Microsoft is deeply rooted in the philosophy of learning and coaching. We believe in nurturing talent as well as learning from them. PM Engage is our effort to educate, mentor and thereby actively produce the future PM talent. We provide an opportunity for MBA students across B-schools in India to know more about the PM role by attending PM workshops, participating in Microsoft PM challenge - case study competition, and getting mentored by a Microsoft Product Manager virtually.
Know the ins-and-outs of PM role with a seasoned Microsoft PM and learn basics of product oriented problem solving through workshops. You will be informed about the dates for PM workshop at your respective B-school by the placement team.
Apply your learnings to solve PM challenge and submit your entries adhering to the guidelines shared with your college.
Pro tip: Answer the ‘who’ and ‘why’ before the ‘what’ when you begin ideating. Utilize learnings from the PM workshop held by Microsoft at your campus.
Best teams from each B-school will get a chance to be mentored by a seasoned Microsoft PM. If you get shortlisted as a mentee, you will be informed about the timeline for mentorship by your placement team.
Top team from each B-School competes for the podium at national level finals.
(1) ISB Hyderbad
(2) ISB Mohali
(1) IIM Ahmedabad
(2) IIM Bangalore
(3) IIM Calcutta
(1) FMS
(2) IIM Kozhikode
(1) IIFT Delhi
(2) IIM Indore
(3) IIM Shillong
(4) IMT Ghaziabad
(5) MDI Gurgaon
(6) NMIMS Mumbai
As the in-house advocate for the millions of people worldwide who use Microsoft products, you drive the vision, design, implementation, and market success of next-generation software solutions. As the owner and advocate of your product components, some questions that you would be addressing through your role are:
Who is the customer? What customer problem am I addressing?
How do I deliver the best customer experience possible?
How do I take the product from conceptualization to launch?
What product solution do I craft to address this gap?
Does the product solution meet the business need (revenue, brand, etc.)?
How do I work with marketing, and various sales channels to drive adoption?
Lots of whiteboarding, storyboarding, sketching, and designing, iterating with engineering on tradeoffs between priority, timelines, capabilities, partnering across teams in Microsoft to deliver the solution, performing usability studies, planning versions, legal, marketing, monetization plans etc.
Defining who the product is for, identifying the fundamental problem that we are solving, understanding the competition, and our core positioning with respect to the competition, identifying our approach to the market and partnerships.
Evangelizing the product through customer connect, being the ‘face’ of the product, experimentation, and data analysis, iterating on feedback and learnings.
An after movie of the final round of PM challenge 2019 where students from the top B-schools represented their competed for a cash prize.
Problem definition approximately 400 words – focus on why – problem, customer value, business value.
Feature description approximately 900 words – focus on how – features leading to solutions for user scenarios.
Workflow max 1 page (2 slides) – UX design, flow charts etc.
Goals and non-goals approximately 200 words – focus on what – requirements and user scenarios that you aim to solve/not solve.
Success metrics approximately 200 words – how to evaluate success for the features planned and the overall product.
Separate tracks of final round for PGP1 & PGP2/PGPX/1-Year MBA
The top team from each campus will get 2 weeks to prepare for the final round post announcement of the final challenge.
Multiple submissions per team are allowed; the last of which would be considered for evaluation.
Each team submission should have a functional specification along with a PowerPoint presentation. Functional spec documents to have the same structure as campus round.
Each team will get 10 minutes to present their solution to the Microsoft leadership panel in the final round; followed by 5-10 minutes for Q&A.
Shortlisted teams will be assigned Microsoft PMs as mentors.
Multiple engagement and evaluation touchpoints wherein students will interact with Microsoft PMs during their mentorship journey and learn about - life of PM at Microsoft, how to build products by working on a case study and expectations out of a PM candidate during interviews.
Mentorship will span over roughly 2 weeks with the following focus areas:
Problem definition approximately 400 words – focus on why – problem, customer value, business value.
Feature description approximately 900 words – focus on how – features leading to solutions for user scenarios.
Workflow max 1 page (2 slides) – UX design, flow charts etc.
Goals and non-goals approximately 200 words – focus on what – requirements and user scenarios that you aim to solve/not solve.
Success metrics approximately 200 words – how to evaluate success for the features planned and the overall product.
Separate tracks of final round for PGP1 & PGP2/PGPX/1-Year MBA
The top team from each campus will get 2 weeks to prepare for the final round post announcement of the final challenge.
Multiple submissions per team are allowed; the last of which would be considered for evaluation.
Each team submission should have a functional specification along with a PowerPoint presentation. Functional spec documents to have the same structure as campus round.
Each team will get 10 minutes to present their solution to the Microsoft leadership panel in the final round; followed by 5-10 minutes for Q&A.
Shortlisted teams will be assigned Microsoft PMs as mentors.
Multiple engagement and evaluation touchpoints wherein students will interact with Microsoft PMs during their mentorship journey and learn about - life of PM at Microsoft, how to build products by working on a case study and expectations out of a PM candidate during interviews.
Mentorship will span over roughly 2 weeks with the following focus areas:
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