Product Lifecycle Management Course v2.0
Last year, when I took the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) course at IIIT Hyderabad, it felt like I was walking into one of my lowest moments as a teacher. I wasn’t proud of the course — neither the way I designed it nor the way I delivered it. Some of it was personal, yes, but if I’m being honest, a large part of my frustration stemmed from the course itself. What I chose to teach and how I went about it didn’t sit well with me. Here’s a lesson I learned the hard way: If the design isn’t good, the end product won’t be either.
This year, I decided to make changes. Actually, a lot of changes. I tested some of these changes in my Product Marketing course earlier this year, which I wrote about a couple of months ago. While not everything was perfect, the new approach worked well enough to convince me to adapt it further for PLM. With a few tweaks and lessons learned, here’s what the new PLM course is going to look like.
1. Less Focus on Theory
I’ve talked about this before in my article Will AI Replace Teachers? — our role as teachers is evolving. Theory is no longer something we can stake our claim on. A tool like ChatGPT can explain concepts more patiently than I can ever hope to. It can provide multiple definitions, frameworks, and even suggest processes — all at lightning speed.
So, instead of teaching theory, I’m going to make it my job to help students apply it. We’ll skip long lectures and focus on doing things that mimic real-world challenges. Theory will always be there for reference, but we’re moving past it as the centerpiece of the course.
2. Outcome-Oriented Deliverables
PLM is all about managing a product’s lifecycle over years — the different avatars it takes as it grows, evolves, and eventually fades out. But how do you simulate something that takes years when you only have a four-month semester?
I struggled with this question for days. Then, while skimming my inbox, I found inspiration in the form of a Github repository update. It was a changelog email. The idea hit me immediately — the weekly deliverable for PLM this year will be a changelog.
Why a changelog?
A changelog reflects not just what’s changed, but also why it’s changed. It captures intent over content — something we often forget in academia but which matters immensely in the real world.
I don’t want my students spending time writing strategy documents or reports. Instead, I want them to focus on thinking, debating, and deciding about the changes. A changelog in coding is a simple document that highlights changes — fixed bugs, new functionality — without overwhelming the reader with the actual changed code. So, instead of submitting a strategy document that they have to maintain and I have to parse through, a changelog makes better use of everyone’s time.
3. Weekly Scenarios
Here’s where the fun begins. After the first few weeks of setup, I’ll throw my students into the deep end with weekly scenarios. These are events or incidents that mimic real-world challenges, and they’ll need to respond to them.
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Some very simple examples:
- “Server prices went up.”
- “A major customer left a scathing review.”
- “Your team worked overtime but missed the deadline.”
Their job? Figure out what this means for their product and business. Should they migrate from X cloud provider to Y? Should they fix a buggy feature that customers are complaining about? Maybe it’s time to hire additional staff or rethink priorities. Whatever their decision, they’ll log it in their weekly changelog, along with a solid rationale.
This is about building the mindset they’ll need in the workplace — prioritizing trade-offs, managing constraints, and adapting fast.
4. A Commemorative Presentation
The final week will be a reflective moment. Students will present their product’s lifecycle as if it’s reaching the end of its road. They’ll summarize the major changes they made and, more importantly, the lessons they learned from those changes.
It’s not just about showing off what they did — it’s about showing they understand why they did it.
Why take this approach?
In the real world, the end of a product’s lifecycle is often when teams reflect on what worked and what didn’t. This is where the biggest takeaways come from, and it’s the perfect way to close the course.
Why This Experiment Matters
This entire setup is an experiment. It could fail spectacularly, and if it does, I’ll own it. But as a teacher, my job is to find ways to prepare students for the realities of the workforce. That means moving beyond theory and helping them simulate the challenges they’ll face when they manage real products.
Looking back at my own experience, I’ve realized that it wasn’t memorization that helped me succeed. I’ve always taken the time to understand what I learned, applying it in ways that made sense to me. It’s that mental simulation — that process of grappling with concepts and trying them out in different scenarios — that I want to pass on to my students.
If my experience with the Product Marketing course is any indication, this approach has potential. Will it work as well for PLM? I think so. But, only time will tell.
