Round 1 – Application form

Instructions:
First question is compulsory for every applicant irrespective of their cell interest. There are two choices
given for the second question. Choose 1 of them. Please read the questions carefully.
After answering, submit the doc/pdf file through the Google Form:
https://forms.gle/LkwE3fjCCmHwhsh8A
(Forms will open at 11 p.m., 10th July 2022)
The naming format for the file is: Your_Full_Name.pdf/Your_full_name.docx

1. Why do you want to join The ProdMan Club? (Word Limit: 250 words )

Firstly, I am very interested to pursue a career in product management, and coming from a
technical physics/mathematics background I haven’t had a lot of interaction with industry leaders
or other like minded people in ProdMan. However, I believe I definitely have the skills and
dedication required to manage a product and joining The ProdMan Club will enable me to find
batchmates with a passion for products and build a network with experienced Tucchas and other
well established people in the field.

Secondly, my experience as chief coordinator of Pravega has taught me a lot about thinking
holistically about things, to analyse and judge every thing from every angle and see connections
between underlying factors and outcomes that are not immediately visible. I believe I can use
these abilities to help facilitate The ProdMan Club’s events, workshops and fulfil other leadership
requirements. Often making small changes at grassroots levels can lead to drastic variation in
outcomes, as I experienced firsthand in Pravega when I had to come up with a strategy to recover
losses of ~10% and ended up making a net profit of ~5% (after recovering the losses).

2. How would you increase the awareness about Product Management at IIM A? (Word Limit: 300
words)
Or
What is your favourite product? Provide reasons for the same (Word Limit: 150 Words)

(Answer to first question)

The natural instinct to tackling any awareness issues is to think about workshops, seminars,
competitions etc. However, in my 3 years of teaching and leading I have found that people generally relate
the most to things that they see, hear and in this case, consume everyday. In my opinion just telling people
about product management and its utilities in a 1-hour monotonous talk is an exercise in futility for most
people who are not already interested in product management. I have several ideas that can be
implemented as alternatives:

a. Organise activities and competitions with a simple goal – improve the products people
have access to here at IIMA. From dosa and sambhar with crickets to wet cigarettes at
Mafabhai, products at IIMA are begging for some management. Demonstrable utilities of
product management are the single biggest source of inspiration for people to explore
ProdMan.
b. Foster innovation and creativity to launch products from ProdMan. Nothing creates
awareness as a good advertisement drive, and between all the clubs and events at IIMA,
there is a vast scope for The ProdMan Club to fill gaps and position itself as the go to for
all product management.
c. Organize a running event like product of the month where each month a popular product
from a diverse set of categories is picked for scrutinisation and suggestion for
improvement by the IIMA community, and then compile the suggestions and send to the
respective companies. The company officials can then be called to IIMA for a talk
discussing the suggestions and engage people who have already gone to the effort of
suggesting these changes.

….……………………………………….All The Best………………………………………