BS699 L7 Managing Products Assessment Brief 2026 | ULaw

You can see the related solution of this brief: Business Assignment Example

BS699 L7 Managing Products Assessment Brief

Key Details and Requirements 

Learning outcomes:

• Critically assess how a physical/ digital product or service is developed to meet customer needs.
• Gain a critical awareness of external factors that impact product (physical/ digital or services) decisions.
• Perform a multi-component analysis of business cases, process maps and business issues to gain deeper insights.
• Critically appraise the application of project management tools and techniques in managing physical/ digital products or services.
• Synthesise the importance of stakeholder management in managing physical/ digital products or services.

Declaration:

By sitting this assessment, I am confirming:

• That I have worked independently on this assessment submission, and I have not worked together with any current or previous student at the University to produce my submission, other than when officially permitted to do so.
• I also confirm a third party has not generated the contents of my submission.
• I have fully referenced and correctly cited the work of others, where required.
• I have not used any generative AI tools to generate, rephrase or otherwise produce content for this submission, except where their use was explicitly permitted, and I have read and understood the University's AI in Higher Education Policy and Protocols.
• I have read the Student Discipline Regulations and understand that any academic misconduct can lead to disciplinary consequences and undermine academic integrity.
• I understand that where applicable, I am expected to engage with my academic work in a manner that meets the professional standards and requirements set by the relevant Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Body (PSRB) or accrediting body for my course.

By submitting this assessment, I am confirming that I am fit to sit according to the Assessment Regulations.

Assessment details: Individual Portfolio (tasks and activities accumulated over the semester), 100% (equivalent to 2,500 words)

Referencing: Students are expected to use Harvard Referencing throughout their assignments where required. Please follow the Harvard Referencing Handbook for all your assignments at the ULBS.

Submission Method: Turnitin - Your work will be put through Turnitin. All submissions will be electronically checked for plagiarism.

You have the option to upload your work ahead of the deadline, more than once. ULBS will be reviewing your last submission only. You can only upload one file. For example, if your work contains a Word document and PowerPoint slides/Excel spreadsheet, you will need to copy your slides/spreadsheet into the Word document.

ULBS Assessment Office Contact Details

The ULBS Assessment Office are here to help should you have any non-academic questions related to your assessments. You can contact them at AssessmentOffice@law.ac.uk

Note: Keep in mind that self-plagiarism (when you reuse your own specific wording and ideas from work that you have previously submitted without referencing yourself) is also a form of plagiarism and is not allowed.

Assignment Details

A portfolio is a purposeful and organised collection of materials, artefacts, or evidence that showcases a person's skills, accomplishments, experiences, and growth in a particular domain or field. The objects (usually termed artefacts) may be written, physical, digital, or artistic, or any combination.

In this portfolio assignment, you will conduct a comprehensive analysis of a named product (be it physical, digital or service product) in the existing market that faces a range of significant issues. Your task is to research and identify an existing (and genuine) product in current market, be it physical, digital or service, either large or small, from any industry that is encountering challenges, such as a loss of market position or inability to gain/regain market share or operational challenges or, decline in revenues and profit.

By applying relevant theories and models taught in this module, you will critically analyse and evaluate the issues related to managing this product within its industry, and offer a set of practical recommendations for its continuous improvement, and/or for the characteristics of a prototype if the chosen product is coming to the end of its life cycle.

Guidelines:

Task 1: Introduction (LO1)│Unit 1-2

In 100-150 words, provide an introduction to the portfolio and tasks required. You should point out the importance of looking backwards to plan the way forward, as the purpose of this report is:

• Introduce the purpose of this portfolio.
• Introduce the name of the chosen (existing) product and the industry/sector and the context (country/regions) within which it has been managed, and justify why this chosen product is significant enough to be chosen for this assessment;
• If your chosen product is managed worldwide, you should explain the specific context that this report is focused on.
• Briefly introduce the structure of this portfolio.

By the end of Unit 2, please upload to your Portfolio on PebblePad links to the resources you have used as part of these.

Task 2: The Ownership & Strategic Objectives (LO1)│Unit 3-4

In 200-250 words, provide an insight into the context within which this chosen product was developed to fulfil the strategic objective(s) of a specific company. You need to clearly explain who has overall responsibility for designing, developing and improving (the ownership) the selected product/service:

• Clearly explain who has overall responsibility for designing, developing and improving (the ownership) the selected product/service;
• Provide an insight into the context within which this chosen product was developed to fulfil the strategic objective(s) of a specific company;
• Spell out the strategic objective(s), and the changes/modifications since.

By the end of Unit 4, please upload to your Portfolio on PebblePad links to the resources you have used as part of these.

Task 3: Key Attributes & Main Competitors (LO2)│Unit 4-5

In 600-750 words, critically appraise the key attributes of the chosen product and its main competitors in the current market, as well as its current position within its product life cycle and its market:

• Critically appraise the key attributes of the chosen product;
• Spells out who the customers are, and their voice/needs;
• Critically analyse its main competitors in the current market (you might also wish to use a table to provide a direct visual on the key points of these comparisons);
• Critically evaluate its current position within its product life cycle;
• Critically evaluate its current position within its market.

By the end of Unit 6, please upload to your Portfolio on PebblePad links to the resources you have used as part of these tasks.

Task 4: Evaluating the Current Issues in Managing this Product (LO3, 4 & 5)│Unit 5-8

In 900-1100 words, critically analyse the current issues in managing this chosen product within existing macro and micro environments, as well as associated risks:

• Critically analyse the current issues in managing this chosen product (within existing macro and micro environments);
• Critically analyse the associated risks of managing this product in the current environment.

By the end of Unit 8, please upload to your Portfolio on PebblePad links to the resources you have used as part of these tasks.

Task 5: Conclusions & Recommendations (LO1 - 5)│Unit 9

In 250-400 words, conclude the key points of the discussion. Based upon this conclusion, you need to recommend:

• Key features and processes that this product could continuously improve to be in line with the constantly changing requirements; and/or
• If the chosen product is coming at the end of its life cycle, the characteristics of a prototype that the ownership may have already been planning or wish to undertake in line with the customer’s voice and market trends.

After Unit 9, please upload to your Portfolio on PebblePad links to the resources you have used as part of these tasks. Please make sure all other sections are fully completed on PebblePad.

Submission Guidelines:

Your e-Portfolio assignment will be compiled and structured as a single report, adhering to appropriate academic writing format, and referencing conventions, all completed in Pebble Pad, and then print your portfolio as a PDF file, save it on your computer and then submitted as a PDF in Turnitin by the assignment submission deadline. Ensure that you appropriately cite and reference all sources using a ULBS Harvard referencing style.

Brief Instructions on creating a portfolio:

Create an e-portfolio with PebblePad into which you copy the artefacts. Further guidance/video clips will be shared on working with PebblePad, and an assignment guidance sheet will be provided.

The artefacts/evidence will go only in phases 1, 2, 3 & 4 of Pebblepad and correlate them with the theoretical/conceptual framework discussed. Be selective when choosing artefacts on which you base your analysis, explaining and justifying their inclusion with appropriate referencing. Make note of the location of that evidence – a reference identifying the name, location, publication, etc., along with the date you located this link – basically your academic reference. This reference you would then copy into your List of References at the end.

The artefacts, or evidence, could be any of the following:

a) Relevant newspaper article from a business journal such as Financial Times, The Economist, Wall Street Journal, etc. (the headlines and part of the actual text);
b) Front cover of a report you find online, that has been published by a Think Tank, the Government, or some professional body (you must include a link to the source);
c) A still picture from a video you find on YouTube or some official and trustworthy website, etc. (you must include a link to the source);
d) A table prepared by the author (student) showing a good application of knowledge, such as PESTLE, SWOT or Porter’s Forces that could support the literature review in the summary section and table in the related phase.
e) Graph or picture showing competitive position;
f) Balance scorecard or financial position graph to evaluate the strategic execution and achieve business progress.
 
Note: Your module lecturer will share the Assignment Guidance Sheet for further instructions on ‘structure, layout, and contents’.

Please refer to the marking criteria (below) for a breakdown of how the tasks will be marked.

Assessment Criteria