Program Lessons List

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is this the same as Titles and Roles in Product (PAI)

[Evolution of a Company]

[extended Quartz]

Every organization has more ideas than it can afford to pursue. Learn how to quickly assess unfamiliar markets, define the right level of upfront investment, and make disciplined go/no-go decisions before committing serious resources.

Not everything deserves to be a product. This lesson clarifies the difference between projects and scalable products, helping you align market problems, organizational capabilities, and differentiation into a coherent product strategy.

Most teams either improvise or over-engineer their process. This session introduces a practical decision framework for moving from idea to market—ensuring clarity on what decisions matter, when they happen, and who owns them.

Product management is often mistaken for coordination or delivery. This session reframes it as a business function responsible for outcomes—defining success, making tradeoffs, and ensuring products deliver measurable value to the company and the market.

Insight doesn’t come from reports—it comes from synthesis. Learn how to capture and integrate signals from the market, as well as sales, support, leadership, and your own experience, then use structured thinking (and AI can help) to identify patterns that inform strategy.

Not all customer input is equal. This lesson outlines four essential conversation types—persona definition, problem discovery, solution validation, and win/loss—and how each reduces risk and sharpens decision-making across the product lifecycle.

Before you fund anything, define it. The Product Brief forces clarity on the problem, market, value, and business potential—turning vague ideas into decision-ready opportunities without overbuilding a full business case too early.

Have you heard of "star products" and "cash cows"? It's a great technique for funding new initiatives. We’ve adapted our Profitability Matrix from the Growth Share Matrix, developed in 1977 by consultants at the Boston Consulting Group. In our version, the vertical is potential for growth; the horizontal is product profitability. It provides a simple way to think about your products and help you determine how (or if) to invest in them.

Most product data is fragmented and inconsistent. The Product Scorecard consolidates key metrics—market, revenue, profitability, and performance—into a standardized view, enabling leaders to compare products and make portfolio decisions with confidence.

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A portfolio should tell a clear story to the market. Learn how to define your portfolio like a product—target segments, value proposition, and differentiation—so your offerings work together strategically instead of competing for attention and resources.

As portfolios expand, they often become incoherent. This lesson outlines five practical strategies for managing a product suite—clarifying where to focus, what to rationalize, and how to align offerings to distinct markets and growth objectives.

Use the Portfolio Growth Matrix to identify where each product is positioned by market/persona, and where the opportunities exist for paid options, new products, and new personas. Identify the risks involved as you move outside your current product and market boundaries.

This session brings your portfolio into focus, helping you resolve competing priorities, clarify direction, and ensure teams are working toward the same strategic outcomes.

Strategy without capability is wishful thinking. Using the ASPIRE model, this lesson helps you assess where you’re strong, where you’re exposed, and which capabilities you must build, buy, or strengthen to execute effectively.

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Not every opportunity can or should be built internally. This lesson provides a structured approach to evaluating build, buy, and partner options—ensuring decisions are driven by capability, speed, and strategic advantage, not default behavior.

You can’t do everything—and pretending you can is expensive. Learn a practical approach to prioritization that balances customer impact with business value, enabling disciplined tradeoffs and clearer “no” decisions across the portfolio.

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A portfolio roadmap brings order to change. Define how your products will evolve—what to invest in, what to merge, and what to retire.

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Growth often creates portfolio sprawl. Through a case study of a dramatic turnaround, this lesson shows how disciplined portfolio decisions—what to keep, fix, or kill—restore focus, improve profitability, and reallocate resources to higher-value opportunities.

You simply don’t have the resources to maintain overlapping or aging products indefinitely—at least not at a level that keeps them competitive. A strong portfolio isn’t about more; sometimes it’s about less. It’s about choosing deliberately—and having the conviction to follow through.

Portfolio optimization moves from analysis to action, resulting in clear portfolio decisions. Tackle product overlap, consolidation, and exit decisions. The focus is on making tough calls with confidence and aligning stakeholders around a coherent plan forward.