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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  

Three Reasons You Need Design Thinking

Today’s world is hyper-competitive.  There are fewer jobs, more talent, and higher needs.  Companies compete with products in their own industries, yet new categories offer novel solutions to existing customers.  Schools and churches even limit the number of kids they can accept into various sports and extra-curricular programs.  To the jaded observer, it seems that only the very, very best survive.

But, is it a matter of being the “best” or really a matter of being the “best prepared”?  Companies and individuals that know themselves well – and understand customers and stakeholders even better – are the true, profitable survivors.  A competition isn’t won by having more skills or more product features.  The competition is won by sticking to a core set of principles, doing the basics well, and by understanding the rules of the game.

So, how do you accomplish the simple elegance of talent, skill, and competency to serve customers and stakeholders?  Let’s look to Design Thinking for three ways to inspire positive change and to beat the competition.

#1 – Customer Empathy

Design thinking is defined as “a collaborative and creative problem-solving approach that integrates customer and user empathy throughout the development process.”  Empathy is the key word in this definition.  Recall that empathy is different than sympathy or acknowledgement.  Empathy is putting yourself into someone else’s shoes to understand how they see the situation and how they feel about it.

In new product development (NPD), we use empathy to identify customer needs.  New product development and innovation are not limited to the technical feature set and marketing campaign.  Instead empathy helps the NDP team observe a customer’s decisions and interactions with a product or service from the point of research through the transaction and to after-sales support.  If any point of the customer’s journey is difficult or challenging, the NPD team recognizes an opportunity for improvement.

In our own lives, we use empathy to understand our constraints and biases.  Often, we end up with tunnel vision and assume a problem can only be solved in one way.  Empathy allows us to view our own decisions and challenges from another person’s perspective.

#2 – Creative Curiosity

Design thinking doesn’t assume that there is one right answer.  In fact, we don’t use design thinking to identify a single answer.  Instead, we use the design thinking tools to generate lots of potential solutions to any question.

In design thinking, we demand curiosity.  Not an idle curiosity, like “Is it going to rain today?”  We demand a deep, core curiosity of how to do tasks better and how to improve the live of others.  Curiosity in NPD includes understanding all of a customer’s problems and learning new technologies.  In Life Design, we seek to find our energies and passions.

One way to regrow your curiosity is to disconnect from the grid for a few hours each week.  Take a hike in the woods or a long bike ride.  Play an old-fashioned board game with your friends and family.  Go to the symphony.

The idea is to let your mind wander and enjoy fresh air and renewed relationships.  On an outdoor trek, you might wonder about the shape of the trees, the colors of the flowers, or the destination of the birds flying across the sky.  Downtime encourages our brains to seek new meaning through curiosity of how the world works.

#3 – Try New Things

In NPD, we often use prototypes to test customer reactions.  With design thinking, you will try new stuff with earlier prototypes.  Instead of testing a new product with a fully designed marketing campaign, test the form and function of a product improvement.  Early prototype testing is inexpensive and can frame the context for a better designed product that will truly delight the customer.  Not to mention, the customer interactions and feedback throughout the NPD process will lead to more competitive product and services.

In your own life, it is important to try new things, but within the boundaries of acceptable risk and expense.  A participant in one of my PMP training classes told me that his wife decided she wanted to do triathlons.  She wanted a new bicycle for her first event.  He suggested she participate in a race first, with her current bike, to see if she liked it.  She didn’t.  And they saved the money for a new bicycle.  However, she also discovered from the experience that she really enjoyed the running leg of the triathlon.  So, the two of them began running together in all distance races (5K, 10K, half- and full-marathons).

Trying new things should not mean abandoning all that we’ve done until now.  Instead, we can prototype parts and pieces to identify the best features and attributes to add, eliminate, or modify.  Especially in innovation, we want to manage new features while understanding customer needs to use and interact with the product or service.

Design Thinking to Embrace Change

Because the world is competitive, we cannot rest on our laurels and hope that things will turn out okay.  We must embrace change and identify opportunities to enhance our competitiveness.  Winning business or winning happiness requires a different approach as our world becomes higher speed and more technologically integrated.  Design thinking tools allow us to refocus on the person with empathy and to generate creative solutions to even the most challenging problems.

In NPD and in life, we use design thin king tools to (1) empathize with the customer and stakeholders throughout the development process and user experience, (2) to generate curiosity about how a product or service can be used and what new combinations of features and attributes will satisfy a customer’s needs, and (3) to establish frequent and candid feedback from customers on prototypes including form and function.  Design thinking allows us to create connections with the people we serve and through empathetic relationships, we often benefit more than those we serve.

To Learn More

Join us in an introductory Life Design Master Mind group in Houston where we start with how you spend your time today.  Over the next 6 months, we will use design thinking tools to take a deep dive into professional and personal motivation to frame and test what next steps you can take to live a joy-filled life.  Check out our on-line tutorial on Design Thinking, too.  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

 

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The Pros and Cons of Traditional NPD Systems

If you enjoy our blog, be sure to check out the reading recommendations at the end for more information.

New product development (NPD) is most successful when a systematic process is utilized to create repetitive product or service commercialization.  “Success” means hitting a sales volume target or profitability goal.  In benchmarking studies, “success” also means that a firm is among the top performer for innovation in its industry.

The benefit of a systematic NPD process is that everyone throughout the firm, and including customers and suppliers, understands the status of a project in progress, the steps required for technical and market development, and the necessary market approvals.  NPD processes do not have to be complicated and certainly should not be onerous, but the must ensure that each project is reviewed consistently and fairly.  Moreover, NPD processes must be applied to every innovation idea, concept, and prototype within the firm.  The most common NPD process is the Stage-Gate™ model, designed by Robert Cooper and documented in his famous book, Winning at New Products.

Benefits of a Stage-Gate Model

In a traditional stage-gate model for new product development, work on the product is done in “stages” and decisions are made at “gates”.  About 80% of US companies use a stage-gate model for innovation today.  Various incarnations of phased and gated models are utilized for traditional engineering and construction projects as well.

A key benefit of a phased process model, like a stage-gate system, is that investment risk is minimized.  Relatively few dollars are committed in the early stages to study market opportunities and ideas.  If the options prove out, then more money is invested to build prototypes and conduct customer tests.  Then, if these experiments are also positive, further investment occurs to build or enhance manufacturing facilities and to formally commercialize the product.  At any point in the process, a project can be killed if the tests do not return expected outcomes.  In this way, the investment in any given idea is minimized and risk-adjusted.

Steps in a Traditional NPD System

A traditional NPD process, like a stage-gate system, is considered a “waterfall” approach to project management.  As water flows downhill, it cannot flow uphill to return from whence it came.  Likewise, once a step in the stage-gate framework is completed and funding is consumed, it is not easy to go back and repeat a prior step.  However, the purpose of the gate decisions is to validate prior work on the project and to approve future plans.  Assuming that all work is accurate, there should be no need to repeat earlier steps.  Waterfall processes require that upfront planning and requirements are correct at the beginning of each phase.  Traditional phases in an NPD process are as follows.

  • Stage 1 – Opportunity identification
  • Stage 2 – Concept generation
  • Stage 3 – Concept testing
  • Stage 4 – Technical development
  • Stage 5 – Product launch and commercialization

In the “fuzzy front end,” investment is not high as there are typically no physical assets involved.  The work done in these early phases (Stages 1 through 3) involves gathering market and customer insights, testing proofs and prototypes, and narrowing design characteristics of the new product.

Cautions in Deploying Stage-Gate Models

As with any waterfall process, the biggest disadvantage of stage-gate systems is the upfront planning.  In theory, a traditional NPD process is designed to test customer feedback and gather end-user insights during each phase of work.  Market attractiveness and customer need are major criteria reviewed at gates, and a project must deliver positive results for a project to pass a gate and move to the next stage.  Customer interactions are built into the work and the approvals of each phase of NPD work.

In practice, however, many firms are sloppy in customer testing.  After all, a lot of smart people work in the R&D department and have the greatest knowledge of technical advances in their field.  Further, just asking a customer what s/he wants in a next generation product does not yield insights into disruptive innovations.  And, finally, we often work on NPD projects that flow through the system because a high-level manager thinks the idea is great, even though there is not one iota of supporting data.

A traditional stage-gate system works for NPD.  But, senior management must make tough and honest decisions at the gates.  Projects that won’t deliver expected commercial value or solve a customer’s needs must be killed.  Oddball product ideas that show promise must be nurtured, even if they appear to be outside the standard operating mantra of the firm.

Airbnb is an example of a new platform that pressed forward even when faced with multiple innovation and sales challenges.  Customer insights were positive in concept tests and the market need was genuine.  Tweaking how properties were photographed allowed Airbnb to move out of the technical development stage and into widespread, successful commercialization.

Traditional Stage-Gate Models in NPD

Traditional waterfall processes are successful in brining new ideas to market.  A stage-gate system minimizes investment risk because each stage of work is carefully matched to escalating goals and objectives.  When customer insights and feedback are held as sacred gate pass criteria, a traditional stage-gate system yields repetitive market successes.

To learn more about new product development management, check out self-study and other NPDP Workshops.  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!

 

Reading Recommendations

One of my favorite new books on innovation strategy is The Power of Little Ideas by David C. Robertson and Kent Lineback.  Of course, anyone interested supporting a repetitive NPD process should read Bob Cooper’s Winning at New Products and New Product Forecasting by Ken Kahn.  Stories of entrepreneurial success, like Airbnb, are artfully included in The Creator’s Code and Barking Up the Wrong Tree (affiliate links).  I also dedicate an entire chapter to NPD processes in NPDP Certification Prep:  A 24-Hour Study Guide, and you can find additional references at https://globalnpsolutions.com/services/npd-resources/.

 

Stage-Gate™ is a trademark of Stage-Gate International

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

© Simple-PDH.com

A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Rapid Prototyping

New product development (NPD) practitioners and engineering project managers are challenged to design and develop products and services that deliver the highest levels of customer satisfaction.  While it is not always easy to do, we know that involving customers during design and development stages is critical to the commercial success of a new product or service.  We must consider how a potential consumer will interact with a product over its life cycle in order to gain consistent market share.

Rapid prototyping is one method frequently used in NPD and design thinking (DT) to evaluate a potential new product or service.  A prototype is defined as a representation of the product, but it is not in its final form.  Materials used in the prototype sample might be different than those used in the final product, for example.  Normally prototypes are built in a lab rather than assembled on a manufacturing line.  A prototype is not expected to have the same longevity as the final product and so the method of construction is often simplified or incomplete in some way.

Rapid prototyping is a methodology in which the product is tested quickly – in a matter of hours or days rather than weeks or months.  The fundamental concept is to test as many ideas as possible in as short of a time period as feasible.  Thus, rapid prototyping is utilized to screen ideas and to filter product concepts so that the final design most closely reflects customer expectations.

Tools in Rapid Prototyping

Two tools that are commonly used in rapid prototyping are concurrent engineering and design of experiments.  Both tools involve cross-functional teams and encourage product, project, and engineering managers to consider design variables in addition to technical specifications.

Concurrent engineering (CE) is a tool that focuses on the cross-functional team as well as the long-term nature of product development.  For example, in a traditional waterfall project management process, a system or product is planned, designed, and tested prior to any production runs.  Concurrent engineering brings the production and operations boundaries and constraints to the forefront so that planning, and testing, and testing activities consider simultaneous production limitations.  The end result is a better product design that can be quickly scaled in the manufacturing facility.  Moreover, the multi-disciplinary approach of concurrent engineering draws the team members together with stronger relationships leading to more effective and efficient work practices.

The second rapid prototyping tools is design of experiments (DoE).  In a traditional R&D study, we will vary one element at a time and evaluate the impact that a change causes.  Usually there are several input variables in a product design and each of these has several different levels which may need to be tested.  Design of experiments is a statistical technique which allows for simultaneous testing of multiple variables at several levels.  Thus, design and development cycles are shortened as the most important components are determined with a few tests rather than many one-variable experiments over a longer time period.  Customers can interact with a few prototypes developed from the key variable list based on the results from design of experiments testing.

What to Test?

Rapid prototyping must test both the function and form of the product.  Both elements are crucially important to whether a customer will engage with the product or service in a buying decision.  The function of a product determines what it can – and cannot – do.  Functions are often clearly specified technical requirements and can be easily measured.

The form of a product, on the other hand, requires continuous testing with potential customers over the product development life cycle.  Consumers and end-users often have changing tastes and preferences based upon trends, fashions, and new technologies.  Consider, for example, the form of an automobile.  In the 1950s and 1960s, cars were designed with excessively large “fins” and utilized a lot of chrome.  By the 1980s, cars often had a boxy, minimalist style reflecting fashion preferences and economic conditions.  Today’s SUVs include interior design elements more than exterior components, such as hands-free interaction with technology (GPS, Pandora, and phone calls).  Consumers today value technology interaction at a higher level than the appearance of the automobile.

Using Rapid Prototyping

Companies can benefit from using rapid prototyping in their design and development of new products and services.  By testing and evaluating a lot of different combinations early in the NPD life cycle, customer needs and wants are better defined.  With a closer relationship to customers and a better understanding of their expectations, ideas are quickly transformed into working models and commercial products.  Rapid prototyping saves a firm money by quickly screening out poor concepts and by accelerating time-to-market.

If you’d like to learn more about rapid prototyping, please join us for an NPDP Workshop.  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

Defining the CRM

CRM – we hear about this term a lot lately, but what is it and how can we use CRM to influence successful new product development/

CRM is the acronym for customer relationship management.  Very often it is implements as a technology to collect data about customers and is used primarily by the sales force.  In practice, we can identify at least two other implementations of CRM at a function level and at a strategic level.  Let’s take a look at each of these.

Technology-Driven CRM

Big data and the opportunity to gather vast amounts of data, such as web page viewing, click-through behavior, and purchase histories, have led to the creation of many functional CRM systems.  These CRM systems are driven by technology and have a limited use.  Often, the CRM is used only to automate sales force functions or to manage promotions and campaigns.

Analysis of CRM data to inform new product development is lacking in a technology-driven system.  Companies may invest significant capital and IT resources to install CRM systems.  Yet, the stored data is often neglected so that the return on investment is far less than expected.  This leads to severe disappointment in the CRM and executives continue to search for ways to collect consumer insights.  The CRM thus becomes a wasted resource.

Level 1 CRM

A Level 1 CRM utilizes the data collected through the IT application and shares the information to build a consistent customer view across several functions.  Companies deploying a Level 1 CRM recognize the importance of coordinating customer and segment knowledge to deliver a unified customer experience.

Functions involved in a Level 1 CRM might include sales, marketing, customer service, technical service, warranty, and maintenance.  Each department will have access to the CRM database showing a customer’s purchase and claim history.

The idea behind a Level 1 CRM is to focus on the total customer experience.  A firm will recognize the customer throughout the purchase process from decision-making, buying, and after-sales support.  In some industries, a Level 1 CRM can be differentiating.

Strategic CRM

A strategic CRM system goes beyond Level 1 by integrating the customer experience throughout the new product development process.  We might prefer to call a strategic CRM “CVM” – or customer value management.

At the strategic level, customer viewpoints, reactions, and interactions are integrated into all business processes.  CRM is not simply a data collection tool but a warehouse of information and knowledge to inform business decisions of a customer-centric organization.  All the functions involved in a Level 1 customer experience analysis are included in a strategic CRM, but also involved are R&D, engineering, operations, and supply chain.

These cross-functional teams study and observe customer behaviors to validate stated and unstated customer needs.  Customers are queried throughout the NPD process to verify new concepts and new product features and functionalities.  Strategic CRM focuses on processes that span department boundaries in order to select customers and products that will deliver the most value to the frim.

Using CRM

Companies most successful with Strategic CRM use their intimate knowledge of customers and segments to design and develop future products as well as to understand current needs.  Strategic customer value analysis includes evaluation of societal trends influencing customer behaviors as well as segment and industry activities.  This is the difference between transactional sales management and customer relationship management.  Having a direct dialog with customers provides a qualitatively differentiated product and service solution for customers, giving the firm a competitive advantage.

How do you use CRM in your company?  If it is currently a technology-driven sales tool, dig into the existing data to mine it for new customer insights.  The sales force often has the highest level of interaction and communication with your customers and will document reactions to new product concepts in the CRM.  Understanding thoughts, opinions, and desires of your existing and potential customers can lead to valuable insights for NPD.

You can learn more about building lasting relationships with customers in an NPDP workshop where we discuss specific marketing tools and techniques for new product development.  Contact me at info@Simple-PDH.com or 281-280-8717 to enroll in a free NPDP overview course or any of our newly scheduled PMP, Scrum, or NPDP workshops in Houston as well as our online PDH courses.  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