talk about using development buckets  - which help us focus on big impact items

Let's practice using development buckets - the Canadian company Radley Robots is our example.

To guide our development teams, we want a prioritized backlog. A value effort matrix can help.

Check what you have learned about prioritization and roadmapping

Discovery and delivery is a fast, productive, iterative style of new product development - we'll look at the basic steps in this lecture.

We practice discovery & delivery methods with Big Agnes backpacking tents

Stage-gates is a commonly used new product development process. In this lecture, we'll look at stage-gates, and also compare it to discovery and delivery.

We'll look at different ways to test new product concepts in this lecture.

We'll look at two examples of product concept testing in this lecture - Next Insurance and Radley Robots.

Product analytics offer us a powerful set of information to optimize our products.

Hardware - with IOT - can offer great insight to guide new product development, and provide valuable information for our customers.

Running product experiments can give us a powerful way to optimize our products and improve key metrics.

Product management has rapidly evolved over the past years - we'll talk about the new flavors of product management in this video.

Test your knowledge about discovery & delivery.

In this lecture, we look at the importance of impactful launches

In this lecture, we'll look at two companies who are very good at impactful launches.

Check what you have learned about creating effective product launches

We'll talk through positioning and communication for our products, and revisit personas.

Value propositions are simple statements that clarify our target customer, key benefits, and competitive differentiation.

We'll create a value proposition for Ancestry's DNA testing service in this practice activity.

In this lecture, we'll talk about how to create benefit trees - which are a useful way of mapping a hierarchy of product benefits.

Check what you have learned about positioning and communication

In this lecture, we look at the importance of pricing - and its impact on profitability.

We look at the "3C's" of pricing in this lecture - cost of product, competitive environment, and customer value - and link these to three different pricing approaches.

Subscription prices for SaaS products can be a little tricky. We'll look at different options.

In this lecture, we look at the eight steps product managers go through to price a new product, or revise pricing for products in the market today.

Answer three questions about LinkedIn pricing in this practice activity.

Test your newfound knowledge on pricing

In this lecture, we'll start the discussion on how we can best support a sales team.

In this activity, you'll read Rich Mironov's blog post on working with sales teams.

Excellent sales enablement tools can help win deals (and win friends)

In this lecture, we'll talk about on-going processes to support a sales team.

Test your knowledge on how to best enable sales teams.

In this lecture, we will look at using sales channels as partners to co-create customer value.

We'll look at HP sales channels in this practice activity, asking three questions.

In this lecture, we'll look at adding new sales channels and editing your current channels.

Test what you have learned about sales channels.

In this lecture, we will talk about three "rules of the road" for managing product support issues.

We'll use two African transportation and logistics companies to discuss how to best manage product support issues.

Check what you have learned about product support.

In this lecture, we will look at growth strategies throughout the product lifecycle.

Let's try to find growth ideas for your product

In this lecture, we'll look at product-led growth, with companies like Slack, Zoom, Koan, and Calendly

In this lecture, we'll discuss the history of Udemy - and how the company found rapid growth.

Test what you have learned about finding growth as a product manager.

In this lecture, we will look at obsoleting products, and freeing up time for more impactful parts of your work.

Check what you have learned about obsolescence.