Product management

2020/2021

Учебный год

ENG

Обучение ведется на английском языке

6

Кредиты

Кто читает:

Кафедра маркетинга (Нижний Новгород) (Факультет менеджмента (Нижний Новгород))

Статус:

Курс обязательный

Когда читается:

1-й курс, 4 модуль

Преподаватель

Фоменков Денис Александрович

Course Syllabus

Abstract

Course Product Management is designed for students who want to develop competences that are necessary for successful career on product-manager position. Even for students without intention to tie future profession with product management, course will be valuable because it’s multidisciplinary and its frameworks, models, and approaches might be used in plenty different fields. Content of the course is developed in accordance with New Product Development Professional (NPDP) Certification so students can try to pass PDMA exam upon completing the course. The course heavily exploits interactive teaching methods. Along the whole course students work on a big project and some additional assignments which aim to shape particular skills. Such approach confronts students with high uncertainty of real projects and let them better understand methods and tools used in product management.

Learning Objectives

• To master competences that are necessary for successful career on product-manager position

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Know main responsibilities of product managers
• Can use different techniques to generate ideas for new products
• Know how to evaluate and screen ideas
• Can use MVP to test main assumptions about value
• Can develop value proposition canvas
• Can integrate voice-of-customer into product management
• Know how to adjust marketing research techniques for different types of products
• Know main frameworks, concepts, and models used in product management
• Can apply design thinking in product management context
• Perform financial planning for new products and product portfolio.
• Apply stage-gate framework in a company to design new product development process

Course Contents

• Product manager as a position in a company: responsibilities and qualifications.
  Functions of product manager. Product manager archetypes. Project managers and program managers. Archetypes of product managers: technologist, generalist, business-oriented. Product managers in different companies. Transitioning to product manager from different fields. Right experience for product manager. How to prepare resume.
• Ideation and hypothesis development for products
  Idea capture and handling system. Voice-of-Customer Methods: Ethnographic research, customer visit teams, customer focus groups, lead user (innovative user) analysis, the customer or user designs, customer brainstorming and inverse brainstorming, customer advisory board or panel, community of enthusiasts. Strategic methods for generating ideas: disruptions in market, core competencies assessment, peripheral vision, competitive analysis. Open innovation methods: partners and vendors, accessing the external technical community, scanning small businesses and business start-ups, external product designs, external submission of ideas, external idea contest. Technology development and fundamental research. Patent mapping. New knowledge as a source of innovation. Tapping the ideas of customers. Learning from lead users. Empathetic design. Invention factories and skunkworks. Open market innovation. The role of mental preparation. How management can encourage idea generation. Idea-generating techniques. Brainstorming. Nominal Group Technique. TRIZ. Catchball.
• Product management life cycle model and product master plan
  General product management life cycle model: discovery and innovation, new product planning phases, new product introduction phases (execution), post-launch product management. The basic construction of the product master plan: product and product line business documents, strategic plans, business cases, product requirements documents (PRDs), product roadmaps, product launch plans, marketing plans created for the product, product discontinuation plans, functional support plans (FSPs), marketing FSP, product development FSP, finance FSP, sales FSP, supply chain FSP, customer service FSP, legal and regulatory FSP, operations FSP.
• Market analytics and voice-of-customer for product manager
  Information customers cannot provide. Information customers can provide. Techniques for deeply understanding customer needs. Qualitative methods for deeper understanding: ethnography, netnography, site visits and individual interviews, lead users, customer toolkits, real-time market validation. The market analytics process. Types of customer data. Market analytics tool: segmentation, data mining, perceptual mapping, needs ranking, concept testing, conjoint analysis. Web-based market analytics.
• Design thinking in product management
  What “design thinking” is. How to apply design thinking in organization. “Design thinking” and the “knowledge funnel”. “Analytical thinking” and “intuitive thinking”. “Abductive logic” and “logical leaps of the mind.” Characteristics of exploration and explotation. Stanford’s design thinking approach.
• Finance and forecasting for the product manager
  Financial planning for product managers. Creating business cases for product investments. Testing planning assumptions using sensitivity analysis. Product cost models: standard costing, target costing, activity-based costing. Establishing pricing models. Preparing product budgets. Maturity assessment. Forecasts during the new product development process. Forecasting techniques: jury of executive opinion, scenario analysis, Delphi method, decision trees, assumption-based modeling, trend line analysis, moving average, exponential smoothing techniques, looks-like analysis (analogous forecasting), diffusion models, autoregressive moving average (ARMA)/autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models, linear regression, nonlinear regression, logistic regression, event modeling, expert systems, neural networks, simulation, concept testing, product use testing, market testing, pre-market testing.
• Stage-gate model to design new product development process.
  An overview of Stage-Gate system: discovery, scoping, build the business case, development, testing and validation, go to launch, launch, post-launch review. Types of products which Stage-Gate system can handle. The Structure of the Stage-Gate system. What Stage-Gate is not. Agile Stage-Gate: hybrid model. Stage-Gate for "open innovation". Automated Stage-Gate systems. Common errors in designing a next-generation stage-gate system.

Assessment Elements

• Contributions to class discussions
  At the end of the each class instructor makes notes about how active were students in discussions and how insightful and professional were their answers or comments. Fruitful participation is barely possible without supplementary reading which must be published by instructor one week before each class session. Class attendance alone will not earn a student class participation/contribution credits. In the end each student is graded on the curve.
• Assignments
• Exam
  Экзамен проводится в устной форме (ответ на билет) с использованием асинхронного прокторинга. Экзамен проводится на платформе Zoom (https://zoom.us/), прокторинг на платформе Экзамус (https://hse.student.examus.net). К экзамену необходимо подключиться за 15 минут. На платформе Экзамус доступно тестирование системы. Компьютер студента должен удовлетворять следующим требованиям: https://elearning.hse.ru/data/2020/05/07/1544135594/Технические%20требования%20к%20ПК%20студента.pdf) Для участия в экзамене студент обязан: заранее зайти на платформу прокторинга, провести тест системы, включить камеру и микрофон, подтвердить личность. Во время экзамена студентам запрещено: общаться (в социальных сетях, с людьми в комнате), списывать. Кратковременным нарушением связи во время экзамена считается прерывание связи до 5 минут. Долговременным нарушением связи во время экзамена считается прерывание связи 5 минут и более. При долговременном нарушении связи студент не может продолжить участие в экзамене. Процедура пересдачи аналогична процедуре сдачи.
• Contributions to class discussions
  At the end of the each class instructor makes notes about how active were students in discussions and how insightful and professional were their answers or comments. Fruitful participation is barely possible without supplementary reading which must be published by instructor one week before each class session. Class attendance alone will not earn a student class participation/contribution credits. In the end each student is graded on the curve.
• Assignments
• Exam
  Экзамен проводится в устной форме (ответ на билет) с использованием асинхронного прокторинга. Экзамен проводится на платформе Zoom (https://zoom.us/), прокторинг на платформе Экзамус (https://hse.student.examus.net). К экзамену необходимо подключиться за 15 минут. На платформе Экзамус доступно тестирование системы. Компьютер студента должен удовлетворять следующим требованиям: https://elearning.hse.ru/data/2020/05/07/1544135594/Технические%20требования%20к%20ПК%20студента.pdf) Для участия в экзамене студент обязан: заранее зайти на платформу прокторинга, провести тест системы, включить камеру и микрофон, подтвердить личность. Во время экзамена студентам запрещено: общаться (в социальных сетях, с людьми в комнате), списывать. Кратковременным нарушением связи во время экзамена считается прерывание связи до 5 минут. Долговременным нарушением связи во время экзамена считается прерывание связи 5 минут и более. При долговременном нарушении связи студент не может продолжить участие в экзамене. Процедура пересдачи аналогична процедуре сдачи.

Interim Assessment

• Interim assessment (4 module)
  0.4 * Assignments + 0.2 * Contributions to class discussions + 0.4 * Exam

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Bruce T. Barkley, Project Management in New Product Development, McGraw-Hill © 2008 https://library.books24x7.com/toc.aspx?bookid=23646

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), Sixth Edition, 2017. Режим доступа: http://library.books24x7.com/bookshelf.asp
• Cadogan, John, et al. Cross-cultural and cross-national consumer research, Emerald Publishing Limited, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/hselibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=2070198.
• Charles H. Noble, Serdar S. Durmusoglu and Abbie Griffin Open Innovation: New Product Development Essentials from the PDMA, John Wiley & Sons © 2014 https://library.books24x7.com/toc.aspx?bookid=80723
• Fundamentals of Qualitative Research
• Varma, T. (2015). Agile Product Development : How to Design Innovative Products That Create Customer Value. [New York]: Apress. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1109180