(CLP) Programs

Appleton Greene corporate training programs are all process-driven. They are used as vehicles to implement tangible business processes within clients’ organizations, together with training, support and facilitation during the use of these processes. Corporate training programs are therefore implemented over a sustainable period of time, that is to say, between 1 year (incorporating 12 monthly workshops), and 4 years (incorporating 48 monthly workshops). Your program information guide will specify how long each program takes to complete. Each monthly workshop takes 6 hours to implement and can be undertaken either on the client’s premises, an Appleton Greene serviced office, or online via the internet. This enables clients to implement each part of their business process, before moving onto the next stage of the program and enables employees to plan their study time around their current work commitments. The result is far greater program benefit, over a more sustainable period of time and a significantly improved return on investment.

Appleton Greene uses standard and bespoke corporate training programs as vessels to transfer business process improvement knowledge into the heart of our clients’ organizations. Each individual program focuses upon the implementation of a specific business process, which enables clients to easily quantify their return on investment. There are hundreds of established Appleton Greene corporate training products now available to clients within customer services, e-business, finance, globalization, human resources, information technology, legal, management, marketing and production. It does not matter whether a client’s employees are located within one office, or an unlimited number of international offices, we can still bring them together to learn and implement specific business processes collectively. Our approach to global localization enables us to provide clients with a truly international service with that all important personal touch. Appleton Greene corporate training programs can be provided virtually or locally and they are all unique in that they individually focus upon a specific business function. All (CLP) programs are implemented over a sustainable period of time, usually between 1-4 years, incorporating 12-48 monthly workshops and professional support is consistently provided during this time by qualified learning providers and where appropriate, by Accredited Consultants.

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Executive summary

Product Management

This course is dedicated to one goal:

Help organizations reduce product and/or service failure and enhance the chances of product success. The course is for anyone who is responsible for success including new products or revisions. The result is an actionable plan.

Studies have found that 40 percent of products fail for a multitude of reasons. All too often, product failures lead to company failures also. In 2014 alone, over 600 billion ($0.6 trillion) dollars were wasted, and that number continues to grow each year.

Part of the reason for this failure rate is that within the organization they lack some of the 130 competencies required for product success. These workshops provide the training for those competencies.

The course starts with the keys to product/services success, then covers the product’s market strategy, and finishes with the fundamentals of marketing.

The first year covers the basics of the keys to product success, design thinking, innovation, history of product management, the product management lifecycle, product success competencies, being customer-centric, the company values and vision, customer journey, the changing business environment, tools, and careers.

The second and third year covers the product’s market strategy including understanding what the customer wants to do, how to do market research, innovation methodology, markets and sizing, value proposition, personas, adoption cycles, segmentation, total addressable market, competition, positioning, roadmaps, portfolios, channels, sales forecasting, budgeting, ROI, intellectual property, product descriptions, market penetration, analysis, and training.

The fourth year covers metrics and completing the product market plan and then moves on to marketing with understanding the differences between markets, marketing strategies, the eleven Ps of marketing, how to generate sales leads on the Internet, media, and mix, messaging and content, packaging, bundling, promotions, marketing communications, budgeting and scheduling, and finishing on metrics.

The principal author of the workshops has over fifty years of experience starting in 1969 and across a range of hardware and software products including at Hewlett-Packard and Apple. Each combines the best of lectures, student exercises, examples, discussions, and quizzes.

Thousands worldwide have taken these workshops since 2012.

Much of what is in these workshops is not taught in most MBA or business school programs. It is the “secret sauce” of product success. As a result, many in business repeat the same mistakes over and over again which just continues product failure because that is the way we did it before.

The workshops teach what needs to be done for product success and how to do it. It provides the basis for product ideas coming from inspiration, vision, technology, or ideas to be successful.

The workshop includes unique success ideas and insights the principal author has acquired through the years and experience. They include:

1. The Six Keys to Building Insanely Great Products. While most “experts” usually talk about the three keys to product success: Plan, Process, and Information, I’ve added People, Customers and Systems

2. How to do market research by observing “dos”, conducting interviews, surveys, and utilizing big data

3. The importance of customer loyalty and building insanely great customers

4. A new innovation methodology

5. Using personas for development, not just marketing

6. Identifying the value proposition before starting development

7. In addition to listing your product’s features, advantages, and benefits, including what task it is trying to accomplish, and the problem that each feature solves

8. An improved way to do feature prioritization for development

9. A novel way to estimate market sizes

10. The importance of correct market segmentation

11. Product positioning based on what is important to the customer, not some arbitrary criteria

12. Doing competitive research on products and on the competing companies plus updating a time of product release

13. Developing multiple product roadmaps for different uses and purposes

14. The importance of having the right information at the right time

15. Ensuring that you have the marketing and sales channel to cater to the geographical area where your customer lives

16. A new product lifecycle management framework

17. Taking the customer journey, the digital transformation, and the need to build insanely great customers into account while doing product planning.

18. Also, keeping in mind future considerations of how social, political, environmental, economic, technological, and governmental trends will impact building insanely great products

19. Considering employees as an asset and not a liability

20. Having the right computer systems and tools to get the job done and being trained on them

21. Understanding how to organize the function of product success managers and how to ask for the authority

This course teaches each of the topics depicted in the framework below to enhance the prospects of product and/or services success.

The course is based on over 50 years of experience managing products and services covering hardware, software, internet, video, computer-based training, mobile, advertising, manufacturing, and Software as a Service.

The course includes 48 workshops. In the future, more advanced workshops could be provided in each topic area.

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Curriculum

Product Management – Part 1 – Year 1

1. Part 1 Month 1 What Must Products Have to Succeed?
2. Part 1 Month 2 Design Thinking
3. Part 1 Month 3 Innovation
4. Part 1 Month 4 History of the Successful Management of Products and What distinguishes Products and Services
5. Part 1 Month 5 Business Model, Plan, and Canvas and Product Management Lifecycle and Framework
6. Part 1 Month 6 Product Management Competencies
7. Part 1 Month 7 What Makes a Customer-Centric Organization?
8. Part 1 Month 8 Role of Values and Vision
9. Part 1 Month 9 Understanding the Customer Journey
10. Part 1 Month 10 The Changing Business Environment Creating Insanely Great Customers
11. Part 1 Month 11 Systems and Tools for Product Management
12. Part 1 Month 12 Careers in the Successful Management of Products

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Product Management – Part 2 – Year 2

1. Part 2 Month 1 Successful Management of Products in Startups
2. Part 2 Month 2 Building a Product Market Strategy
3. Part 2 Month 3 Understanding the Value of Do
4. Part 2 Month 4 How to Define a Do
5. Part 2 Month 5 Information Gathering: Market Research
6. Part 2 Month 6 Going to Development: Innovation and Methodology
7. Part 2 Month 7 Discovering New Markets and Market Sizing
8. Part 2 Month 8 Defining Value Proposition
9. Part 2 Month 9 Describing Personas
10. Part 2 Month 10 Market Adoption Cycles
11. Part 2 Month 11 Market Segmentation
12. Part 2 Month 12 Total Available and Addressable Market

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Product Management – Part 3 – Year 3

1. Part 3 Month 1 Competitive Environment
2. Part 3 Month 2 Product Positioning
3. Part 3 Month 3 Product Roadmaps
4. Part 3 Month 4 Product Portfolios
5. Part 3 Month 5 Channels, Partners, and Affiliates
6. Part 3 Month 6 Pricing Strategy
7. Part 3 Month 7 Sales Forecasting
8. Part 3 Month 8 Budgeting, ROI and Metrics
9. Part 3 Month 9 Intellectual Property and Protection of Ideas
10. Part 3 Month 10 Writing Product Descriptions
11. Part 3 Month 11 Penetrating Existing and New Market
12. Part 3 Month 12 Performing a SWOT Analysis

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Product Management – Part 4 – Year 4

1. Part 4 Month 1 Planning for Product Training
2. Part 4 Month 2 Metrics, Analysis and Reporting
3. Part 4 Month 3 Developing a Product Market Strategy Plan
4. Part 4 Month 4 Marketing and Marketing Plan
5. Part 4 Month 5 Understanding Marketing Differences
6. Part 4 Month 6 Marketing Strategies and the 11Ps
7. Part 4 Month 7 Generating Leads Online
8. Part 4 Month 8 The Media Mix
9. Part 4 Month 9 Messaging and Content
10. Part 4 Month 10 Packaging, Bundling, and Promotions
11. Part 4 Month 11 Marketing Communications
12. Part 4 Month 12 Managing Budgets, Schedule, and Metrics

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Program Objectives

The following list represents the Key Program Objectives (KPO) for the Appleton Greene Product Management corporate training program.

Product Management – Module 1

Organizations typically don’t have all the 130 skills and competencies to enable product success. As a result, billions are wasted on product failures that can be avoided if an organization can acquire the competencies for success.

The objective of this program is to teach the critical competencies for product success.

Topics covered in this module:

Year One

Workshop 1.1 What Must Products Have to Succeed?

Workshop 1.2 Design Thinking

Workshop 1.3 Innovation

Workshop 1.4 History of the Successful Management of Products and What distinguishes Products and Services

Workshop 1.5 Business Model, Plan, and Canvas and Product Management Lifecycle and Framework

Workshop 1.6 Product Management Competencies

Workshop 1.7 What Makes a Customer-Centric Organization?

Workshop 1.8 Role of Values and Vision

Workshop 1.9 Understanding the Customer Journey

Workshop 1.10 The Changing Business Environment Creating Insanely Great Customers

Workshop 1.11 Systems and Tools for Product Management

Workshop 1.12 Careers in the Successful Management of Products

Year Two

Workshop 2.1 Successful Management of Products in Startups

Module description

This foundational module gives you a birds-eye view of the entire Product Management lifecycle and the key elements that make a product successful.

The idea is to help you understand what makes products successful in today’s competitive business environment before you can delve deeper into the “how” of each aspect of the product lifecycle.

The module discusses how the concept of Product Management evolved from successful organizations such as HP and Apple, and how the role of Product Managers began to be defined. It explains how services and products differ, and what it takes for organizations to transition into a holistic product approach from a services approach to business. It introduces an overview of the various frameworks and approaches for the management of successful products, starting with the product market strategy and business canvas, to the various competencies, values, and visions organizations need to have for successful management of products, to the secret sauce for developing innovative and successful products—understanding what customers do as well as the complete customer journey.

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Year 1

1.1 Workshop: What Must Products Have to Succeed?

This workshop explores the six keys to product success: Product Market Strategy, repeatable processes, having the information necessary to get the job done, understanding what your customers want to do, add ensuring your employees have the skills and competencies to get the job done.

At the end of this workshop, the student will be able to:

• Define product management
• Discuss six key steps to product success

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1.2 Workshop: Design Thinking

This workshop will enable students to learn the concepts of design thinking and innovation and how to apply them to product development.

Design thinking is a systematic approach to product development starting with understanding clearly and deeply what the customer wants to do, translating that into unmet customer needs with a focus on desired customer outcomes. Design thinking encompasses creative approaches to the problem, rapid prototyping, and testing. Design thinking substantially enhances the success rate of innovation.

At the end of this workshop, the student will be able to:

• Understand the design thinking process
• Identify and evaluate opportunities from a customer focus
• Develop product specifications
• Engage creative thinking
• Rapid prototyping
• Design
• ROI

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1.3 Workshop: Innovation

Innovation means a new or enhanced product that does things better, faster, with higher quality, or style. New technologies, processes, and markets can drive innovation.

At the end of this workshop, the student will be able to:

• Learn about innovation
• Types and examples
• Sources and factors
• Influencers
• Class Exercise: Apply design thinking and innovation to a problem

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1.4 Workshop: History of the Successful Management of Products and What distinguishes Products and Services

Those who fail to know history are doomed to repeat it. This workshop discusses the origin of the management of products starting in 1932 and to the present time.

At the end of this workshop, the student will be able to:

• Discuss the various organizational strategies that have influenced the way organizations conduct business today
• Understand the role of Product Managers

This workshop discusses what is a product and what is a service. It will cover what aspects are similar and which are different.

At the end of this workshop, the student will be able to:

• Distinguish between products and services

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1.5 Workshop: Business Model, Plan, and Canvas and Product Management Lifecycle and Framework

This workshop will discuss the various organizational strategies that have influenced the way organizations conduct business today and develop an understanding of the role of Product Managers.

At the end of this workshop, the student will be able to:

• Describe a business model
• Discuss a few popular types of business models
• Use tools such as BMC and PMSC to document a business model

This workshop presents the Spice Catalyst product management lifecycle and framework depicted here:

Each of the components of the framework is discussed in a brief overview and how they fit together, and which parts need to be done before others. Product success depends on this. Product and/or services failures are because all of the key components are not done or not done in order.

At the end of this workshop, the student will be able to:

• Identify the pre-requisites for building a product management framework
• Discuss the various aspects of an agile product management framework
• Discuss the various stages in a product management framework
• List the various requirements for creating insanely great customers

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1.6 Workshop: Product Management Competencies

To have a successful product or service, an organization needs a basic, advanced, and professional level of competencies or skill sets. This workshop will cover each of those competencies.

At the end of this workshop, the student will be able to:

• Discuss key hard skills required for managing products successfully
• Identify the various competencies required for product market strategy
• Identify the competencies for product marketing
• Identify the competencies for product development, operations, and end-of-life
• Discuss the soft skills needed for product management
• Understand the role of a product manager

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1.7 Workshop: What Makes a Customer-Centric Organizational Structure?

Customer-Centric means being focused like a laser on the needs of the customer. But all too often the organization is structured in order for it to be managed thus frequently requiring the customer to know how the organization is structured in order to get their needs fulfilled successfully. Companies like Apple and Amazon make customer satisfaction the top priority thus creating loyal and repeat customers.

At the end of this workshop, the student will be able to:

• Discuss various organizational structures
• Explains a Product Management Focused Organizational Structure
• Use a few tools to facilitate a customer-centric organizational structure

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1.8 Workshop: The Role of Values and Vision

The values of an organization, if followed, are carried into every decision it makes about everything. As a result, those organizations that have and stick to their values are usually successful. Those that don’t typically fail. An organizational “vision” is their view of the overall goal, direction, “north star” they are trying to achieve. Organizations with a clear vision typically have products and/or services that succeed. Combining values and vision results in a Mission Statement.

At the end of this workshop, the student will be able to:

• Understand what values are and why they are important
• Understand what a product vision is
• Define a mission statement
• Discuss how values, vision, and mission create the organization’s culture

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1.9 Workshop: Understanding the Customer Journey

The journey a customer takes from the point in which they understand they need to do something to buying it and using it has changed dramatically over the past 15 years greatly due to the internet and social media. This workshop will describe the new customer journey in detail and have the participants work out what that means for all aspects of their product or service.

At the end of this workshop, the student will be able to:

• Identify the various stages in a customer’s journey
• Explain the ‘always-on’ approach for innovation and creating great customers

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1.10 Workshop: The Changing Business Environment Impacting Successful Product Management

Sometimes called the “Perfect Storm” nearly two dozen massive changes are occurring and that was before the Covid pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war. Understanding what they are and how to deal with them probably will have a significant impact on product/services success.