Capstone Project in Product Management

Product Conceiving Phase

• Defining the product conception phase and its stages:

1. Concept identification 
2. Concept investigation 

• Identify the purpose of the product concept document. 
• Discussing the external assessment considerations:

1. Market view
2. Competitor view
3. Technology view 
4. Partner view 
5. Environmental view 

• Discussing the internal assessment considerations:

1. Competitiveness view
2. Product view
3. Competencies view 
4. Resources View 
5. Partner view 

• Exercise: Conducting external and internal assessments to develop a product concept document

Product Conceiving Phase

• Exploring the elements of the product concept document:

1. Market problem or opportunity 
2. Market segments
3. Key financials 
4. Competitive landscape 
5. Main features and functionality 
6. Key differentiators
7. Go-to-market logistics 
8. Business success measurements 



• Exercise 1: Develop your product concept document 
• Defining product vision and its significance 
• Understanding the format of elevator pitch to develop a product vision
• Exercise 2: Develop your product vision

Product Planning Phase: PRD & User Stories 

• Defining the product plan phase and its stages:

1. Product definition 
2. Product plan activities 
3. Marketing plan activities 
4. Business case 

• Discussing the entries of the product requirements document (PRD):

1. Product users
2. Functional requirements 
3. Non-functional requirements 
4. Support requirements 



• Exercise 1: Develop your product requirements document (PRD).
• Understanding how to create user stories and a product backlog to support product development  
• Exercise 2: Develop your user stories and prioritized product backlog.

Product Planning Phase: Roadmap & Business Case

• Understanding the role of the product roadmap in developing a product 
• Discussing the components of the product roadmap:

1. Product name/identifier 
2. Defined release cycles 
3. Features planned for each release cycle 
4. Beta test and launch milestones 

• Exercise 1: Develop your product roadmap 
• Finalizing the business case by including and completing all its components:

1. Summary of marketing needs and opportunities
2. Primary competition 
3. Product Capabilities 
4. Product vision summary 
5. Value proposition and positioning statement 
6. Strategic objectives 
7. Go-to-market plans 
8. Financial analysis summary
9. Risk assessment summary 
10. Open issues 

• Exercise 2: Develop your final business case

Product Development Phase: Beta Plan 

• Defining the development phase and its stages:

1. Product development 
2. Market validation 
3. Lunch planning 
4. Program review

• Understanding the meaning and importance of beta plans 
• Discussing the types of beta tests/market tests and their benefits:

1. Open beta testing 
2. Closed beta testing 

• Understanding the categories of beta planning:

1. Testing purpose 
2. Internal Readiness 
3. Tester Recruitment 
4. Testing objectives 
5. Test management 
6. Communications 
7. Costs
8. Schedules 
9. Non-disclosure authority (NDA)
10. Key performance indicators (KPIs)

• Exercise 1: Develop your beta plan 

Product Development Phase: Usability Testing 

• Defining usability testing and determining its significance 
• Discussing usability testing criteria and its related considerations:

1. Learnable 
2. Efficient 
3. Memorable 
4. Free of errors 
5. Delightful 

• Exploring the elements of usability testing:

1. Prototype
2. Test plan 
3. Target users
4. Location selection 
5. Test modifying 
6. Result documentation 



• Discussing the ethical considerations in usability testing 
• Exercise 2: Define your usability testing requirements

Product Qualify Phase 

• Defining the qualifying phase and its stages:

1. Market validation 
2. Launch preparation 
3. Lunch readiness assessment 

• Exploring methods for qualifying your product:

1. Beta testing
2. Focus groups
3. Internal feedback 

• Analyzing testing results to achieve market validation 
• Discussing techniques to assess launch readiness:

1. Beta planning 
2. Beta testing 
3. Roles and responsibilities 
4. Success metrics 
5. Launch plan 
6. Sales and channel
7. Customer support 
8. Manufacturing and operations
9. Product Documentation 
10. Business plan 
11. Launch decision 

• Exercise: Conduct a launch readiness assessment for your product.

Product Lunch Phase 

• Defining the launch phase and its stages:

1. Launch activities 
2. Post-launch activities 

• How to finalize positioning and marketing preparation:

1. Demand generation planning 
2. Functional readiness 

• Exploring the elements of the demand generation plan:

1. Marketing objectives 
2. Market trends 
3. Marketing theme
4. Target audience/customer segments  
5. Programs/tactics
6. Key influencers 

• Determining the support functions that must be ready to launch the product:

1. Sales and channel readiness 
2. Operational and support readiness 
3. Product support readiness 
4. Manufacturing 

• Exercise 1: Creating Potential Marketing Collateral Options 
• Exercise 2: Develop your demand generation plan.

Product Delivering & Retraining Phase 

• Defining the deliver phase and retain phase 
• Discussing the ways of product retirement:

1. Harvest the product. 
2. Sell the product 
3. Discontinue the product 

• Overview of the product lifecycle:

1. Introduction
2. Growth 
3. Maturity 
4. Decline  

• Discussing the end-of-life (EOL) plan and its components:

1. Product identification 
2. The rationale for retiring the product 
3. Communications
4. Impacts on internal and external stakeholders 
5. Cost-benefit analysis 
6. Critical success factor plan

• Exercise: Develop your EOL plan. 
• Final presentation: present your capstone project in product management.