Opportunity brief
About the Event
The Product Paradox is an immersive Product Management simulation that replicates the real-world challenges faced by Product Managers. Participants will work in teams of 3–4, experiencing the complexities of feature prioritization, data-driven decision-making, and balancing competing stakeholder demands. The event provides an opportunity to develop critical Product Management skills, including strategic thinking, problem-solving, prioritization, and execution, in a competitive yet collaborative environment.
Event Flow
Product Management Quiz (Online Round)
The event begins with a fast-paced multiple-choice quiz designed to assess participants' knowledge across key areas of Product Management, including product strategy, user research, market analysis, and business decision-making.
- The quiz will be conducted online.
- The top 12 teams based on their performance will qualify for the on-campus round.
- Only qualified teams will proceed to the Product Arena.
Product Arena (On-Campus Round)
Qualified teams will participate in the Product Arena, the hands-on core of The Product Paradox. Each team will receive a prototype, such as a FinTech or Health & Wellness app, along with a customer feedback file containing user reviews, interview insights, and feature requests.
Teams will be required to:
- Analyze and filter insights: Identify actionable information from the available data to support product decisions.
- Prioritize features: Determine which features deliver the highest value within a fixed timeline.
- Manage stakeholder pressures: Respond to inputs from Marketing, Sales, and Engineering stakeholders while balancing business objectives and technical feasibility.
- Defend the roadmap: Justify product decisions and prioritization based on user needs, business goals, and available resources.
- Deliver final outputs: Submit a Product Requirements Document (PRD) outlining prioritized features, timelines, and rationale, along with an updated UI mock-up reflecting the selected features.
Why Participate
The Product Paradox offers participants a practical simulation of Product Management, where prioritization, critical thinking, and stakeholder management are essential.
Participants will gain hands-on exposure to:
- Product roadmap development
- User and market insight analysis
- Feature prioritization
- Trade-off decision-making
- Stakeholder management
- Product strategy and execution
- Balancing business, user, and technical requirements
- Creating PRDs and product prototypes
By the end of the event, participants will experience the end-to-end product decision-making process, from gathering insights to developing delivery-ready outputs.
Rules & Guidelines
- Only teams that qualify through the online quiz will be eligible to participate in the on-campus Product Arena.
- Use of AI tools is allowed for data analysis, guidance, and prototype generation.
- All decisions made by the organizing team will be final.
- The PRD and prototype will be evaluated by faculty members and industry experts.
- The evaluation and decisions of the judges will be final.