Product Management from Concept to Delivery

Opinion vs tested fact · uncertainty and the cost of late change · Design Thinking · Stage-Gate · four types of innovation · research ethics and consent

1. Uncertainty and the cost of late change
2. The evidence ladder: opinion, signal, tested fact
3. Case: a feature built on opinion
4. Design Thinking and Stage-Gate: the ideas
5. Four types of innovation, with everyday products
6. Ideation in practice: bias, groupthink, idea choice
7. Why research ethics matter
8. Consent forms and recruiting screeners
9. Case: an interview that went wrong

Interviews, surveys and observation · personas and Jobs-to-Be-Done · affinity maps and journey maps · market sizing · Porter’s Five Forces

1. Interviews, surveys and observation
2. Personas and Jobs-to-Be-Done in practice
3. From findings to a problem statement
4. Affinity mapping: finding patterns in notes
5. Customer journey maps
6. Ranking unmet needs: a worked example
7. Market sizing: TAM, SAM and SOM
8. Segmentation and Porter’s Five Forces
9. Worked example: size and map a sample market

Product Concept Document · Ansoff Matrix · riskiest assumptions · low-cost tests · value proposition · first-release scope

1. The Product Concept Document, section by section
2. Ansoff Matrix: four ways to grow
3. Writing a concept for a sample product
4. Riskiest assumptions: what must be true
5. Low-cost tests: interviews, landing pages, prototypes
6. Worked example: a landing-page test
7. What a value proposition is, and is not
8. Choosing the first release: the smallest useful product
9. Case: one idea, three release sizes

Pricing hypothesis · willingness to pay · build, buy or partner · Project Charter · NPV, IRR and payback · sensitivity testing

1. Pricing hypotheses: cost, value and competitors
2. Testing willingness to pay with customers
3. Worked example: from price tests to a price range
4. Build, buy or partner: the decision
5. A scoring sheet for build, buy or partner
6. Case: choosing how to add online payments
7. The Project Charter and its scope
8. NPV, IRR and payback period
9. A business case in a spreadsheet, with sensitivity

MRD and PRD · use cases and acceptance criteria · RICE, MoSCoW, WSJF · testable user stories · backlog refinement · outcome-based roadmap

1. MRD and PRD: what each document is for
2. Use cases, stories and feasibility components
3. Worked example: prioritize and trace requirements
4. What makes a user story testable
5. Backlog refinement with engineers
6. Splitting large items: a worked example
7. Outcome-based roadmaps versus feature lists
8. Building a roadmap: goals, releases, themes
9. One roadmap, three audiences

BPMN and UML/ER diagrams · wireframes and prototypes · accessibility checks · usability testing · Beta tests · prioritized fixes

1. BPMN and UML: pictures of processes and systems
2. Wireframes and prototypes for key screens
3. Worked example: from process to testable prototype
4. Accessibility and inclusive design: the ideas
5. An accessibility checklist for prototypes and releases
6. Case: a sign-up form that locked users out
7. Usability and Beta testing: goals and five areas
8. Planning a test: tasks, checklists, feedback loops
9. From test findings to prioritized fixes

Agile versus up-front planning · sprint events · burndown charts · scope, time and quality trade-offs · change control · risk register

1. Agile and up-front planning compared
2. Sprint events from the product manager’s seat
3. Reading a burndown chart: a worked sprint
4. The scope, time and quality triangle
5. Negotiating trade-offs with engineering
6. Change control: a worked change request
7. Risks and dependencies: why track them
8. Building a risk and dependency register
9. Worked example: a late dependency in the register

Positioning and elevator pitch · messaging and collateral · PR and media planning · North Star metric and event tracking · launch enablement

1. Positioning, messaging and the elevator pitch
2. Collateral, PR and media planning essentials
3. Worked example: a demand-generation plan
4. North Star metric and input metrics
5. An event-tracking plan before launch
6. Worked example: metrics for a sample app
7. Launch enablement: who needs to know what
8. Launch checklist, phased rollout and rollback plan
9. Case: a launch day with support not ready

Launch readiness · go/no-go workshops · launch execution · KPIs against targets · launch retrospective · handoff

1. Launch readiness: what ready means
2. Running a go/no-go decision workshop
3. Worked example: a go/no-go scorecard
4. Launch execution and the KPIs that matter
5. A launch dashboard against targets
6. Worked example: reading the first weeks
7. Why hold a launch retrospective
8. Running the retrospective: format and template
9. Worked example: a launch retrospective record

Feature iterations · A/B tests · analytics-driven decisions · common mistakes and safeguards · the decision-board story

1. Post-launch work: iterate from evidence
2. A/B tests: design and read them
3. Handing the product to the next lifecycle stage
4. Concept-to-delivery mistakes and why they happen
5. Safeguards: a mistake-and-safeguard checklist
6. Case: spotting the mistakes in a weak plan
7. The decision-board story: problem to decision
8. Building a short board deck
9. Worked example: a concept pitch and tough questions

The concept-to-launch path · standard templates · a sample product idea · real-life case analysis

1. The concept-to-launch path on one page
2. Applying the path: research summary and business case
3. Applying the path: requirements, prototype, launch plan
4. Analyzing a launch case: method and timeline
5. Tracing results to discovery, build and launch decisions
6. Worked case: a launch that succeeded or failed