E-TALK: PRODUCT LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT
Continuing with the e-Talk Series 2020, a guest lecture was arranged for the students on 12th December. The speaker, Mr. Vinay Yadav, who works as a Software Engineering Manager at Amazon’s Alexa Data Services Division, spoke on the topic ‘Product Lifecycle Management’. Mr. Yadav leverages 15 years of global business experience to provide value for clients with informed and independent perspectives on their product development with technology strategies. His strategic guidance in Business Process Automation and Product Development has helped companies navigate the complex landscape of digital transformation, improve the efficiency of business processes, and make informed business decisions. Acknowledged as an engaging and energetic presenter, clients have engaged Mr. Yadav as Speaker, Trainer, Influencer, and Innovator at over 100 customers in more than 20 cities both in India and the United States.
The lecture was roughly divided into four parts i.e., Understanding the Problem, Understanding the customer demand, Product Lifecycle, and Principles of Product Strategy. The speaker first talked about the importance of identifying the problems of the customers by observing their requirements and current behavior and solving them by creating products for a better and productive life. He gave the example of the cellular recharge issue and how it was solved with the help of technology. He then talked about the fact that a product is a manifestation of the result of solving a customer’s problem and that the focus should be on making a product that best meets the customer’s demand. Mr. Yadav then moved on to the second part of the session i.e., Understanding the customer’s demand. He talked about users, buyers, product planning, product marketing. Users help define the requirements by understanding the need of the business whereas buyers determine whether the product achieves its objective. He also spoke about product planning, strategies, and the development process. He stressed the importance of product marketing and how it can help establish product awareness, demand, and roll out.
Moving on to the third part of the session, Mr. Yadav shed some light on the Product Lifecycle. The key stages are Start, Sustain, Scale, and Stop. ‘Start’ involves identifying the problem, researching about it, building a solution, and launching the product. ‘Sustain’ focuses on continuous customer feedback, working on improvement, and making the customer experience better. ‘Scale’ identifies the product types and focuses on the expansion of products and businesses. ‘Stop’ identifies the decline in trends, slow-downs, or walk-aways from products. It also explores new innovative features and products. The final part of the session was centered on the Principles of Product Strategy. The principles are Responsibility, Abiding Law, and Judgement. ‘Responsibility is a key aspect for a product as the risk of abuse of the product and its features can be very high owing to the ease of interconnectivity. Abiding Law says that companies must abide by the law while developing, launching, and promoting a product to maintain decency and a healthy environment. Judgment implies that ethics and principles must always be abided by to assure fair and good spirit in society.
The lecture ended with the speaker answering a series of questions posed by the students. Taking everything into account, the lecture was informative and added value to the students’ knowledge.
