Business Plan

Perform an objective analysis of a potential market opportunity to provide a basis for investment. Articulate what you learned in the market and quantify the risk, including a financial model.

Ready to hone in? Take Focus

Business Case Icon

Tools & Templates
Note: Tools & Templates are accessible by course completion. 
You will not be able to access templates that you haven't taken the course for.

Business Plan Tap into this resource when looking to document your key business thoughts, objectives and strategies. Hint: bring facts, not opinions.
  Business Plan Slides Use this slide template to capture and present your business plans and solutions.  
  Business Proposal Look to this template when creating a market opportunity pitch that remains focused on solving market problems that are (you guessed it) urgent, pervasive and that your market is willing to pay for. 
  Solution Matrix Tap this template when looking to position products against competitors, access your market impact and uncover your top distinctive competencies to solve market problems.
Focus Group Icon

PAC Discussions

Pivoting Product Business Strategies Here members exchange their experience with product business pivots and the lessons learned along the way.
Best Practices for Annual and Quarterly Planning Here members share how they tackle their planning strategies. 
Traditional Business Plans Vs. Lean Canvases Peers weigh in on their preferred processes when conveying intentions and product plans
  What numbers do you include in your business plan? PAC members share here how they think about including costs in their business plan.
  Opportunity Canvas Example and Explanation Presentation This is a deliverable shared by a PAC member, their Opportunity Canvas. A great download!
  Show & Tell: Business Plans Looking to revisit your business plan? PAC members share their takeaways, lessons learned and best practices when creating their business plan - what components they focus on and what sections are "must haves".
Magazine Ads Icon

Articles, Blogs & Reports

(Article) Implementing Agile Business Planning Just as product management articulates the market's requirements to engineering and development, they must also communicate the business rationale so that the organization invests in the most promising projects or products. 
  (Article) Executive Buy-In: Your Key to Success In this article you will be provided with three strategies that you can use to gain executive buy-in for implementing the Pragmatic Marketing Framework across your organization. 
  (Article) Beating Disruption: How to Win in the Fight to Be First Back in 2000, Reed Hastings tried to sell his then-struggling company to Blockbuster Video for a mere $50 million. Blockbuster had heard of Hasting’s company, Netflix, but it wasn’t buying the hype.

Video Marketing Icon

Videos, Webinar & Podcasts

Business Plans are About Vision, Not Precision Webinar: What do you need in a business plan? Numbers, figures, financial plans and a few ideas? Leadership teams need more than numbers to make strategic decisions that matter. Yet, many organizations rush to an evaluation of financial forecasts and revenues before an idea has even been clearly defined. 
Getting Executive Buy-In Webinar: Check out this webinar on how to work with executive management in making products that are properly conceived, built, and launched. Hosted by Paul Young and Mike Belsito, co-founders of Product Collective.
Approaching A Business Plan Framework Webinar: Your developers have gone agile. They want a backlog and user stories. Executives want a roadmap with a longer view. How do you connect strategy with execution? What happens to the roadmap and requirements when you go agile?
Pitching a Business Plan to Leadership for the First Time Office Hours: In this session Instructor Terry Sadowski talks how to approach/present a business plan for the first time, when it's appropriate to do team market discovery calls, the difference between internal and external roadmaps and more.