Module 1: Strategic Planning
Product Management
"The UC Berkeley Product Management program, particularly the sessions on pricing and positioning, was of tremendous help during the launch of my new product. The program was amazing in all aspects, content, presentation and overall organization, and I am recommending it to everybody, inside and outside my company."
Silja Yates, Product Manager - Integrated Systems, Velocity 11
Corporate and Product Strategy
Corporate and Product Strategy are vital components of the Product Management process. An intelligent, market-driven strategy should unite a company or division around the most important opportunities to pursue in order to achieve its goals. Strategic planning involves identifying, evaluating, and prioritizing all major options to determine the best direction to pursue. In this session participants will:
- Discover techniques to get the most accurate, reliable competitive intelligence and learn how to use this knowledge to make informed decisions
- Acquire the skills to perform a detailed market assessment and learn how to identify technology and market trends, create market projections, properly segment the market, and determine the best, most profitable markets to target
- Learn how to develop a corporate and product strategy that motivates the team and maximizes profitability
Product Portfolio Planning
Companies must view new product investments and their associated returns in a portfolio context. This enables them to appropriately meet the firm's strategic objectives, allocate scarce resources, drive superior operational execution, and maximize overall profitability.
In this session, participants will study well-established portfolio modeling practices, as well as examine the complexities associated with developing product portfolios in rapidly changing, dynamic markets. Participants will learn to support the portfolio management process by:
- Assessing each product for strategic fit, profitability, investment requirements, risks, and other appropriate factors
- Balancing budget and available resources within the portfolio
- Using tactical models to manage the portfolio including:
- Heuristic models
- Scoring techniques
- Visual or mapping techniques
- NPV analysis
This session will also include a case study of portfolio management challenges faced by a real company.
Pricing Strategy
Pricing right is a critical component of successful product management. Customers reject otherwise good products priced too high; companies risk losses when prices are too low. This session is designed to introduce all the components necessary to determine optimal pricing for both new and established products. Using case analysis and discussion, participants will learn how to calculate economic value to the customer and use that to understand what customers should be willing to pay. They will then learn a comprehensive framework for developing a successful pricing strategy and develop tools to analyze the role of costs, customer price sensitivity, and competition.
Revenue Models and The Business Case
Using a case study, we will analyze potential revenue models for an innovative business to business software company. We will then provide a framework that will enable participants to determine their optimal revenue model. We will also offer a template and thought process that will leave participants the ability to quickly put together a business case for their company, product, or product feature.
Product Management Best Practices
This session focuses on best practices used by a variety of firms when their products and portfolios achieve greater levels of market success – and further, how the practices they employ, separate them from other companies in their space. Additionally, it will assert that when Product Management best practices and business acumen are embedded into the fabric of the firm, they will survive the variability of business fads and the transience of management and leadership. The foundation of the talk is built on more than 15 years of qualitative benchmarking and discovery of the presenter based on work carried out in his work as a corporate practitioner on a product management task force at AT&T, and in the course of his current Product Management consulting practice.
Product Line Design
Most firms have many products. What is the right number of products? How different should each product be? What are the advantages and disadvantages of launching another product? When should more variety be added to the product line? How many products are too many? How does a firm prevent cannibalization when launching new products? Should new products be launched simultaneously or sequentially?
After this session, participants will be able to answer these questions and to design an optimal product line. The session focuses especially on launching multiple products of varying quality within a product line. Participants will learn through lecture, strategy discussion, and a case study. The case study includes an excel spreadsheet that will enable participants to quantify and analyze the costs and benefits of making different product line decisions.
Contact Details
To inquire about our corporate offer or register more than one person from your organization, or should you have any questions, please contact:
Tom Peterson
+1.510.643.0476
tom_peterson@haas.berkeley.edu
Anita Anderson
Program Affiliate
+1.415.309.0939
anita_anderson@haas.berkeley.edu
