Product Planning

Instructor

Matt Mayfield

What's next? Today's companies are faced with managing their scare resources to deliver ever more compelling products faster than their competition while generating greater profits. Portfolio planning is essentially how to generate and choose from a number of options to optimize a company's investment against these and other strategic goals.

This course is an introduction to the techniques and processes involved in portfolio planning. We will explore the role of portfolio planning in typical organizations and how it relates to other processes like strategy and product development. You will learn the basic techniques and approaches for portfolio planning laying the foundation for further studies.

Format & Grading

Classes are conducted as lectures and discussions based on the readings assigned. Emphasis is placed on building knowledge of portfolio planning basics. Periodically, classes will have breakout sessions for simple exercises that will be reviewed in class. Each student will generate a portfolio plan demonstrating the topics reviewed with a real world planning challenge.

Grading is based on the following:
1) Attendance (arriving on time in particular)
2) Contribution to class discussions
3) In-class quizzes and exercises
4) Final portfolio plan (class project)