Product Management for Start-ups
Product management has the highest return of investment of any activity in the early stages of product development. It helps to focus on profitable activities and make well-founded fundamental decisions using only pen and paper or a computer. In only a few days of work, product management sets the stage for future success of an endeavor.
When you look at the stories of failed projects or startups, simple product management techniques could have saved roughly a third of them if they were applied right from the start – by changing critical points or by scratching the idea right away before any significant investment.
Product management is not sorcery. You learn to ask the right questions. You gather critical information. You arrange what you got in such a way that a clear course of action is derived. In the end, you write down and communicate the results targeted to your audience. This course lets you practice the PM techniques in two days so that you can start using them on your own. You can either work on your own project, or you develop a new idea from scratch until you have a solid business case and a long to-do list at the end of the course. Most founders figure out these techniques after the second or third failed startup. The next one is then a success. This course increases your chance of first-time success and can save you a lot of time and headache.
Topics
- Self-assessment in relevant skills and knowledge in order to focus on areas where training has the highest return on investment. (Part I)
- Weighted objective and activity matrix to focus on the activities that create the most value. (Part I)
- Idea generation and evaluation to gather input from a broad background and filter out the most prospective leads for follow-up. (Part I)
- Market segmentation to help identify the most promising customers and the most important competitors. (Part II)
- Quantitative customer feedback evaluation to gauge market potential per segment. (Part II)
- Service and feature overview to identify unique selling points in comparison to the competition. (Part II)
- Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Threat (SWOT) analysis to make the most of the resources at hand. (Part III)
- Product requirements set goals for targeted, efficient product development and provide clear criteria for acceptance tests. (Part III)
- Positioning and benefits argumentation for effective marketing. (Part IV)
- Counters to objections in order to be prepared in customer or investor meetings. (Part IV)
- Pricing techniques to combine revenue with profits. (Part IV)
