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NPDP

Defining Innovation Leadership

Posted on 12.17.20

Innovation is inherently risky.  Yet, the old adage “innovate or die” requires leaders to continually invest in new product development (NPD).  Success depends on rigorous processes, committed resources, and confident leadership.  Transformative innovation programs include a clear vision for today and for the future.  Innovation leaders guide and govern an ecosystem for NPD success. 

copyright Global NP Solutions, LLC

The Innovation Framework

At the heart of innovation is strategy.  An organization needs to clearly and succinctly describe its vision, mission, and values.  The strategy of a firm drives its decision-making processes based on risk tolerance and a chosen business model. 

Executing an innovation strategy with efficiency builds short-term and long-term success.  Product portfolio management (PPM) comprises a set of executive decisions to select the highest value-added innovation projects for the organization to implement.  (Please join our hands-on implementation of 100 Days to PPM in 2021 here – you will transform your innovation program!  Use discount code goodbye 2020 before 20 December 2020 to save 20%.) 

Hand-in-hand with project selection is the NPD process by which an individual project moves from idea to commercialization.  A great number of project management tools are available today to streamline project execution in parallel with the innovation strategy.  If your firm is not already using PPM software, you should resolve to find an appropriate system in the new year!

Of course, all products and services have a limited lifetime.  Customer tasks and market forces change the demand curves for new products overtime.  Product life cycle management matches innovation and marketing strategies with the maturity of a product.  Innovation leaders are successful when their life cycle decisions align with the organization’s strategic direction. 

copyright Global NP Solutions, LLC

Next, these critical elements of innovation are supported by both internal and external organizational functions.  Teams and leadership are the people that do the work of innovation.  The best leaders understand different working styles while engaging and motivating teams with autonomous project work.  Check out a case study of success from the Team Dimensions profile in the podcast here.

NPD tools and metrics provide supporting frameworks to ensure implementation of best practices and continuous improvement.  Successful innovation leaders adopt and adapt NPD tools from a variety of industries to enhance idea generation, customer interactions, and process improvement.  The emerging WAGILE product development process is a way to integrate a hybrid NPD process with Design Thinking tools for active customer engagement.  Register here for the February 2021 WAGILE short course.

Finally, market research directly links customer satisfaction in a feedback loop to the business strategy.  Market research teaches an organization about customer needs, emotional drivers, and transient competitors.  You must have both primary and secondary market research tools in place to gather customer insights for existing and new products.

Why You Need to Define Innovation Leadership

First, 60 to 80% of CEOs believe that innovation is crucial to the long-term growth of their business.  Yet, key stakeholders have marginal opinions of the new products and services offered in the marketplace.  About one-quarter of customers do not believe new products are innovative.  Executives and senior leaders struggle with repeatable innovation that drives top line growth. 

Defining innovation leadership is based on our Flagship Innovation Leader program that transforms individuals and organizations from struggling individual contributors to a high-performance innovation machine.  Understanding and acting upon your organization’s innovation health will breathe new life into your NPD programs.  Take the Innovation Health Assessment™ here and benchmark your performance with industry. 

For anyone wanting to learn more about innovation best practices, please check out our full list of courses including NPDP Certification and Innovation Best Practices starting on 14 January.  Please use discount code goodbye 2020 for a 20% discount on any single course at Simple-PDH. 

Another important resource for you as you define innovation leadership is The Innovation ANSWER Book.  This book has simplified the content from the PDMA Body of Knowledge so that you can use The Innovation ANSWER Book both as a study guide for NPDP certification and to guide practical industry implementation of innovation best practices.  Get your copy at Amazon (paperback or Kindle). 

What Are Your Plans for 2021?

To define yourself as a transformative innovation leader, you need to sustain continuing education.  Innovation is learning!  For more information on open courses and customized learning for innovation best practices, please contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281, phone 787-3979. 

About Me

I am inspired by writing, teaching, and coaching.  I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.   It brings me joy to help you build innovation leaders.  Teresa Jurgens-Kowal is an experienced innovation professional with a passion for lifelong learning with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Computer and Information Decision Making.  My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.  Contact me for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.       Learn.       Earn.       Simple.

The Wagile Philosophy

Posted on 08.27.20

Watch the short video summary and then read on for the details!

In business and innovation, we often talk about strategy.  I think of strategy like a destination when I take a trip.  I need to know where I’m going so that I can plan how to get there and what resources I will need.  Strategy indicates the vision, mission, and values. 

When I take a vacation, I enjoy hiking and being outdoors.  I also enjoy history and trying new foods.  These are a reflection of my values or philosophy in choosing a destination.  In business and innovation, our values form how we make decisions and what activities or behaviors are acceptable in achieving strategic goals. 

Recently, I encountered two small businesses with similar goals but different value systems.  The first bicycle shop I visited had a huge sign on its door – “We are not taking any repairs.  Wait here and phone us to enter the store.”  The second bicycle shop, sounding exasperated at the disruption in supply chains by the corona-panic, said “We are only taking repairs.  We’ve improved our delivery time to four days from two weeks.”  It’s easy to see the difference in philosophy and values for these two businesses.  And, I bet you can guess which store got my money!

What is Wagile?

Wagile is a hybrid innovation management system taking advantage of the rigor from a staged-and-gated system while adding in the flexibility of an Agile development process.  Most organizations end up becoming overly bureaucratic with staged-and-gated processes, hindering speed-to-market. 

On the other hand, many organizations that have tried implementing Agile have struggled, too.  Scrum (read more about Scrum here) is the most common way that firms implement Agile in a new product development (NPD) project.  Yet, Scrum was designed for software.  Companies are challenged by the definition of “done” and in getting sophisticated technical design elements completed in a two-week sprint. 

Wagile – part waterfall and part Agile – encourages iterations where necessary and increases customer interactions.  But, Wagile maintains the discipline of a waterfall (or staged-and-gated) process. 

The Wagile Philosophy

For any project management system to succeed, the values of the organization must support the steps, tasks, and expected outcomes of the process.  The Wagile philosophy supports a key innovation goal of speed-to-market. 

  • Move fast
  • Practice discipline
  • Understand risks
  • Engage customers
  • Provide autonomy
Copyright Global NP Solutions

Move fast.  The benefit of Scrum is moving fast and creating prototypes quickly.  Customers test many different versions of the potential product and designers select the attributes that best satisfy the needs of end-users.  The Wagile philosophy includes moving fast to quickly determine the most important features and to eliminate bad concepts early.  The end result?  Cost and time savings during development. 

Practice discipline.  While waterfall (staged-and-gated) processes can become overly bureaucratic, Agile projects are often viewed by senior executives as chaotic with ill-defined scope and goals.  Wagile enforces discipline by placing critical success metrics on each project.  An innovation project does not pass a gate review without a clear go-forward plan.  We know that creativity is expanded when the problem is bounded by clear expectations and aspirations so discipline is necessary to win with new products. 

Understand risks.  Uncertainty is always present in an innovation project.  Waterfall processes attempt to manage risk with detailed upfront planning.  Yet, plans usually are erroneous in one way or another.  You might plan two separate electrical feeds for a fire water system but forget that a utility outage will disable the whole plant.  Risks are managed, but not eliminated, with planning.

On the other hand, Agile gives a “hand wave” response to risk.  These systems assume you’ll know it when you see it.  So, the Wagile philosophy endorses risk management and creates a trigger/ response list to manage risk.  However, the Wagile philosophy also recognizes “positive uncertainties” to expand and capitalize on surprise results. 

Engage customers.  While Scrum includes a specific role for the Product Owner (read more here), end-users are still frequently neglected from the process.  Wagile forces customer interactions via specific measures at each gate review (e.g. competitive analysis at the Idea Gate and market testing at the Constructability Gate).  Moreover, the role of the Customer Representative (see more about the Wagile Roles and Responsibilities here) is wholly responsible to ensure end-user feedback is both accurate and timely.  Design Thinking tools are crucial in gathering information throughout the NPD project.  (Join me on 11 November 2020 for a complimentary life design workshop – register here.) 

Provide autonomy.  Many of my readers know I am a chemical engineer.  I suffer from some of the common “nerd” traits of engineers – we need quiet time to deeply study a problem and we need to justify a solution based on data and facts. 

The Wagile philosophy supports engineers and product development teams by providing autonomy.  Senior executives typically are far removed from customers and daily operations on the factory floor.  Let the people with the expertise make the decisions. 

Of course, when a decision crosses a threshold of high investment or unusually high risk, the team should consult upper management.  But under normal circumstances, a flat organizational structure with responsible decision-making guardrails in place allows an innovation team to function most efficiently and productively. 

Apply the Wagile Philosophy

While you may be using a traditional staged-and-gated process for innovation or you’ve been trying to implement Scrum, you can make some giant steps to effectiveness by adopting the Wagile philosophy.  Focus on moving fast within a discipline of critical success metrics.  Understand the project risks and uncertainties but test those limitations with customers.  Feedback from end-users should guide a product development effort.  Finally, let the experts do their work and give your teams autonomy to make decisions within their control. 

Learn More

Learn more about Wagile Product Development in my Webcast with PDMA on 10 September (register here). 

  • Get the full Wagile Product Development course in a virtual, facilitated workshop on 10 November 2020 (register here).  Includes templates, tools, and implementation tips.
  • Check out where I’m speaking next (click here) and book me for your next event.
  • Get your copy of The Innovation ANSWER Book available at Amazon (now available on Kindle).
  • Reference the new PDMA Body of Knowledge, available at Amazon.
  • Get your NPDP Certification!  Join our October online class (Thursdays) following the brand new, 2nd edition PDMA Body of Knowledge.  REGISTER HERE!

About Me

I am inspired by writing, teaching, and speaking at great professional events.  I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.   It brings me joy to help you build innovation leaders.  Teresa Jurgens-Kowal is an experienced innovation professional with a passion for lifelong learning with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Computer and Information Decision Making.  My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.  Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281 + phone 787-3979 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.       Learn.       Earn.       Simple.

Roles in Wagile Product Development

Posted on 08.20.20

When I was in graduate school, I spent the better part of one day organizing our tool chest.  In one drawer, I put all of our metric wrenches and sockets and then laid them out by size .  Not only did it look tidy, but it was much more convenient to grab the right tool when you needed it.  Everything had an assigned storage place and organizing the parts and pieces according to the job increased our efficiency in the lab. 

People are what makes systems work.  We assign roles and responsibilities within organizations to ensure that activities and tasks are completed.  Similar to a tool chest, assigning job roles to different people ensures they are trained appropriately to conduct tasks as expected.  The system itself often is less important than how the people assigned to various roles and responsibilities carry out their tasks within that process. 

Wagile Product Development Reviewed

In the Wagile system of product development (read more here), certain roles and responsibilities are assigned to ensure an efficient product innovation effort accomplishes timely goals.  As a quick recap, Wagile is a hybrid approach to traditional waterfall project management and the Agile philosophy commonly applied to software development.  The advantage of Wagile over other new product development (NPD) systems is that it enhances the frequency of customer feedback during design and development.  Another advantage of Wagile is that it applies iterative development within predetermined boundaries (e.g. budget and schedule).  Finally, the biggest advantage of Wagile is enhanced communication and team collaboration.  Read more about Wagile here. 

Roles in Wagile

In every project management and product innovation system, it is critical to include customer perspectives, internal stakeholder viewpoints, and contributions of vendors and suppliers.  The key roles of internal stakeholders in a Wagile process include the Project Leader, the Customer Representative, the Team Leader, and the Cross-Functional Team. 

Project Leader

Because Wagile adopts the Agile philosophy, the process succeeds at improving time-to-market of new products by reducing hierarchy and bureaucracy.  The role of Project Leader is much like a Scrum Master.  The Project Leader serves the team to reduce barriers to efficiency and productivity.  In addition, s/he interacts with senior executives, external stakeholders, and the Customer Representative to ensure the product development effort is on target.  Some Project Leaders act in a dual role as a brand manager or product manager, tracking the overall life cycle value of the new product. 

Customer Representative

No product development project can be successful without customer input.  The role of Customer Representative in Wagile is to build trust with customers, to collect end-user data, and to organize market research activities for the target customer segment.  In Scrum, the voice of customer is delegated to the Product Owner role.  (Read more about typical Scrum roles here.)  Yet, in practice, the product owner often bypasses true customer insights and reflects internal priorities for project execution instead.  A critical performance metric for the customer representative in Wagile is the number of external customer, consumer, and end-user interactions. 

Team Leader

The Team Leader and the Project Leader are like an old, married couple.  They work together to accomplish the project goals and complement one another.  While the Project Leader often focuses on longer term strategic objectives, the Team Leader focuses on operational and tactical goals.  The Team Leader is charismatic and builds collaborative skills for the team.  S/he also manages the new product development scope, schedule, and budget but has autonomy for decisions for project outcomes. 

Cross-Functional Team

Not all project teams are created equal.  The Wagile Cross-Functional Team brings together the “generalist–specialist” mentality of Scrum team members while also capitalizing on the depth of skills needed in a traditional project team.  While teams are generally small in Wagile as in scrum, scalability is less of an issue. 

Small teams allow for quicker and better decisions, so Wagile uses intimate Cross-Functional Teams to complete the tasks of the new product development project.  However, as product innovation advances to later phases and requires greater talent investment, sub-teams form to accomplish specific goals and objectives.  Communication among Cross-Functional Teams (and sub-teams) is vital to the success of any project, regardless of the project management system. 

Roles for Wagile Product Development

Like any system, Wagile product development relies on the people to do the work of the project and to progress toward goals.  Understanding the roles and responsibilities of key players within the system allows each person to access necessary training, streamline workflows, and improve communication.  Critical roles in Wagile include the Project Leader, the Customer Representative, the Team Leader, and the Cross-Functional Team. 

Learn More

Learn more about Wagile Product Development in my Webcast with PDMA on 10 September (register here).  Contact me at info@globalnpsolutions.com for a complimentary 30-minute innovation coaching session. 

  • Check out where I’m speaking next (click here) and book me for your next event.
  • Get your copy of The Innovation ANSWER Book available at Amazon (now available on Kindle).
  • Reference the new PDMA Body of Knowledge, available at Amazon.
  • Get your NPDP Certification!  Join our October online class (Thursdays) following the brand new, 2nd edition PDMA Body of Knowledge.  REGISTER HERE!

About Me

I am inspired by writing, teaching, and speaking at great professional events.  I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.   It brings me joy to help you build innovation leaders.  Teresa Jurgens-Kowal is an experienced innovation professional with a passion for lifelong learning with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Computer and Information Decision Making.  My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.  Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281 + phone 787-3979 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.       Learn.       Earn.       Simple.

What is Innovation Management?

Posted on 08.06.20

Since the world turned upside-down in March, we have all encountered a tremendous amount of change.  In my viewpoint, a lot of the changes in society have been negative and I suspect the politicians in charge are finding it difficult to extricate themselves from the mess they made.  One change we have seen from the corona-panic is, of course, limited contact with other people. 

Limited contact and limits on group gatherings has had a weird impact on my casual acquaintances.  I used to go swimming at an indoor pool and would arrive, jump in, swim laps, shower, and head home.  Once in a great while, I would exchange a few words about the weather or temperature of the water with another lady in the locker room. 

Now, I am swimming in an outdoor pool.  We all must make paid reservations in advance and can swim for only 45 minutes.  What is unusual, though, is that all of us chat with each other.  We are gathered together, outside the building, following all the random spacing and inane mask rules, waiting for the allotted time.  Most of us prefer swimming longer than 45 minutes, so we all get kicked out at the same time.  Again, we chat as we head home across the parking lot.  Overzealous government regulations have led to me getting know people I would not have otherwise met.

On Monday, for example, David asked why I was even at the pool.  He knows my schedule is to swim on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I explained I had a meeting on Tuesday, and then the resident swim coach asked what I do.  “I’m an innovation management consultant and coach,” I replied.  He looked at me questioningly.  “Innovation is making something new?”

Innovation is Making Something New

The word innovation has been overused a lot (see an earlier post on Authentic Innovation here).  In short, innovation does mean making something new.  It might be a new product or service.  It might be a new technology or introducing an existing product into a new market.  We might create a new business model, or we might find new ways to manufacture a product. 

So, innovation management means planning and implementing those things that are new.  My goal is to help others – individuals and companies – find effective and efficient ways to make new things.  The ultimate goal is to improve speed-to-market and increase profits. 

Innovation Change for Customers

We know we are “winning” at innovation when we make money and our customers are satisfied.  Change can be easy, or change can be difficult.  Sometimes change creates new opportunities – like my newfound friends at the swimming pool. 

What change is your business facing right now?  We all know that the corona-panic has disrupted supply chains and availability of retail goods.  But I want you to be specific.  Describe exactly what change your business faces today, in one month, and for year-end. 

If your changes relate to sales, you may simply have to wait it out.  But if the changes you face are structural and institutional you need to find an innovative solution.  This means polling your customers to understand their real needs and problems. 

Talk to Me

As an innovation management consultant, I want to know what changes you are facing.  Please post in the comments or email me at info@globalnpsolutions.com to describe your greatest innovation challenge emerging from the corona-triggered economic downturn.  Everyone who responds is entered into a random drawing for a free NPDP certification exam question set (a $125 value).  We will draw on 21 August 2020 and announce the winner on 25 August. 

See you at the pool!

Learn More

  • Check out where I’m speaking next (click here).
  • Get your copy of The Innovation ANSWER Book available at Amazon (now available on Kindle).
  • Reference the new PDMA Body of Knowledge, available at Amazon.
  • Do you know your strategy?  Is it time to narrow your focus or expand to serve more customers?  Join me for the two-part Reset Your Strategy workshop on 18 and 20 August.  Register here – special discounts for the unemployed.

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.       Learn.       Earn.       Simple.

About Me

I am inspired by writing, teaching, and speaking at great professional events.  I tackle life with an infusion of rigor, zeal, and faith.   It brings me joy to help you build innovation leaders.  Teresa Jurgens-Kowal is an experienced innovation professional with a passion for lifelong learning with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in Computer and Information Decision Making.  My credentials include PE (State of Louisiana), NPDP, PMP®, and CPEM, and I am a DiSC® certified facilitator.  Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or area code 281 + phone 787-3979 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

Mixed Skills for Work Today

Posted on 05.07.20

Watch the short summary (less than 1 minute) and then read the full article below.

At the Fall 2019 AIChE conference for chemical engineers, keynote speaker Matt Sigelman presented the importance of developing and supplementing skills forproduct development and leadership.  He made the distinction of “jobs” as doing tasks while “work” is renting a set of skills.  To succeed in a changing workplace, Sigelman puts forth that we must continue to grow and enhance our skills.  I agree!

What are Skills?

Formal education gives us knowledge and some skills.  As a chemical engineer, I have learned theories of math, chemistry, and physics.  This knowledge is measurable in a quantitative way.  There is a “right” answer to a calculus problem or to balancing heat and energy in a standard chemical stoichiometry. 

Skills we learn in school or with work experience include analytical capability, writing, research, and creativity.  These skills are not necessarily measurable but do differentiate success as innovation leaders.  For example, the demand for team collaboration skills at work is in high demand for at least one-third of jobs today.

Mixed Skills

Sigleman defined “hybrid jobs” as work activities that require both specialized technical skills (e.g. math, chemistry, physics) and critical skills (e.g. people and processes).  Job growth and education experience change at 1-2% per year, but skills change as much as 40% per years.  Successful new product development (NPD) practitioners and product managers must not only maintain current knowledge in their field of specialization but also grow and enhance their leadership skills.  This means learning and practicing sound project management protocols while also adopting and sustaining team development practices.

Today’s most important jobs require mixed skills.  Data scientists cannot be content with analyzing a set of numbers.  They must translate that data into information on which to base technology and market growth activities.  Technical skills must balance against communication and decision-making skills.  New Product Development Professionals (NPDP) use quantitative market data to estimate pricing and market capacity for product innovations.  Yet, it is qualitative interpretation of customer knowledge that leads innovation leaders to product development decisions, profitability, and improved market share.

Building Mixed Skills

Lifelong learning and a commitment to growth are the fuel to build mixed skills for today’s job market.  As noted at the AIChE conference, credential demonstrate expertise and mastery of mixed skills.  Innovation leaders use NPDP certification as a stepping stone for product management career growth illustrating experience with product portfolio management and NPD processes as well as team management and leadership development.

You can learn more about NPDP certification here.  Benchmark your own innovation maturity with the Innovation Health Assessment™.  Take the complimentary Innovation Health Assessment here.  Contact me at info@Simple-PDH.com for more information on developing your skills for a rewarding career in product innovation.

© Simple-PDH.com

A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.       Learn.       Earn.       Simple.

Happiness and Innovation Work

Posted on 01.31.19

Recently, I listened to two different business-oriented podcasts on happiness.  The first one discussed happiness as a form of contentment, while the second one addressed how we can better manage our time in exchange for happiness.  Working more hours was not an element of happiness (of course) yet working better and providing for others through our work did lead to greater degrees of happiness, according to these experts.

Happy kids with their hands up outdoors

Moreover, happiness is a part of our work as new product development practitioners and project managers.  Our new product designs are successful when the features and attributes product feelings of happiness in our customers.  And with the wealth of our society today at large, we are often seeking happiness as consumers more than we desire simple, functional solutions.

What is Happiness?

Dictionary.com defines happiness as “the state of being happy,” and happy is defined as “delighted, pleased, or glad, as over a particular thing.”  This implies that happiness is a transitory mood as much as it is a continuous state of mind.  I feel happy when I learn new tools for my favorite hobby, and I feel happy when I’m on vacation with my husband.

I prefer the term content over happy.  Dictionary.com defines contentment as “satisfaction, ease of mind”.  This definition feels more long-term and deep to the soul.  Contentment may be reflected as a sense of happiness and joy, a feeling that others can see and know that you are satisfied with your life circumstances.

Each of us has our own definition of happiness, contentment, and satisfaction.  We know when we have these feelings, whether they are in-the-moment or are deep and in our souls.  And, if you’re like most human beings, you want more happiness, deeper contentment, and greater satisfaction.

The Role of Innovators

As innovators and new product development practitioners, our role is to bring products and services to people so they can increase their happiness.  This might be done by simplifying their lives, minimizing steps to complete a task, or bringing leisure to their lives.  Understanding our customers’ motivation is paramount in designing and developing satisfying new products and services.

For example, innovations that decrease the time consumers spend doing household chores can free their time to pursue activities that bring them happiness and contentment.  Products and service like flushable toilet cleaning pads, home grocery delivery, and robot vacuums all help us accomplish dreaded tasks quickly and easily.  Then, we can invest our time in more satisfying activities.

Innovators can identify new product features and services by observing customers.  Observation and ethnographic research are important tools for new product development practitioners to fully understand customer needs.  Interviewing consumers during or after task completion can help identify their pain points.  For instance, a person would express a pain point of taking a dripping toilet brush or rag to a storage area after scrubbing the commode.  The flushable toilet pads eliminate that pain point for customers.  Minimizing both the time and mess involved in an undesirable, but necessary, chore can increase a consumer’s happiness. 

You can start to brainstorm ideas for products and services by asking customers what makes them happy and what tasks they really dread.  On what tasks do they spend their time when they’d really rather be doing something else?  What are chores that have to done on the weekend when they’d rather spend time with family and friends?  Answers to these questions can guide you and provide insight to identifying valuable customer pain points.  Then, you can begin to design products and services to address these pain points and usage issues.  Innovation must start with the problem first!

Increasing Happiness with Innovation

Not all innovations automatically increase our happiness.  New product developers must watch out in designing products with lots of features and products that are all-encompassing solutions.  Too many features and options can make a product or service too complicated and many people will choose to continue with their current solution rather than spend time learning how to use a new product.  It is frustrating to exchange precious time to master a product with many features when the consumer only needs a few, basic functions.

Construction worker with machines at the background looking happy

As we consider our own happiness and contentment, we can also consider what makes our customers happy and satisfied.  I think this is what makes innovation such an engaging and dynamic career path. We get to help others save time and solve problems, and in doing so, we find self-satisfaction and contentment.

Learn More

If you want to learn more about designing and building products and services for happy customers, please join me in an innovation best practices workshop.  Prepare for your New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification with self-study, facilitated online, or classroom courses.  You will immediately impact the success of your innovation efforts by iden3tifying strategies and tools to bring happiness to your customers.  Feel free to contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or 281-280-8717 for more information on innovation, project management, and leadership training or coaching.  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.

Innovation Ecosystem

Posted on 01.17.19

Innovation is hard work.  While we often imagine a really clever guy in his garage creating the next big thing, reality teaches us that discipline is a far more important trait to successful innovation than is imagination.  Discipline supports creativity and frames the context of an innovation ecosystem.

Key Components of Innovation

Innovation certainly requires discipline and creativity – as well as flexibility – for new product development (NPD) team members and leaders.  An innovation ecosystem requires pertinent processes, tools, and metrics to lead to repeatable success.  Some of these elements are:

  • A well-considered innovation strategy,
  • Product portfolio management and knowledge management,
  • An NPD process, and
  • Ongoing team and leadership training.

Let’s take a look at each element in turn.

Innovation Strategy

Every company, large or small, has a strategy.  Usually, the strategy is documented and reviewed annually.  A corporate strategy describes why the business exists and how it expects to accomplish its mission.  An innovation strategy is a subset of the organizational mission and specifically describes the details of the new product development programs.

For instance, I worked with a company that wanted to be viewed as “Number One” in an organic food category.  Their vision included customers choosing their brand over all other competitors because the food was healthy.  The innovation strategy, therefore, built on the vision of delivering healthy products to the marketplace, yet also had to strike a balance between customer tastes, product features, and the labels of “healthy” and “organic”.

Thus, the innovation strategy breaks down the corporate strategy into specific goals and objectives for a new product development program.  Healthy foods must be tasty and have textures and flavors that consumers enjoy.  The innovation strategy includes, then, a focus on customer needs and definitions (what does “healthy” really mean?) and on technology development (can we manufacture a low-fat, high fiber product?).

Product Portfolio Management (PPM)

Product portfolio management (PPM) is the system to identify in which projects to invest.  Knowledge management (KM) captures technical, product, and market data for future use.  Both PPM and KM are critical to long-term success of an innovation ecosystem.  Yet, historically, both PPM and KM fail in implementation.

PDMA studies show that only about half of companies have a well-functioning PPM process.  This is a disappointing statistic since PPM is how we make decisions regarding which NPD projects to advance and which to halt.  PPM provides an evaluation and comparison of all innovation projects based on competitive advantage, market attractiveness, technical feasibility, and profit potential.  An effective innovation ecosystem uses PPM to guide data-driven project decisions.

Likewise, an effective knowledge management system captures the tacit knowledge of customers, subject matter experts, and key stakeholders and translates these disparate bits of information into explicit knowledge.  It is inherently difficult to ask a customer what features they want in a new product, but KM allows us to save and share customer challenges, desires, and feelings about product usage.  KM goes hand-in-hand with PPM by supporting clear definitions of customer needs.

NPD Process

Established NPD processes are also critical to an organization’s long-term success with repeatable innovation.  An NPD process needs to be formal and structured with key steps, roles, and responsibilities determined in advance for all innovation projects.  However, the specific NPD process deployed by a company should fit its culture, scale of operations, and degree of innovativeness sought.  The standard NPD processes that my clients use include traditional staged-and-gated processes, Scrum, and hybrid processes.

A traditional staged-and-gated NPD process follows a linear pathway through a project.  Designed by Robert G. Cooper in the late 20th century, the NPD team will set project requirements early in the process and will build the product according to this pre-determined feature set.  Cooper recommends – as do I – to continually test the product assumptions with a wide range of users throughout each stage of the NPD process. 

A Scrum process follows the Agile philosophy by adapting the work in a short sprint (e.g. two to four weeks) to the highest priority feature or feature set.  Customer involvement is intimate in a Scrum NPD process as the customer both sets sprint priorities and approves the incremental product output from each sprint. 

Finally, hybrid NPD processes are becoming the norm in innovation as neither a traditional staged-and-gated process nor an agile/Scrum approach is ideal.  Hybrid NPD processes support the innovation ecosystem through continuous communication with the customer while utilizing a formal requirements design and development methodology.  Keep in mind that no NPD process is perfect, and an NPD process should be updated regularly to reflect organizational, market, and technology needs.

Team and Leadership Training

A successful ecosystem relies on a clear strategy and established practices and procedures (PPM, KM, and NPD processes).  To make the cogs turn, however, people must be motivated and inspired to do creative work while at the same time understanding organizational boundaries and limits.  Team and leadership training is the last, but perhaps most critical piece, of the innovation ecosystem puzzle.

NPD teams and innovation leaders benefit from New Product Development Professional (NPDP) and Best Practice Training.  In these public or customized workshops, team members safely learn how to clearly identify the innovation strategy, implement PPM and KM, and streamline the NPD process.  Moreover, teams learn the tools in market research to understand, test, and validate customer needs with concept tests, prototypes, and post-launch reviews.

Likewise, teams need to develop cross-functional and conflict management skills.  These are learned and practiced through Situational Team Leadershipand Virtual Team Training.  Virtual teams offer a huge advantage for innovators to tap into local market information while designing a product for global reach.

Finally, leaders need to approach innovation with flexibility, adaptability, and patience.  Leaders should be trained in situational leadership, virtual team management, and change management in addition to understanding the overall NPDP best practices.  Innovation leaders also need ongoing support since other the NPD function is often isolated from other business functions and requires special skills and business frameworks. 

I recommend an ongoing sharing and exchange for innovation leaders with a trusted group of like-minded product management professionals.  Having your own personal advisory board facilitated by an innovation expert can help you advance and accelerate your innovation ecosystem.  Check out the Innovation Master Mind as a way to rapidly improve your innovation programs through industry collaboration and problem-solving.  (Register here for a FREE pilot session of the Innovation Master Mind on 23 January 2019.) 

A Successful Innovation Ecosystem

I am constantly reminded of the delicate balance in nature’s ecosystem.  Rain, sunshine, and fertilizer allow plants to grow and thrive.  An innovation ecosystem requires feeding and nourishment to also grow and thrive.  Key elements of an innovation ecosystem are the innovation strategy, product portfolio and knowledge management, an established NPD process, and team and leadership skills development. 

Innovation is fun and exciting!  When we apply and formalize these elements in an innovation ecosystem, we realize both personal and professional success while delighting our customers. 

Learn More

Feel free to contact me more information on customized NPDP training.  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.

5 Most Effective Skills Innovators Need

Posted on 10.11.18

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

Posted on 10.04.18

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?

Posted on 09.27.18

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  

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