Simple-PDH

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

new product development

Visualizing NPD Solutions

Successful new product development (NPD) links many perspectives from the end-user or customer, designers, manufacturers, and marketers.  No single entity can develop a new product solution that meets customer needs and profit objectives by itself.  Yet, incorporating and balancing these various viewpoints is often a challenge for innovators.

Design Thinking

A set of tools that have become popular in the last few years are those in design thinking.  Design thinking is a creative problem-solving approach that systematically expands the potential ideas to address a given customer need.  The following figure illustrates the design thinking model.

In discovery, an NPD team uses tools like observation and ethnographic research to study potential problems.  Customers are an integral part of the design thinking model because they show the NDP team how they approach problems today and which solutions, or workarounds, they employ to address those issues.  The discovery phase of innovation is tremendously important since it sets the stage for all subsequent phases of work. 

In the define phase, the NPD team uses design thinking tools to clarify the problem.  While there might have been several challenges and customer needs noted in the discovery phase, carefully defining the problem is crucial to solving it.  We recommend the ITEM Method of Problem-Solving in which the problem statement is initiated, tuned, evaluated and measured.  The ITEM Method can be used as a standalone problem-solving tool or as a subset of tools within the design thinking framework.

Once the NPD team feels they have a concise customer need defined, the team will move to solution generation phases of work.  This includes creating lots of potential solutions and testing them quickly.  Rapid prototype testing is an important tool for innovation so that poor concepts can be eliminated.  Moreover, customers are involved in the solution generation process in successful innovation ventures.  You can include end-users and consumers in brainstorming sessions and certainly they should be included in evaluating prototypes. 

Visualizing Solutions

In his book, “Product Design and Innovation,” Carlos Rodriguez identifies three types of analytical thinking within the framework of design.  These strategic viewpoints can help an innovation team expand their solution sets to successfully identify options to address customer needs.

Deductive Reasoning

In the first category of problem-solving tools, deductive logic is used to test product solutions.  In deductive testing, we already know the expected outcome or result, and we are measuring whether the new product will deliver that value.  This type of problem-solving uses the argument of “if-then” and accepts conclusions justified by the hypothesis.

For example, deductive logic is applied to an automotive innovation.  The hypothesis is that “consumers want faster cars.”  Design thinking tools and the ITEM Method of problem-solving identify ways to increase acceleration through engine and transmission improvements.  Deductive testing then proposes that “if the engine has more horsepower, then the car will accelerate faster.”  Note that deductive testing is easily measured and describes “what” the design features do.

Inductive Reasoning

Inductive logic will extrapolate beyond the measurable deductive testing.  Instead of designing around the “what” of the innovation, NPD teams use inductive testing to evaluate “how” to accomplish a product solution.  This necessitates a broader viewpoint of the customer problem and back tracks from the solve stages of the design thinking framework to the identify stages.

For instance, instead of jumping to designing a faster car, inductive new product development will as the question of “how can people travel faster”.  In this case, the solution space is expanded from faster cars to high-speed rail, airplanes, and maybe even a hyperloop.  Inductive reasoning will generate more potential solutions using brainstorming and promotes solutions strategies beyond a given product feature.

Abductive Reasoning

Finally, abductive reasoning drives disruptive innovation by exploring both the “what” and “how” of a solution space.  In this context, we are focused on delivering the most customer value by utilizing skills and competencies of a cross-functional NPD team that includes the customer.  Abductive problem-solving in NPD includes design activities like observation, creating customer journey logs, and customer empathy maps. 

Continuing our example of faster travel, abductive design will go back to the discover stage of the design thinking model to identify the true customer problem.  We ask:  “Why does she want to travel faster?” and “What does he accomplish with faster travel?”  The answers may lead to NPD solutions that are disruptive or radical.

In our example, wd find that people want faster business travel so they can minimize time spent away from home and family.  This leads to a product solution that has nothing to do with the person leaving home – instead, we implement a telecommuting option and hold a virtual meeting via webinar.

Visualizing NPD Solutions

Design thinking tools offer a broad approach to new product development that helps identify the best solution for customer problems.  Using deductive testing in design and development, we can improve product features and characteristics.  This helps maintain and sustain a product or brand through the maturity stages in the product life cycle.

NPD teams can use inductive design to broaden the scope of the problem.  Rather than assuming an improvement of an existing product, inductive testing challenges the NPD team to design alternative approaches to solve the customers’ problems.  Inductive testing involves design thinking tools like rapid prototyping and concept testing to ensure that customer needs are met.

Finally, radical and disruptive innovation can be achieved when the innovation team steps back to observe customers’ problems with the broadest perspective.  Instead of improving existing product solutions or creating tangential new products, abductive reasoning allows the NPD team to craft delightful and unique products and services that truly address end-user challenges.

Learn More

Feel free to contact me for more information design thinking.  I can be reached at info@simple-pdh.com or 281-280-8717.  I love helping individuals, teams, and organizations achieve their highest innovation goals!

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.  Learn.  Earn.  Simple.

Launching and Landing a New Product

A lot of new products fail in the marketplace.  In innovation, we analyze the data and our systems to try to prevent another failure in the future.  Yet, success of new products and services in meeting goals and objective continues to be an ongoing problem across industries and corporations.  What is going on and how can new product development (NPD) practitioners improve success rates?

Launching vs. Landing

A key concept in NPD is the difference between launching and landing.  Most NPD systems focus on the end goal as the product launch.  A lot of companies use a staged and gated process for innovation, with the final stage identified as “Product Launch”.  Unfortunately, launching a product is not enough.

The obvious analogy is air travel.  I certainly don’t want to fly with a pilot who only knows how to launch the aircraft.  To arrive safely at my destination, I trust that the pilot knows how to land the plane.  (Image from one of my favorite comedy movies – Airplane.  My husband can’t stand when I start reciting lines from the film when we are traveling… but that’s another story.)

Likewise, product launches are only the start of the customer relationship.  Launching a new product includes a marketing campaign to build awareness of the product, its value, and its benefits.  A product launch might include education and training as well as demonstrations and integrations.  The point of the product launch is to show the world the new product.

Landing the product is what really counts for successful innovation.  I have long been an advocate for post-launch reviews (PLR).  The lessons learned in a PLR allow the NPD team to learn and grow and allows the sales and marketing teams to make adjustments in targeted areas as needed.  PLRs focus on revenue and volume for new product sales as well as net profit.  Thus, the PLR measures the landing of a new product.

For example, a new product may be specially designed to meet the needs of a target market, but these customers are not exposed to the product.  Imagine the breadth of products that are designed to help manage incontinency.  If all the advertising is on YouTube and smartphones, a large target market (elderly folks who may not be internet or phone savvy) may be completely missed.  The PLR helps to land the product with the right audience through sales data analysis leading to a successful television marketing campaign.

Customer Satisfaction

Landing the product is all about customer satisfaction.  And honestly, the PLR can be a last-ditch effort to save a product.  Customer needs (both known and unarticulated) must be met with the features and benefits of the product.  Needs assessments should be conducts long before the product launch – ultimately, a new product project is not undertaken unless there is a right-sized market potential.

Agile project management and lead product development offer tools and techniques within a structured ecosystem to help new product practitioners learn customer needs.  I also really like the tools within Design Thinking to help the NPD team retain a focus on the customer from idea to development to launching and landing.  Design thinking asks us to first discover customer needs.  Once we fully understand and build empathy for another person’s challenges, then we can define the problem in traditional NPD terms and processes.

Design Thinking Tools

Design thinking follows a cyclical model of Discover–>Define–>Create–>Test–>(repeat).  Again, discovery involves intimate relationships with customers and potential customers.  Market research is often qualitative at this stage because we are seeking to understand the exact challenges that our customers face.  It is important to listen to people closely as their emotions will help the NPD team discern their most pressing problems.

After concluding listening sessions, shadowing, and customer journey maps in the discovery stage, the NPD team moves to defining the problem.  Sometimes the real problem is unstated or buried below the surface.  Tools like customer empathy maps and affinity diagrams can help to sort out the biggest customer challenges that we think we can address through new product and service development.

Next, we switch to more traditional NPD process techniques to create potential solutions to address the defined customer needs.  Here, tools like brainstorming, brainwriting, and A/B testing are used.  It is crucial to maintain customer involvement in this stage of work.  The NPD team needs to be assured that features they design and develop will delight the customer, setting the framework for landing the product.

Finally, the design thinking cycle moves to prototype testing.  Depending on the complexity of the product and its newness to a market, prototype testing may be simple or sophisticated.  Product improvements and extensions may test a simple feature with a one-time product use test.  New-to-the-world products require multiple prototypes and tests to ensure a selected feature set is beneficial to a potential customer and that all product attributes integrate across the product platform.

Of course, you’re not done at the testing phase.  Design thinking teaches us to go back to customers to discover continuous needs and to cycle through the steps to ensure alignment.  Customer satisfaction with the features and benefits determines the value of the product.  This value ties to our measures of revenue and profit, tracked in the PLR.  A product that is highly valued in our target market means we have successfully launched and landed the new product.

Landing Customer Satisfaction

New product launches often fail because the NPD team is isolated from the customer, focusing on an end goal of just releasing the new product.  Landing the product follows the launch, with corrective actions measured in post-launch reviews, to ensure customer satisfaction.  Satisfied customers are repeat customers and will share their delight with friends and neighbors.  Nothing beats word-of-mouth marketing for a new product!

The only way to successfully launch and land a new product that benefits customers and brings long-term value to the organization is through intimate customer relationships.  Design thinking employs a set of tools within a cyclical model to ensure customers remain at the forefront of new product development.

Next Steps

First, innovation leaders must take action to ensure new product development is focused only on the customer.  Second, innovation teams should use the post-launch review process to determine corrective actions if a product launch does not land customer satisfaction.  Finally, NPD leaders will build a toolkit spanning customer interviews and prototyping from design thinking to encourage intimate customer relationships and leading to higher success rates in new product development.

To build your skills and address your toughest innovation challenges, please contact me about membership in the Innovation Master Mind (IMM) group.  IMM is a 6-month peer coaching group that allows you to extend your NPD knowledge beyond NPDP certification and to collaborate with other CIOs and innovation managers.  I also offer one-on-one coaching and New Product Development Professional (NPDP) training to help you target specific innovation knowledge areas.  So, feel free to contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or 281-280-8717 to learn more.  I love helping individuals, teams, and organizations reach higher strategic innovation goals!

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

© Simple-PDH.com

A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Brand Messages

I’ve been travelling quite a bit lately.  Some for business and some for pleasure.  I have been through several airports and stayed in a bunch of different hotels.  I’ve rented cars and taken shuttle buses, trains, and mass transit.  All of these places are plastered with advertisements for products and services.

We are often exposed to products and services through these advertisements, especially when we initially become aware of a new offering.  But we are also exposed to products and services through our use of them – the airline, the hotel, the rental car.  As an overall picture of the quality and detail of service, the company’s reputation, and our use of the prime offering, we get to know the company’s brand.

People, too, have a brand.  Of the many people I met in my travels, I gained a first impression of strangers or I furthered a relationship with old friends and colleagues.  Like a product or service, each interaction with a person reflects his or her brand and enforces my desire (or not) for continued interaction.

In innovation and new product development (NPD) leadership, we generally consider a brand as a three-pronged approach to identifying the offering.  The three elements of a brand are:

  1. Clarity – the brand message must be clear and concise,
  2. Consistent – each exposure to the product or person should maintain an expected range of performance, and
  3. Compelling – successful brands tell us why they are unique and draw us toward them with an interesting story.

Let’s look at each of these elements in depth from both an innovation and leadership perspective.

Clarity

It is no great wonder that most conflicts begin because of a lack of clarity.  Occasionally, clear messages are disrupted by noise or a poor signal – like trying to talk to someone over loud music or when they have only one bar on their cell phone.  More often, brand clarity is disrupted because of our own assumptions as senders or receivers of messages.

Consider Apple’s famous advertising slogan “Think Differently.”  The product message was clear.  In a crowded personal computer market, Apple told their customers and potential customers that their product stood out; it was unique.  The product brand message appealed to users who value product novelty and view themselves as different from the average person.  And, at just two words, we cannot argue against the concise message!

Contrast Apples’ brand clarity with a leadership brand message.  Sometimes we encounter individuals who are told to focus on “leadership presence”.  There is no clarity in this message since we each can interpret “leadership presence” differently.  Does it mean making a quick decision and sticking with it?  Does it mean working long hours or having a corner office?

Before we can coach an individual to improve his or her performance, we need to clearly identify the behavior to enhance or modify.  I believe asking questions to clarify goals and objectives, and to agree on fundamental definitions, is important to improve our innovation leadership skills.  Asking powerful questions is one tool we address in both Virtual Team Leadership Training and in the Innovation Master Mind group.

Consistency

Product brands need to provide a consistent message.  We have to recognize the product and be reminded of what it does for us.  The product benefit message needs to be consistent so that we know we will get the same level of quality each time we engage a product or service to solve a problem for us.

While Coca-Cola has generally been a consistent brand for over 100 years, the company has had some high-profile stumbles with inconsistent brand messaging.  The classic example of New Coke in the 1980s almost destroyed the brand.  And again, in the 2000s, an honest attempt to promote their holiday theme led to inconsistent branding interpretations among diet soda drinkers.  Of course, brand consistency is more than colors and logos, but these tangible perceptions of a brand help consumers consistently identify products and services with which they are familiar.

As an innovation leader, you also need to present a consistent brand.  You cannot expect to be clam and reserved in a meeting with executives at the same time you shout and pound the table with direct reports.  Our expectations of successful project leaders include consistent behavior that is honest, open, and forthright.  When you are true to yourself, you will be true to others.

Compelling

Brand messages must be compelling and engage the appropriate audience to want to learn more.  Again, Apple’s “Think Different” campaign featured famous and admired people so that consumers would be interested in how they could also be “different”.

Product and service brands engage us with their (consistent) colors and logos but also with a message of how we will be better because of their offering.  Swiffer™ promises us that we can save time in our housekeeping chores – definitely a compelling message.  Scott’s Brand Fertilizer promises us a greener lawn and to be the envy of our neighbors – another compelling message.  And Maybelline promises us the secrets to beauty – a compelling desire of every woman!

Leaders also must deliver a compelling message to inspire and motivate their teams.  It is not enough to simple state project goals, schedules, and budgets.  Effective leaders create a shared purpose for the project team and draw the team together to accomplish these objectives.

In Chapter 6 of PDMA’s Essentials 3:  Leveraging Constraints for Innovation and in the Virtual Team Leadership Training, we discuss building shared purpose within a team.  The compelling message starts before the project, in initiating and structuring the team.  Team members who believe in the organization’s mission and values are readily inspired and motivated to complete tasks and activities leading to a shared goal.  Successful innovation leaders keep the objectives and unified purpose front and center throughout the project execution stages.

How to Apply a Brand Message

With products and services, New Product Development Professionals (NPDP) are trained to analyze customer needs, benefits, and value propositions.  We can compose brand messages that are clear, consistent, and compelling that reflect our customers’ values.  The goal is to create engaging products that meet customer needs and delightfully serve and satisfy their expectations.

Every leader also needs to consider his or her brand.  We need to clearly express our potential as leaders through consistent behavior and in motivating team members.  Clarity and consistency in leaders is expressed by asking powerful questions and in the following the golden rule – treat every as you would want to be treated.  Our compelling message as leaders drives and supports a shared purpose and a mission to improve all circumstances in which we are privileged to serve.

What is Your Product Brand?  What is Your Leadership Brand?

Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or 281-280-8717 to learn more about the Virtual Team Model Leadership series or Situational Team Leadership.  If you are in the position of leading a virtual team, please check out our courses and coaching at  Simple-PDH.com as well as Chapter 6 in PDMA Essentials Volume 3.  Finally, if you are a CIO (chief innovation officer) or NPD (new product development) manager, you will be interested in the Innovation Master Mind (IMM) group.  IMM is a 6-month peer coaching group that allows you to extend your NPD knowledge beyond NPDP certification and to collaborate with other CIOs and innovation managers.

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

© Simple-PDH.com

A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Innovation, Curiosity, and Questions

A recent study (Harvard Business Review states that 70% of employees say they face barriers to asking questions at work.  Managers are often afraid of letting employees pursue their interests because it might create inefficiencies in the organization.  Leaders don’t ask questions of their staff because they don’t want to appear incompetent or indecisive.

Yet, studies also show when leaders do ask questions, they appear more likeable and trustworthy.  Trust, in turn, builds collaboration and motivation, yielding higher degrees of curiosity.  Curiosity then leads to better performance and more creative innovations.  And, higher levels of innovation drive market performance for new products and services.  How can leaders take advantage of these benefits?

A Questioning Mindset

First, leaders must get over themselves.  Ego and self-consciousness are often what holds back an executive or manager from asking questions.  Leaders fear asking questions of direct reports and employees down-the-line will make them look dumb, incompetent, or unable to make decisions.  Many executives harbor the false belief that they should know all the answers and talk more than listen.

Yet when we put forth questions and truly engage in listening, we learn more.  Questions can help develop a deeper understanding of needs – both internal and external – to the organization.  Open-ended questions drive discussions that yield more information and can help leaders gain insights to the health of the organization.  Some painful questions to ask of employees and of customers include the following.

  • What do you like best about the product or situation?
  • What ignites your interest in this job?
  • How could it be done easier?
  • What would make this even better?
  • What is difficult or challenging about this situation?
  • How would you measure success?

Contrary to common belief, asking questions does not indicate weakness.  However, questioning does demonstrate vulnerability, curiosity, and the will to improve.

A Curious Mindset

Curiosity is manifest in asking insightful, open questions.  This is exactly why children, with seemingly endless curiosity, repeatedly ask why and how.  Questioning curiosity is also the root of the “5 Whys” trouble-shooting method.  Asking why in response to each layer of diagnosis allows team leaders to dig deeper into a problem until the root cause is revealed.

Studies show that curiosity and creativity are linked to higher job performance.  Human beings are naturally curious and interested in “What makes it tick?”  Teams that support healthy curiosity, empower creativity, and engage powerful questions are more innovative.  These new product development (NPD) teams can identify customer needs bettered and can design products to meet those desires.

Moreover, teams bound by a common curiosity can develop solutions faster and work with a higher degree of trust.  NPD teams with deep empathy for customers are better able to resolve conflicts and drive focus to the product over personalities.  In short, curiosity improves both team and innovation performance.

Innovation as a Competency

Organizations can use questioning and curiosity as skills to empower innovation.  Innovation is more than just a great idea and requires customer empathy and technical finesse in addressing market challenges.  Innovation requires understanding technology as well as financial models in providing product and service solutions for customer needs.

While leaders are often reluctant to ask questions, innovation cannot be successful without questions.  NPD teams must ask questions to discover and define customer problems.  Innovators need powerful questions to drive creative insights in concept development and testing.  And, NPD teams must challenge the success of a new product or service in the marketplace with questions designed to understand customer acceptance and profitability.

Innovation, Curiosity, and Questioning

Consider a technology company that asks its customers about their interest in mobile fitness tracking apps.  With open-ended questions, the design team can learn that people want to track heart rate as well as steps.  They may also learn, through root cause questioning, such as the 5 Whys, that users want to know their fitness progress at a touch of a button.  The NPD team can design these features and functionalities quickly and test prototypes.

Because questioning and curiosity are at the core of the product development effort, an innovative fitness watch can be released quickly to this target market.  Further, since users are engaged throughout the design process, needs are satisfied, and employees reach higher levels of performance.

Next Steps

How can you take your innovation performance to the next level?  First, senior executives must demonstrate vulnerability to the organization, building trust and understanding, both internally and externally.  Next, innovation teams must approach problems from the perspective of the customer, asking questions and engaging creative curiosity in developing solutions.  Finally, organization must strive for a culture that supports open questioning and inherent curiosity.

To learn more, we discuss and diagnose your team’s leadership capabilities in Virtual Team Training.  This training is built on the Virtual Team Model as featured in PDMA Essentials Volume 3 (published October 2018).  We also incorporate elements of Ken Blanchard’s Situational Leadership model to help you accelerate your team’s productivity and growth.  Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or 281-280-8717.  At Simple-PDH.com where we want to help you gain and maintain your professional certifications.  You can study, learn, and earn – it’s simple!

Note that VTM self-study is included in the Innovation Master Mind (IMM) membership.  IMM is a 6-month peer coaching group that allows you to extend your NPD knowledge beyond NPDP certification and to collaborate with other CIOs and innovation managers.  We also offer independent coaching and consulting to new leaders or teams anywhere on the S-curve!

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

© Simple-PDH.com

A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Managing Team Skills

Every team leader is challenged to balance productivity and growth.  We can increase a team’s output by increasing the skills of each team member and we can ensure growth through learning.  Many believe that a team composed of workers with only the highest capabilities will be able to produce at the highest levels.

In reality, teams need to have a diverse set of experiences and competencies to achieve the highest levels of growth.  When some team members are learning the basics and others are sharing their mastery of skills, both growth and productivity accelerate.

Learning S-Curves

In her book, Build an A-Team, Whitney Johnson describes the learning curves as “S-Curves” in which a person’s competency is low as they first begin learning something new.  Over time, s/he accumulates knowledge and practice so that capabilities are enhanced.  After a few months on the job, rapid growth and learning take place so that the individual builds expertise.

This building of knowledge and expertise occurs in the steep part of the S-curve.  Johnson indicates the learning and growth period lasts about 3-4 years in a typical job.  When a person has mastered the tasks and developed deep, instinctional insight about the job, s/he has mastered the task set.  Learning slows as shown by the flat part of the S-curve.

Challenging and Individual

Individuals need constant challenges to grow and learn.  New challenges create opportunities for people to build new capabilities and competencies.  Depending on how near or far the news skills are from their currently assigned tasks, a person may climb a new S-curve every few years.

It is incumbent upon managers and team leaders to ensure that each direct report is being adequately challenged to learn and grow.  For individuals new to the team, a leader will work with them to ensure fundamental concepts are developed at the low end of the S-curve.  For people that have served an intermediate term on the team, a leader will continue to offer new skills and learning opportunities.  These individuals, on the steep parts of the S-curve, are hungry for more information and they energetically tackle task and activities that give them the chance to learn and demonstrate new skills and capabilities.

Leaders also must recognize the team members who have achieved mastery and expertise.  These folks at the upper end of the learning curve are ready to transfer job tasks to others because they are getting bored with their routine assignments.  The predictability of tasks and lack of new challenges can actually affect productivity in a negative way.  Leaders must be careful to encourage new learning for the experts on the team so that these people don’t’ get “burned out” by doing the same thing over and over again.

Team Composition

Regardless of whether you team is co-located, virtual, or dispersed, you want to maximize productivity and growth.  Growth of the team often depends on the growth of the individuals.  Productivity of the team depends on the interactions of the whole team.

In her book, Whitney Johnson recommends composing the team of 15% or less newbies, 5-15% experts, and the balance in the growth stage.  You should be able to assess and plot the skills development stage and competencies of your team members to show a composite S-curve for the team.

The benefits of this team structure are numerous, especially for innovation.  First, creativity is often stifled by expertise.  The jaded, old players think they’ve seen every problem and know every answer.  The new team members bring a fresh perspective to problem-solving whether this is a youthful viewpoint or from experiences in other industries and companies.  Balancing the newbies at the low end of the S-curve with the experts at the high end of the curve can increase and speed creativity.

Second, having a balance of experts and capable team members can increase productivity.  Successful new product development (NPD) requires a lot of concept testing and validation with customers.  When the bulk of the team members are on the growth part of the S-curve, they are anxious to learn and incorporate real-world feedback.  Unlike the newbies, these individuals only need coaching form the experts and can handle task implementation independently.

Next, many experts view their legacy as teaching the next generation. This is a perfect fit for the masters on a team who are few in number but can spread and share their talents to hep both the novices and intermediates learn.  Storytelling helps to transform the organization’s tacit knowledge through the experts, further spurring growth on the team.

Finally, team leaders can fully delegate portions of the NPD project to the experts.  This frees the team leader from administrative tasks and offers new challenges to the masters.  Such new opportunities in management and leadership can put the expert on a new learning curve so that s/he remains engaged and productive.

Applying Team Learning Curves

My husband is a really smart electrical engineer.  He ahs just wrapped dup his second major project in 10 years, designing, installing, testing, and commissioning high voltage substations for petrochemical plants.  Doing these types of projects has led to recognition of his expertise and skills at his company.  Sometimes, though he shows signs of being bored, telling me that he has to explain all the project steps to his manager who is less technically skilled.

Luckily, some of his mentors have also recognized his position on the learning S-curve as a master.  They have assigned him to a new project with many of the same tasks but with different players and different project constraints in a new environment (greenfield construction vs. existing plant facilities).  This gives him an opportunity to start a new learning S-curve, transfer tacit knowledge to newer engineers, and remain a productive growing team member.

Moreover, the team has some novices and some individuals with intermediate skills.  Those with intermediate skills have competencies and capabilities in tangential areas (medium voltage) so are highly product as they aspire toward new learning too.

Team Productivity and Growth

All teams need to balance productivity and growth.  Deadlines always are looming, so the team’s output is important, especially for innovation and NPD work.  Individual growth is also crucial, so people can learn and acquire new skills.  Yet, individual growth is close-coupled with the team’s maturity and growth on a learning S-curve.

To learn more, we discuss and diagnose your team’s capabilities and professional growth along the learning S-curve in Virtual Team Training.  This training is built on the Virtual Team Model as featured in PDMA Essentials Volume 3 (published October 2018).  We also incorporate elements of Ken Blanchard’s Situational Leadership model to help you accelerate your team’s productivity and growth.  Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or 281-280-8717.  At Simple-PDH.com where we want to help you gain and maintain your professional certifications.  You can study, learn, and earn – it’s simple!

Note that VTM self-study is included in the Innovation Master Mind (IMM) membership.  IMM is a 6-month peer coaching group that allows you to extend your NPD knowledge beyond NPDP certification and to collaborate with other CIOs and innovation managers.  We also offer independent coaching and consulting to new leaders or teams anywhere on the S-curve!

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

© Simple-PDH.com

A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

5 Most Effective Skills Innovators Need

When I tell people that I work in innovation management, I am often asked what product I make.  Of course, with my hobbies, I make lots and lots of scrapbooks and greeting cards.  But, in my business serve my clients more than I create products.  I want to create knowledge and skills for individuals and businesses to take their innovation programs to the next level.  Innovation management is more about learning a continuous improvement process than it is about making “things”.

One of the most rewarding features of my job is to watch an individual or a company develop their own mastery of innovation.  There are five critical skills that innovation managers and new product development (NPD) practitioners need to be effective and to build sustaining innovation programs.

#1-Know the Fundamentals

In sports, music, or theater, participants practice drills on the fundamentals.  Quarterbacks catch the ball from the center and pass it, over and over again during the week and during the off-season.  Pianists play scales, repeatedly, to provide nimble fingers and practice for a concert in B-flat or F-major.  In theater, voice coaches train actors and actresses in delivery as they practice raising and lowering their pitch to build suspense for the performance.

NPD practitioners also need to practice the fundamentals.  Too often, we assume we know what customers want since we assume the project goal is to add features and functionality to the product.  Assumptions are performing, without the practice, and that can be a disaster!

Instead, innovation managers need to ensure that the NPD effort is based n fundamental customer needs.  NPD teams must understand the basic challenge or problem that a customer is trying to solve.  Those customer expectations are matched, one-to-one, with NPD project goals in successful innovation.

For example, a friend of mine had five dogs.  She would launder their blankets and bedding, then undergo a cleaning process for her washing machine.  A purely product-centric view of her challenge would be to make the bleach bottle easier to pour.  Yet, digging into the core need, new products have been released to clean and disinfect the washing machine by running a normal load.  Successful NPD teams focus on the core customer need and seek fundamental understanding.

#2 – Identify and Manage Barriers to Innovation

Innovation introduces change.  That’s why it is such a fun field in which to work.  Yet, change presents a tug-of-war for most people.  We are excited to try something new while at the same time, we are unsure if the risk is worth it.  Resistance to change is one barrier to innovation.

During conversations with existing and potential customer, innovation teams will identify any barriers or constraints to new product development.  I recommend creating a handful of personas, or generic customer profiles to help envision the barriers to innovation.  In this way, the NPD team can “query” the persona during product design and development to validate concepts, features, and functionalities.

For example, one persona may be a family with a lot of pets, like my friend.  Another persona may be a family with kids that play sports and have very dirty clothes needing daily laundering.  And yet another persona may be a single person living in an apartment who rarely needs to do laundry.  The NPD team uses these personas to understand resistance or constraints in the product design, since the challenges of each are unique.

#3 – Plan, Execute, and Be Flexible

There has been a ton of debate in recent years about the best project management methodology for innovation efforts.  Phased and gated processes rose in glory to be dissed by proponents of agile.  Many companies then jumped onto the agile bandwagon to find products still failing in the marketplace.

What’s most important in successful innovation is to plan your work (including customer observation, testing, and validation), execute to the plan, and be flexible (be agile) as needed.  NPD managers and CIOs (Chief Innovation Officers) should be trained as exceptional leaders first, and then, in the particular NPD processes for project management.

Successful leaders often have coaches or master mind groups to share ideas and to learn best practices.  Transformational leaders understand the importance of customer inputs and balance these needs with operational demands in manufacturing and distribution.  Innovation leaders are flexible and adapt to each situation to continuously develop team members and to improve the innovation management process itself.

#4 – Collaborate with Everybody

Another aspect of successful innovation is learning how to collaborate effectively.  Collaboration is not a one-way customer interview or survey, and it is not assigning and directing tasks to NPD team members.  Instead, collaboration builds on the skills and needs of everyone involved in the project, both internally and externally.

Employees working in NPD are often motivated by learning.  This desire to learn can be capitalized by linking NPD team members with target customers to develop a customer journey map and to gain specific market feedback.  Technical folks learn and develop collaboration skills working directly with customers.  Likewise, sales and marketing personnel grow in knowledge by collaborating with technical designers to groom features and attributes for a new product.

And, we don’t want to leave out the customer as a resource.  Customer collaboration means observing, questioning, and testing.  You may meet the customer in the environment where s/he is using the product or service, or you may invite the customer to your facility.  What’s crucial for innovation success is a long-term, interactive relationship with both external and internal customers.

#5 – Evaluate and Measure Success

In peer coaching, I am constantly reminded that success has not a singular definition.  One person views success as a launching a new business, while another views success as selling their enterprise.

Each innovation project has a set of measures that define success.  The metrics ought to be aligned with the organization’s mission, vision, and values.  And the success metrics must be agreed by the NPD team upfront.

For instance, one NPD project used sales volume and market penetration as measures of success.  Sales volume is a readily acquired number – how many units were sold?  Digging deeper you can also gain additional insight into the value of the new product by calculating the ratio of manufactured items and sales price (profit margin).

Market penetration gave the NPD team another measure of success with their target customers and a measure to compare against competition.  Market penetration provides the percentage of branded products sold versus the entire set of products and product solutions available.  “We sold 63% of single use washing machine packs; our nearest competitor controls 20% of the market.”

If innovation success metrics don’t align with the project plans and goals, it’s time to make a change, including further conversations and collaborations with customers.

Necessary Skills for Innovators

Improved speed-to-market and increased return on investment (ROI) depend on the successful initiation and execution of NPD projects.  Successful innovation managers practice, refine, and excel with all five key skills.  The first of these competencies is maintaining customer contact to gain insights regarding market challenges and problems.  This is a foundational innovation skill.

Next, innovators and NPD teams must identify constraints and barriers to developing products and services that delight the customers.  These barriers may be internal processes or a customer’s willingness to invest in a new product solution.  This leads to the innovation skill set of planning, implementing, and adapting.  No project management system is perfect and successful innovators are flexible in how a project meets its goals to deliver exceptional products to a target market.

Fourth, collaboration is a skill that successful NPD managers use in developing their teams, the new product, and customer relationships.  Collaboration requires an open line of communication, empathy, and favors doing something rather than talking about it.

And, finally, innovation success is measures to verify value delivery and to learn.  Metrics for each project are different, but are always objective, leading to more effective decisions.

Learn More

There are two ways to learn more about leadership skills for innovation.  First, New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification addresses best practices in innovation from devising a business strategy to idea generation and to market research for product concept testing.  Second, CIOs, NPD leaders, and R&D managers who are committed to taking their innovation program to the next level must participate in the Innovation Master Mind (IMM).  IMM is a 6-month peer coaching group that allows you to extend your NPD knowledge beyond NPDP certification and to collaborate with other CIOs and innovation managers.  You will realize improved efficiency and growth from our Life Design Master Mind (LDMM), IMM, or through NPDP certification which entails a deep dive into strategy and NPD processes, including design thinking.  Feel free to contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or 281-280-8717.  At Simple-PDH.com where we want to help you gain and maintain your professional certifications.  You can study, learn, and earn – it’s simple!

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

© Simple-PDH.com

A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Seeking Alignment

Innovation managers, project leaders, and engineering directors are all charged with seeking alignment in an organization.  But, what does “alignment” mean and how do you do it?

Strategic Alignment

All successful companies have a strategy.  The strategy comprises the mission, vision, and values of the firm.  It describes the purpose for being in business, beyond making a profit and delves into how the organization can influence the world around it.  A strategy describes what work will be done, how it will be done, and when it will be done.

Anyone working for a company in a role of new product development (NPD), in R&D, or in market research, must clearly understand the corporation’s overall strategic mission and act accordingly.  This is the heart of “strategic alignment”.

Each project that is undertaken will have its own set of goals and objectives, yet these expected outcomes must align and support the overall mission of the firm.  A project that adds language and accessibility features is supporting the company goals that seek to grow international sales.  A new product project that uses less expensive raw materials is aligned with the firm’s operational objectives to minimize manufacturing costs.

Innovation, NPD, and R&D managers are most successful when they can translate the high-level organizational strategies into tactical and operational goals.  These objectives then drive project selection and execution.

Aligning Resources

Certainly, it is the responsibility of project, engineering, and functional managers to execute projects with fiscal accountability.  It is also a project manager’s objective to deliver the scope of work on-time.  And while financial and equipment resources are important, long-term innovation success depends on the human resources dedicated to growing and improving.

People are generally split in action between taking creative risks and making predictable bets.  Innovation requires a balance, too, and a trade-off among variables that lead to radical innovation and those that support the existing business.  Managers and leaders must encourage new ideas, yet screen concepts for profitability.

Managing teams is a tough task because with micromanagement or in applying too much process structure, we can stymie the creation of new ideas.  New ideas provide competitive advantage and build customer satisfaction.  On the other hand, many managers believe that giving too much free rein to teams can lead to chaos in the endless churn of problem-identification and infinite brainstorming.

Thus, aligning resources requires balancing team member strengths with project objectives.  Using the tools of the Virtual Team Model (VTM), for example, can help a leader identify which individuals are novices and which are experts.  The leader can pair these people to create customer solutions that are both novel and practical.  Meanwhile, the transfer of tacit organizational knowledge occurs flawlessly – and almost magically – as a mentor coaches a new team member.

Customer Satisfaction and Alignment

Our final topic in seeking alignment is built form customer satisfaction.  In innovation, we seek customer alignment through design thinking.  Design thinking is a collaborative approach to new product development that focuses on customer empathy to create the best solutions to a problem.  Tools in design thinking include in-depth customer observation and experimenting with various possible solutions.

A lot of products fail in a marketplace because the customer is not involved in the process.  Successful innovators align product development efforts with consumers and end-users.  The process of immersing the innovation team in the customer’s situation allows deep insights that clarify the definition of the true problem.  For example, by observing people change tapes or CDs frequently, Apple noted customers wanted to have more variety of music available on their portable devices.  Then, through rapid experimentation, the found consumers were willing to trade-off sound quality for more selection.  It is only through such close observation of users that customer alignment is achieved.

The Crucial Business of Alignment

Sometimes it is fun to be the dissenting voice at a party.  And sometimes it is adventurous to take the less-travelled pathway.  But, typically, being aligned with the group will reap the largest rewards.

Alignment in business leads to the greatest rewards, too.  From an innovation perspective, strategic alignment leads to greater financial success since NPD programs take advantage of opportunities and strengths within the firm to outpace the competition.  These results depend on resource alignment, so managers and leaders must create job opportunities that build on employees’ and team members’ skills.  Successful innovation teams are diverse yet strive for a common goal.

Finally, the most successful innovators align NPD with customer wants and needs.  Observation and rapid experimentation demonstrate customer collaboration in the design process yielding faster time-to-market and higher levels of consumer satisfaction.

Learn More

There are two ways to learn more about aligning business goals with innovation.  First, New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification addresses best practices in innovation from devising a business strategy to idea generation and to market research for product concept testing.  Second, CIOs, NPD leaders, and R&D managers who are committed to taking their innovation program to the next level must participate in the Innovation Master Mind (IMM).  IMM is a 6-month peer coaching group that allows you to extend your NPD knowledge beyond NPDP certification and to collaborate with other CIOs and innovation managers.  You will realize improved efficiency and growth from our Life Design Master Mind (LDMM), IMM, or through NPDP certification which entails a deep dive into strategy and NPD processes, including design thinking.  Feel free to contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or 281-280-8717.  At Simple-PDH.com where we want to help you gain and maintain your professional certifications.  You can study, learn, and earn – it’s simple!

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

© Simple-PDH.com

A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Do You Have an Innovation Blueprint?

My gym has recently undergone a facelift.  The owner had the lobby tiled and painted with a modern look, bought new furniture, and replaced all the towels.  He also had the workout rooms painted to coordinate with the equipment colors and ordered new weights and equipment for the free-weight area.

I happened to be at the gym when they brought in the new Nautilus equipment for the free weight area.  There was a team of eight guys to assemble and install the new equipment, and to move and rearrange the equipment that was retained.

What totally surprised me was the lack of a plan for an equipment lay-out.  The lead installer had his guys start setting up equipment in the middle of the room.  The owner explained how she’d like a different placement of the equipment, but the installer told her it needed an 8-ft clearance for the accessories.

Meanwhile, the helpers continued to take out old equipment and assemble new equipment in whatever place they thought was appropriate.  In the end, the television (which is continuously tuned to a sports channel) is blocked from view in about 75% of the free weight area.  Clearance between pieces of equipment is irregular and to access one of the free weight racks, you have to walk behind a 4-ft high partition directly under the television, dodging the accessories sticking out from the Nautilus equipment.  At least then you can check the scores…

It was apparent to me that there was absolutely no plan for the equipment.  No room lay-out with a sketch of an equipment arrangement existed.  The entire installation was done ad hoc and without input from personal trainers as to the logical flow of equipment in the room.

The Problem with Ideas

It was a great idea to replace aging equipment with new equipment.  It’s likely the capital cost will offset the maintenance costs.  New gym weights and machines may attract new members leading to increased profit for the owners.

The problem was that the idea was half-baked.  The gym owner ordered equipment without a plan to lay it out or to install it.  Most importantly, the voice of the customer was neglected.  I don’t want to work out on a Sunday afternoon if I can’t follow the football game!

Does your innovation program have a lot of ideas that fail to materialize into actionable plans?  I know a lot of organizations believe that they are “innovating” if they hold a brainstorming session and generate 100 or 200 new ideas in the course of a day.  That’s great, but how do you know they will fit?  Ideas have to fit your business model and address needs from the voice of the customer, just as the equipment has to fit in the gym’s weight room.

Creating a Blueprint

If I had been the gym owner, I would have taken graph paper at a scale of one square equaling 1-sq ft and sketched the room – a rectangular shape with the width of the room a little shorter than the length of the room.  I would have next graphed and cut out the footprint of each piece of equipment.  The bench press needs a footprint of 4×4 ft, for example, and the seated leg press needs a space of about 4-ft x 6-ft.  I would have shuffled around the models of equipment and checked with a trainer to see if the flow made sense.  Is it okay to have all the lower body machines next to one another?  Can everyone see the television from each station?  Are the free weights accessible for people on the mat or on the benches?

In innovation, we also make blueprints of our ideas.  We often use tools from design thinking to ensure we understand customer needs.  Instead of shuffling cut-outs of equipment on graph paper, we share prototypes with potential customers to test the “lay-out” of our products.  What do they think of the different features?  Is the form complementary to the function?  What’s missing?  Which function is just too much?

We formally call this exercise product concept testing because we are validating various concepts with potential customers.  A key output of the product concept test is to clearly understand customer needs and their emotional reactions to the various ideas for a new product.  We want to eliminate the bad ideas at this stage – like not being able to see the tv while you’re lifting weights.

Further, an important result of product concepts tests is to understand which functions are crucial to a customer.  These are the ones that draw intense emotion, such as “I couldn’t live without it.”  Or, “Well, that’s okay, but…”  Qualitative responses to features in a product prototype lead the new product development (NPD) team to the deepest insights about a new product.  Build this, add that, eliminate those.

How to Make an Innovation Blueprint

In mapping the best layout of gym equipment, we can expect a lot of trial and error.  Putting the bench press too close to the fly machine may introduce a usability issue.  Putting the rowing station too close to the free weights rack can cause a clearance issue for users.  Likewise, making a product too complicated with too many features or too many functions can cause adoption issues.

We must test multiple concepts with potential customers to fully understand their needs and challenges.  Sometimes what looks like a good solution might not be validated in testing.  It is okay to fail a product concept test and far less expensive to sketch a new plan than make adjustments after the product is commercialized.

Learn More

There are two ways to learn more about creating an innovation blueprint.  First, New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification addresses best practices in innovation from devising a business strategy to idea generation and to market research for product concept testing.  Second, CIOs, NPD leaders, and R&D managers who are committed to taking their innovation program to the next level must participate in the Innovation Master Mind (IMM).  IMM is a 6-month peer coaching group that allows you to extend your NPD knowledge beyond NPDP certification and to collaborate with other CIOs and innovation managers.  You will realize improved efficiency and growth from LDMM, IMM, or through NPDP certification which entails a deep dive into strategy and NPD processes, including design thinking.  Feel free to contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or 281-280-8717.  At Simple-PDH.com where we want to help you gain and maintain your professional certifications.  You can study, learn, and earn – it’s simple!

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

© Simple-PDH.com

A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

The Product Post-Launch Review

Every new product development (NPD) should have a post-launch review.  In fact, I normally recommend three separate reviews to ensure various learning perspectives for innovation.  But, before we get into how often a post-launch review is held, let’s first discuss three important characteristics of innovation lessons learned.

What is a Post-Launch Review?

Post-launch reviews are lessons learned audits of new product development projects.  The goal of a post-launch review is communication.  NPD teams need to communicate successes, so they can institutionalize process and practices that build project efficiency.  Teams also communicate financial results of projects to senior management.  Finally, NPD project leaders communicate best practices among themselves to share learnings and to improve project planning for the next initiative.

In the case of communicating among NPD project leaders, a post-launch review report may not provide sufficient detail.  Often, Chief Innovation Officers (CIOs), NPD managers, and R&D leaders need on-going support and communication beyond their internal ranks.  For rapid learning and best practice transfer I recommend that NPD project leaders participate in peer discussions with others in similar roles.  Peer-coaching through a master mind group allows NPD mangers and CIOs to quickly learn and translate best practices and to benchmark NPD processes across a variety of industries.

While the goal of a post-launch review is communication, the objective is learning, especially learning from failure.  While failure doesn’t always feel good, innovation success is built on the lessons learned from ideas and concepts that didn’t work.  NPD processes are designed to gain early customer feedback so that features desired by consumers are included in new product designs.  Other features, functions, and attributes are not incorporated into product designs if customer feedback is negative.  Learning is fundamental to long-term NPD success.

Characteristics of a Post-Launch Review

So, with the definition of a post-launch review to drive feedback, learning, and communication to support continuous improvement, what are the characteristics of this lessons learned audit?  First, it must be prompt.  Next, it should be periodic.  And, finally, the post-launch review must be propelling.

Prompt

There are three key times to hold a product post-launch review (PLR).  The first post-launch review (PLR‑1) is held as the new product is commercialized.  At this point, the goals of communication and learning focus on how the NPD process worked.  Are there special practices that allowed the team to work together more effectively or enhanced team productivity?  Were there any policies, forms, or templates that created bureaucracy and could be eliminated from future projects?  How long was each NPD process phase and what were the associated costs?

In my work, I have observed that team cohesiveness is often discussed during the PLR‑1.  Team members who are familiar with their counterpart’s working style typically generate results quicker.  Some variation in team composition helps drive creativity through diverse perspectives as well.

Periodic

The first post-launch review is held promptly as the new product is launched.  Next, there are periodic lessons learned reviews held to monitor the product and the response of the market.  Whereas the PLR‑1 focuses on communication among team members and improvement for NPD processes, PLR-2 and PLR‑3 also add emphasis on customer acceptance and the financial performance of the product.

PLR-2 is optional, yet I highly recommend this lessons learned audit step if the product sales cycle is long.  The NPD team and senior executives attain early sales information to determine the acceptance of the new product in its intended market.  Typical measures include sales volume, revenue, and market penetration.  Other variables to consider are degree of product cannibalization, competitive response, and market share.  Quality issues and marketing messages are adjusted as necessary, depending on the PLR‑2 feedback vs. expectations at product launch.

All projects must undergo a PLR‑3 audit.  This lessons learned review is conducted one year after commercialization or at the completion of a full sales cycle for the new product.

Like the PLR‑2, the PLR‑3 focuses on customer satisfaction measures and financial metrics.  If both are positive, NPD teams begin investigating potential product improvements for next generation products, derivatives, and enhancements.  If either customer satisfaction or financial results are less than expected, senior executives make a decision to revamp the product or to pull it form the production schedule.

I have worked with some companies that do not perform periodic lessons learned reviews.  Bad products with poor customer acceptance and unattractive cost-benefit ratios live on.  This is mostly due to the lack of a decision rather than making the wrong decision.

Propelling

In addition to learning and communication, the purpose of the post-launch reviews is to keep the organization looking forward.  Results, data, and outcomes of the three post-launch reviews will propel the firm to future innovations.  These next generation NPD projects may branch from the earlier successes of product launches.  Or the next NPD project may result from learnings of what didn’t go well during a prior project.

In propelling the organization forward, the post-launch review must drive focus on the customer and the internal processes for innovation.  Companies that regularly conduct post-launch reviews for all NPD projects are more efficient and productive in time-to-market because of best practice transfers.  Again, you can benchmark and speed innovation implementation by participating in an industry master mind, benefiting from facilitated peer-coaching.

The 3Ps of a Post-Launch Review

Post-launch reviews are often neglected in the busy-ness of post-commercialization activities.  Yet, the lessons learned that are communicated and transferred among NPD project leaders are of infinite value to long-term innovation success.  Post-launch reviews must be prompt, periodic, and propelling.

To Learn More

There are two ways to learn how to conduct effective post-launch reviews and drive speed-to-market.  Please join us in the Innovation Master Mind (IMM) group or a New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification workshop.  IMM is a 6-month peer coaching group that allows you to extend your NPD knowledge beyond NPDP certification and to collaborate with other CIOs and innovation managers.  You will realize improved efficiency and growth from LDMM, IMM, or through NPDP certification which entails a deep dive into strategy and NPD processes, including design thinking.  Feel free to contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or 281-280-8717.  At Simple-PDH.com where we want to help you gain and maintain your professional certifications.  You can study, learn, and earn – it’s simple!

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

© Simple-PDH.com

A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Three Perspectives in Goal-Setting

Research teaches us that people are more successful when they set goals.  That’s why we religiously make new year’s resolutions; despite the fact that a resolution is different than a goal.  Most resolutions fail in less than a month.  Goals, unlike resolutions, are specific and measurable, and we target our achievement within a specific time frame.

In addition, goals fit within three categories:  strategic, tactical, and operational.  As new product development (NPD) managers and innovation practitioners, our goals – both professional and personal – must straddle the three categories to ensure success and creativity in building new knowledge.  We’ll next discuss what these three types of goals are and how you can apply them to renew your joy in practicing innovation.

Strategic Goals

Strategy is the overarching mission and vision of a firm.  It encompasses the why we are in business and the values or characteristics we apply to differentiate our business from competitors.  As has been said, it is far easier to compose a strategy statement than to execute the strategy.  That’s were goals come in.

Strategic goals, therefore, are the highest-level objectives we have.  They are visionary yet practical at the same time.  Achieving our strategy cannot be accomplished with the flip of a switch so we must parse our overall vision into smaller chunks, or goals, because strategy is also long-term.

For example, a company may wish to grow by accessing the South American market.  That is both visionary and practical since economic data demonstrates an untapped market for products and services in this region.  However, implementing this strategy requires more thought and consideration than simply opening a pop-up store in Asunción (the capital of Paraguay).  Strategic growth goals for the initiative may include the following.

  • Complete a consumer market research study in Paraguay.
  • Evaluate competitive product solutions in place today.
  • Coordinate Spanish-speaking resources within the company.
  • Pilot test brands and packaging.
  • Conduct pricing studies.
  • Create technology and product roadmaps.

Of course, a detailed NPD project would follow the innovation strategy, but high-level strategic goals will frame the effort into specific deliverables.  Steps taken to meet significant milestones are also steps along the strategic journey.

Tactical Goals

Tactics are shorter range than strategies and often involve previously tested market approaches.  Strategic goals should be translated into tactical objectives that are clear, concise, and measurable.  Each tactical goal supports an overall strategic thrust.

So, for example, if we focus on the strategic goal of growth in South America for our fictional company, we know that we need to gather customer insights.  Some tactical goals to support this strategic objective are:

  • Identify target customers by demographic categories,
  • Gather ethnographic data for the product within at least three different regions,
  • Conduct product solution focus groups in at least three different regions, and
  • Define customer personas for future design thinking and NPD work.

Operational Goals

Tactical goals are supported by specific action steps, which we call organizational goals.  Some operational goals are necessary in the short-term to maintain manufacturing, distribution, or functional arenas.  Whereas strategic goals might take years to achieve and tactical goals are completed in weeks or months, operational goals are often day-to-day achievements.  Operational goals directly support specific tactics and are the heart of successful innovation implementation.  It is the little things that add up to overall success.

Continuing our example, then, some operational goals follow to support a tactical objective of holding a focus group to understand customer solutions.

  • Locate and rent an appropriate facility,
  • Recruit 12 potential customers,
  • Establish confidentiality agreements,
  • Prepare customer feedback checklists, and
  • Record and translate the focus group session(s).

Thus, operational goals get at the nitty-gritty details required to meet the tactical objectives, while tactics ultimately support the strategic goals.  Each action is necessary, in its own time and with its own scope, to achieve the corporate mission.

How to Implement Goal-Setting

Setting goals is an exercise in strategic thinking since we first must understand the overall mission and vision.  Brainstorming is a common technique to elicit both strategic and tactical goals.  You will want to use a cross-functional team to establish tactical and organizational goals as the people that do the work will have the most experience knowing how to implement tasks and activities to support specific objectives.

In our Life Design Master Mind and Innovation Master Mind groups, we discuss goal-setting from these three perspectives.  An easy way to ensure you are balancing life across the work, health, play, and love arenas is to assign goal categories to your work lists.  For instance, I place an “S”, “T”, or “O” by each of my daily “To Do” list items.  Bookkeeping gets an “O” because it’s a required activity to keep my business running but it is not a high-level mission-critical activity.  Printing handouts for a speaking engagement is assigned a “T” since the handout includes thought leadership content and my marketing information.  This will support my strategic goal of helping others become proficient at converting ideas into commercial reality through an integrated innovation ecosystem.

To Learn More

To learn more about setting goals that will help you achieve your strategic vision, please join us in Life Design Master Mind (LDMM), Innovation Master Mind (IMM), or New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification.  LDMM is designed for your personal growth by applying design thinking tools to finding the next step in life.  IMM is a 6-month peer coaching group that allows you to extend your NPD knowledge beyond NPDP certification and to collaborate with other CIOs and innovation managers.  You will realize improved efficiency and growth from LDMM, IMM, or through NPDP certification which entails a deep dive into strategy and NPD processes, including design thinking.  Feel free to contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or 281-280-8717.  At Simple-PDH.com where we want to help you gain and maintain your professional certifications.  You can study, learn, and earn – it’s simple!

Speaking on Design Thinking

  • 7 September 2018 at Texas Association of Change Management Professionals Conference

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

© Simple-PDH.com

A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC