Peer Review compare and contrast your course reflections with their ideas. How are they similar/different?

Peer Review 1

he biggest strategy I learned from this class when building the proposal was to build a reusable template for future product launches. This can be a living document that is adjusted and updated as new information is learned through each product launch.

A key technology for the success of the business is analytics. Understanding how the customers were acquired helps to understand which marketing initiatives and campaigns worked. It can also help to understand the demographic that is interested in the product. As the demographic information is analyzed, marketing campaigns can be adjusted for better targeting and more efficient spends. An analysis by McKinsey & Company showed that using data to make better marketing decisions can increase marketing productivity by 15-20% (Michigan State University, 2019).

A CRM is also a technology that will be vital. Many aspects of the university will use the CRM to drive their decisions. Supported by customer data, business processes are coaxed towards better practice. Existing customer are retained, and higher conversions on new leads are obtained (Sirk, 2019). Enrollment can use the data to help the prospect choose the best program for them. Advising can use it to help manage the students through their academic lifecycle. When tied into analytics, the university will be able to use artificial intelligence tools to predict what a student’s next action will be. This will help the university identify which steps to next take with the student and will increase operational efficiency and decrease the costs associated with managing the students.

Building this project management plan helped to look at the big picture, and understand the resources required throughout the product lifecycle. It will help me in my professional career to look beyond the initial decision required, and to try to understand the effects that decision will have on other departments down the line.

References

Michigan State University. (2019, May 28). How Business Analytics Can Help Your Business. Retrieved from Michigan State University: https://www.michiganstateuniversityonline.com/resources/business-analytics/how-business-analytics-can-help-your-business/

Sirk, C. (2019, June 10). Operational CRM Software. Retrieved from CRM.org: https://crm.org/crmland/operational-crm

Peer Review # 2

My business proposal was Overwatch for Virtual Reality. This was a fun project to create and I am excited that it gave me an opportunity to look into the infrastructure of my favorite gaming company to see how they run their operations and how it may apply to new games they produce. A new approach to project management which Blizzard uses and I had never seen another company use before, is how they obtain feedback from their community and implement those changes. They monitor all active forums and study the data of feedback; once they gain the general consensus on what needs to be changes, they implement the changes into a PTR (or Play Test Region) where people can test these changes. They monitor feedback and and reported bugs through this channel.

One key technology needed for the success of Overwatch VR would be Asana. I use this for my current line of work and I find it helpful when managing projects and delegating tasks. I will manage them by training everyone how to use Asana. I would plan communication strategies earlier in the process and create a sustainable PR team. Upon studying Blizzard, I had found that they do not have a great PR department to address and deal with any PR concerns. I think if they were to come out with this product, they would need a PR plan since it would be delving into a new market for them. My project management plan will prepare me for my professional life and my remaining educational experiences by giving me the basic ideas on how to manage an entrepreneurial type of project. Since I was able to build my own project, I can see from the ground up what efforts go into it as a whole.