product-life-cycle.md

Product Life Cycle

With this module, you'll learn the about the various stages of a company and the mindset you need to find success in each stage.

Topics

Product-Market Fit (PMF)

With this topic, you'll learn the influence product-market fit has on the overarching mission of a business.

Learning Outcomes

• Define what product-market fit is
• State the core indicator that a business's product has reached PMF
• Assess if a business's product has reached PMF
• Theorize why PMF is the destination a business uses to set their course

Primary Resources

• PMF Introduction Resource
• Overview of PMF Indicators Article

Extended Resources

• A Company's Framework to Find PMF Article
• Never Ending Road to PMF Article
• What is most important between "the market, the team, or the product?" Article
• Blue Ocean Strategy Book ($)
• Build a Story Brand Book ($)
• Business Model Generation Book ($)
• Four Steps to the Epiphany Book ($)
• Startup Owner's Manual Book ($)
• The Design of Everyday Things Book ($)
• The Mom Test Book ($)
• Value Proposition Design Book ($)
• Well Designed Book ($)

Exercises

• Product-Market Fit Indicator Questionnaire

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Stages of a Company

With this topic you'll learn how to correlate the stages of a company to its journey toward product-market fit.

Learning Outcomes

• State the stages of a company
• Correlate the stages of a company and their relation to product-market fit
• Recite what matters to a company at the different stages of its growth

Resources

• Stages of a Company Introduction Resource
• Lean Startup Summary Article
• "Scale": Crossing the Chasm Book ($)
• "Scale": Measure what Matters Most Book ($)
• "Start": Inspired: How to create tech products customers love Book ($)
• "Start": Jobs to be Done Book ($)
• "Start": Start with Why Book ($)
• "Start": The Lean Product Playbook Book ($)
• "Start": The Lean Startup Book ($)
• "Start": The Startup Way Book ($)
• "Start": When Coffee and Kale Compete Book ($)
• "Sustain/Shift": Blue Ocean Strategy Book ($)
• "Sustain/Shift": The Innovator's Dilemma Book ($)

Exercises

• Assessing the Stage of your Company

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Product Life Cycle Stages

With this topic, you'll learn how a software engineer's focus may change as the goals of a product change.

Learning Outcomes

• State the stages of a product's life cycle
• Correlate the stages of a product to stages of a company
• Explain what matters to a company/product team at the different stages of its product
• Theorize how the priority a product team places on various product development strategies might change through the different product stages

Resources

• Product Life Cycle Stages Introduction Resource
• The Influencing Theory Behind Product Life Cycles Article
• Product Roadmaps: Relaunched Book ($)

Exercises

• Assessing the Stage of your Product

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Inter-team Coordination

With this topic, you'll learn how most companies coordinate software development between their product teams and the surrounding business.

Learning Outcomes

• Describe the Agile and Waterfall software development core philosophies
• Describe the typical practices/frameworks of each philosophy
• Deduce what philosophy and practice a particular company adheres to
• Theorize what philosophy is best for "the job at hand"

Resources

• Inter-team Coordination Introduction Resource
• 12 Agile Principles Article
• Agile Frameworks Article
• Agile Manifesto Article
• Choosing the right agile framework for you Article
• Empirical Process Control Article
• Empirical vs Define Process Control Article
• Kanban Description Article
• More on Agile Frameworks Article
• Plainview's view on Agile Frameworks Article
• Process Control Article
• Product School's Agile v Waterfall Description Article
• ProductPlan's view on Agile Frameworks Article
• Scrum Guide Article
• Using Agile Scrum Article
• Waterfall Methodology Article
• Wideview of digital project manager methods/frameworks Article
• Agile Retrospectives Book ($)
• Coaching Agile Teams Book ($)
• Collaborative Intelligence: Using teams to solve hard problems Book ($)
• Creative Confidence Book ($)
• Crucial Conversations Book ($)
• Empowered: ordinary people, extraordinary products Book ($)
• Extreme Programming Explained Book ($)
• Getting Started with Kanban Book ($)
• Lean Software Development Book ($)
• Mythical Man-Month Book ($)
• Scrum: The art of doing twice the work in half the time Book ($)
• Sprint: how to solve big problems and test new ideas in just five days Book ($)
• The Coaching Habit Book ($)
• User Stories Applied Book ($)

Exercises

• Software Development Framework Questionnaire

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Intra-team Coordination

With this topic, you'll learn how most product teams organize their composition of skill sets within the team and how a software engineer can work specifically with a product manager on their team.

Learning Outcomes

• Describe the disciplines needed for balanced digital product development
• Describe the responsibilities of various "manager" roles a developer may encounter
• Explain what a developer should expect of a product manager
• Explain what a typical product manager expects of a developer on their team

Resources

• Intra-team Coordination Introduction Resource
• Agile Product Management Article
• Project Manager vs Program Manager vs Portfolio Manager Article
• What is a product owner? Article
• Agile Estimating and Planning Book ($)
• Creative Confidence Book ($)
• Everyday Business Storytelling Book ($)
• Inspired: How to create tech products customers love Book ($)
• Start with Why Book ($)
• Storytelling with Data - A data visualization guide for business professionals Book ($)
• The Making of a Manager Book ($)
• The Product Book Book ($)

Exercises

• Team Collaboration Questionnaire