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What Innovation Leaders Do Differently

In a lot of ways, innovation is a mystery.  It does not happen spontaneously, but it occurs in an instant.  Innovation is not the work of a lone genius, but it requires independent hard work.  It is not easy, but it is rewarding. 

Because it is so hard to characterize, innovation is also hard to define.  Is innovation just something new?  Or is innovation only a new use for something old?  Does innovation make life easier for some and bring profit to others?  Can innovation happen on the micro-scale as well as in the macro-environment? 

The answer is “Yes” – yes, to all these questions and more.  Innovation is the art and science of creating a new product, service, or technology that brings value to both customer and provider.  Innovation is leading greatness. 

Leadership and Innovation

While companies often struggle with repeatable innovation success, I argue that success with innovation is bound by leadership.  True leaders recognize and nurture the growth of innovation in their teams.  Innovation leadership is more than funding R&D or designing a clever marketing program.  Leadership in innovation requires an in-depth understanding of the organization’s culture, your customers, and even of yourself.  There are four levels to building innovation leadership:  learning, adopting, transforming, and sustaining. 

Learning

A learning organization is one that recognizes the importance of long-term, sustained innovation.  Yet, they don’t know how to get there.  These organizations inherently appreciate that standing still and hoping for our “old normal” isn’t going to happen.  But they don’t know what to change to take advantage of the next phase of economic growth. 

Learning organizations focus on strategic development, opportunity identification, and market insights.  Strategy integrates vision, mission, and values of the organization.  Where do you want to go, how will you get there, and what are your common beliefs?  Market insights mean you have an in-depth understanding of customers, trends, markets, and competition in your industry. 

Adopting

Once you understand the market space and your unique approach to customer needs, then you – as an innovation leader – make decisions about projects and pathways to achieve goals.  We all have more ideas than time, resources, and money.  Adopting innovation leaders apply tools, like new product development (NPD) processes, to frame decisions for generating value.  Great leaders are willing to accept calculated risk.  Winning the war is more important than 100% success in every small battle.  Failure in innovation is treated as learning and not as a time to blame or punish.  (Note that NPD processes cover a wide range of frameworks and approaches.  Read more in The Innovation ANSWER Book, Chapter 3.)  

Transforming

Many organizations stop once they have systems and processes in place to manage product innovation projects.  That’s okay but it’s not leadership.  Innovation leaders seek to transform the organization to drive higher level creativity and more satisfaction with customers.  Again, this is a decision-making process, but instead of focusing on each step in executing a project, transformative leaders aim to drive change in the culture and behaviors of team members.  Open cultures that tolerate constrained risk and defined exploration tend to be more innovative.  Train your teams in creative processes (like design thinking) and allow them freedom and autonomy to discover new and interesting relationships among customer needs, technologies, and market trends.  (Join our virtual Design Thinking workshop here.) 

Sustaining

One success is good.  Two or three successes is great.  Repeatable innovation success is terrific!  The way to achieve fantastic results in satisfying customers with continued innovation is by sustaining learning and growth.  Innovation leaders and teams need ongoing support and challenge for continued success. 

Because product innovation is often an isolated role within companies, many innovation leaders use a master mind or other peer support group to challenge their growth and curiosity.  Master mind groups allow innovation leaders to share with like-minded peers to speed learning for implementation success.  Trust among members allow you to go beyond your own constraints and boundaries as you both give and receive help. 

Innovation Leaders are Different

Operational managers and functional department heads are judged on hitting easily measurable targets, such as cost of production or number of widgets manufactured.  Success of innovation leaders is not as clear cut and success is defined by strategic objectives and customer satisfaction.  Thus, the goal posts are constantly moving. 

However, innovation leaders can build success for themselves, their teams, and their organizations by creating a framework for long-term change.  Innovation cultures learn from the opportunities presented to them, adopt industry best practices, and transform their organizations with defined decisions.  Truly successful innovation leaders continue the journey by sustaining growth and learning to establish cultures and relationships that support creativity and freedom. 

What is Your Level of Innovation Maturity?

Take the Innovation Health Assessment™ to identify your organization’s innovation maturity level.  (Free registration here to maintain integrity of the database.)  If you are a learning organization, what is your strategy?  If you are an adopting organization, what are your decision-making processes?  If you are a transforming organization, how can you further build teamwork and creative collaboration?  If you are a sustaining organization, how do you give your innovation leader support? 

One way to gain cross organization knowledge of product innovation is through the New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification.  Register here for our next course in January 2021. 

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 at [email protected] or area code 281 + phone 787-3979 for more information on coaching for entrepreneurs and innovators.

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A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.       Learn.       Earn.       Simple.

This was first published on the blog at www.Simple-PDH.com. Follow me on Twitter @globalnpd.

Teaching and Learning

Recently, an acquaintance phoned me at about 9 am on a Wednesday. While I’m not 100% sure why, she asked if she had awoken me out of bed.  I’m assuming that because I work from home, she made a leap of judgement that I don’t really work and I get to sleep in every day.

The truth is that I’m usually working by 6:30 am and I often work past 9:30 pm.  Like others who have home offices, my breaks might include throwing a load of laundry into the washer or going running, but my work is equally intense.  In fact, I plan to continue teaching at the university and college level until I am too old or infirm to continue.

Teaching can be done from home for any online class.  A professor could ostensibly wear pajamas and slippers as office dwellers and offhand acquaintances might assume.  In my case, I shower and dress daily and when I make the short commute from the kitchen to my office, I enter my office with the same dedication to work as anyone else.  In this way, I can maintain a high commitment to education of students, colleagues, and clients.  I am as dedicated to being a good teacher as I am to being a good learner.

Teaching as Lifelong Learning

Teaching is the ultimate zenith in knowledge.  Not only do we have to understand a subject with both breadth and depth, we also have to be able to make the topic engaging enough for heterogeneous groups of students to find interest in the topic even for required, foundational classes.  Being able to restate learnings in a new way or apply knowledge to a new situation is what makes education successful – from both the teacher’s perspective and the student’s viewpoint.

What many students don’t realize is that teachers learn from them as well.  Every term, I find that there are new or unusual interpretations of homework assignments.  What seemed to be a clear cut question to the course designer can elicit a wide range of responses.  In some cases, the responses are so far off that the learning materials and homework assignments need redesigning to meet the course objectives.

Planning Learning

Learning events have to be as carefully planned as any college course.  First, the organization’s objectives need to be considered in full.  For a college or university course, the learning objectives typically align with a certificate or degree program, and are often specified by various accreditation bodies.  In corporate learning, our objectives must match a desired business outcome.  If a company wishes to improve its success with new product launches or increase communications among virtual team members, the learning event must include these results as success measures.

Key to a successful learning event or course includes application of the new knowledge or skill in the workplace.  Simply going to a class and having absorbed information is insufficient to demonstrate transfer of knowledge.  An important measure of success, then, tracks the student beyond the classroom to ensure that s/he is applying the skill in the real world.  Firms can measure the implementation of new skills via professional certifications and management surveys to determine that the learning event met corporate objectives.  Colleges and universities measure success by job placement and feedback from employees.

Education Delivery

While I get up every day, shower, and get dressed in real clothes before going to my office, learners today are cramming skills development into ever smaller parcels of time.  A student very well may be wearing his or her pajamas while watching an online lesson or be listening to a podcast during the daily commute.

Online knowledge delivery has changed how we learn.  Indeed, our attention spans as a whole have dropped precipitously.  Most of us remain engaged for less than 10 minutes.  So, education delivery must meet these parameters and still impart a new skill or behavior within each lesson.  All of our online courses at Simple-PDH.com include short videos or podcasts that can be consumed in brief intervals of time, yet each lesson delivers an important topic necessary to gain and maintain professional certification.

Knowledge Checks

Perhaps more important for professional certification and corporate training is a knowledge check that learning new skills has occurred.  Again, the measurement of knowledge transfer should be part of the organizational planning effort.  In the case of university students and candidates for professional credentials, knowledge checks include practice exams leading to the final, formal exam administered by the appropriate credentialing body (PMI, PDMA, or ASEM, for example).

Practice quizzes offer a risk-free environment to learners to hone their test-taking skills as well as verifying their knowledge base.  CAPM and PMP practice tests help to solidify the sometimes peculiar wording used by PMI that is not as common in an industrial project setting.  New Product Development Professional (NPDP) practice tests help to bring higher order strategic processes into focus with objective, application-oriented questions.

Teaching and Learning

We must all be committed to lifelong learning – whether we are working from a traditional office, a home office, or a student wearing pajamas!  Teaching is the ultimate demonstration of lifelong learning.  Both university and corporate learning event should start with extensive planning to ensure that course objectives, goals, and measures align with the desired business outcomes (e.g. job placement or improved results).

As students today, we demand on-the-go knowledge delivery.  Online courses deliver content that is engaging and brief.  Follow-up practice tests are recommended for those seeking professional certification.  And, yes, you can learn and teach while you are at work or at home!

Contact me at [email protected] 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

Learning is Important (and Sometimes Urgent)

President Dwight D. Eisenhower is quoted as saying, “I have two kinds of problems:  the urgent and the important.  The urgent are not important and the important are never urgent.”

Most of us can identify with Ike’s predicament.  We face a lot of tasks in our daily work that need to be done but are not necessarily value-added to advance our careers.  And we tend to put off the important learning activities that will grow our self-confidence and career knowledge in exchange for solving immediate problems.

Ike’s Four Categories

If we dissect the Eisenhower Principle and apply it to our calendars and to-do lists, we will find, perhaps, time to dedicate to personal growth and still be able to help others achieve their goals.

Important and Urgent

Important and urgent tasks are those that help us grow in knowledge and are recognized as developing our careers.  For example, responding to a short deadline request for your consulting services is an important and urgent task.  Addressing a quality deviation on the production line is important and urgent.  These tasks should take a high priority on our calendars and to-do lists.  It is also helpful to review the outcomes of important and urgent tasks through reflection to improve our performance next time.

Important but Not Urgent

Activities that are important but not urgent typically have a longer term payoff.  These may include attending networking meetings or trade conferences.  Often we delay the important but not urgent tasks because there is not a deadline for the activity.

Of course, creating an artificial deadline can spur us to moving the important but not urgent tasks to a higher priority.  Professional development frequently falls into the category of important but not urgent, yet most professional certifications require professional development hours (PDH) for renewal to maintain the credential.  Instead of waiting until the last minute to try to cram in 40 or 60 hours of study, set a target of completing at least 5 hours every quarter.  In this way, you meet the requirements, but crucially, you gain useful knowledge on an ongoing basis to build your professional toolkit and reputation.

Urgent but Not Important

One of the reasons we push off the important but not urgent tasks is we choose to spend our time on urgent but not important activities.  These tasks may be necessary to keep our jobs but should be minimized as much as possible.  Generally, the urgent but not important chores do not require our strangest capacity of focus or concentration.  In Cal Newport’s book, “Deep Work,” he recommends blocking these type of tasks together.  For example, you can do email, respond to LinkedIn messages, and re-tweet relevant business information when your energy and focus are at a low point.  You should save your highest energy for the most important tasks.

Not Urgent and Not Important

These time-wasters should be eliminated if at all possible.  Items that fall into the not urgent/not important category include much of our email, Facebook, and surfing the internet.  You can purge non-relevant email by unsubscribing from lists and newsletters, and by creating “rules” to handle and segregate urgent or important email from one-way, informational communications.  In “Deep Work,” Newport recommends replacing the shallow relationships on Facebook with deeper meaning and understanding with friends over lunch or by engaging in the arts.

Learning is Important and Urgent

While we often categorize learning as an important but not urgent task, gaining professional knowledge and certifications should be both important and urgent.  Most professional credentials result in higher salaries and increased responsibility on the job.  Treating learning as a task that is not urgent means you are not assigning it the same priority as responding to email or attending a meeting.  While these activities are required to sustain your current position and to satisfy your boss, you must also consider your own personal growth plan to advance your career.  Then, learning becomes both important and urgent!

You can take the first step to advancing your career with a professional credential as a New Product Development Professional (NPDP) or a Project Management Professional (PMP™).  Learn about professional development 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!  Please also feel free to contact me at [email protected] or 281-280-8717.  Remember learning must be important and urgent!

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

© Simple-PDH.com

A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC

A Growth Mindset for Learning

Product development, like all other types of engineering projects, requires taking risks.  Sometimes new products fail.  In fact, statistically, more products and services fail than are successful in the marketplace.  But not many leaders would readily agree that failure can have a positive outcome.

A Growth Mindset

Failures should be viewed as learning opportunities.  We improve our behaviors, skills, and technical capabilities when we understand the gap between current performance and our desired level of accomplishment.  Failure allows us to grow.

A recent article in Harvard Business Review (November 2015) describes failure as the ability to tap into a “growth mindset”.  In contrast, a “fixed mindset” is one that assumes outcomes are pre-determined through innate skills or through good luck.  People with a fixed mindset do not always recognize learning opportunities since they assume they cannot add to their own talent pool or development.

The “growth mindset,” on the other hand, is one in which people recognize they can get better through effort and practice.  Years ago, Tiger Woods famously changed his golf swing (apparently before he needed a lot of prescriptions for back pain…).  When we make radical changes in our training and execution of a skill, sometimes our performance declines temporarily.  We may fail.  Yet, seeking the challenge and sticking with a plan for improvement will lead to better performance in the end.

Thus, a person with a growth mindset accepts that a failure has occurred and will work to improve performance next time.  These people will practice, practice, and practice.  They recognize that the payback is proportional to the effort they input.  Managers can support performance improvement by accepting failure and learning from it.

In new product development (NPD), for instance, a failed product launch may be related to the technical functionality of the product or may be due to a poor marketing message.  Learning the root cause of the failure will help all future NPD efforts.  You just also might be able to profitably salvage the current product!

Acting without Action

While a crucial step in learning requires acknowledging failure and taking steps to practice and improve, we sometimes get bogged down in action for the sake of action.  Let’s look at an ordinary golfer, Tom, instead of Tiger Woods.  Tom goes to the driving range weekly and hits a couple of buckets of balls.  He chats with his buddy about practicing at the range.  Yet when they play a full round of golf on Saturday, Tom’s score doesn’t really improve.

What’s going on?  Tom has been practicing at the driving range – just like Tiger Woods, right?  Wrong.  Tom is just going through the motions.  He is acting without action.  Tiger’s practice was focused, deliberate, and detailed.  He worked through every motion of his golf swing.  He worked at it day and night.  He studied golf swings of the masters and he was coached.  The coach provided feedback on his performance so Tiger could learn how to close the gap between his current skill level and the desired future state.

Tom, on the other hand, was not focused.  He spent half his time at the driving range chatting with his buddy.  He golfed as a hobby, not a passion.  More importantly, Tom just hit the golf balls.  He did not have a picture in his mind of how a perfect golf swing should look.  He lacked coaching and feedback to close a gap between his current and desired performance.  Tom was simply acting without action.

We do the same thing with our business projects.  We might tweak the advertising campaign of a new product.  We will add features and functionality to “improve” or “enhance” its technical capabilities.  Yet, these are unfocused actions – doing something just for the sake of doing something.  Without proper customer and market feedback, we might just be acting without action.

NPD projects should learn from failure by shadowing and querying customers.  Products are successful when they deliver an affordable and convenient solutions that address customers’ specific issues.

Growth and Action for Learning

Failure happens.  Projects are cancelled, new products don’t make sales, and we face professional setbacks.  Yet the key to success is learning from failure.  Continuous improvement comes from evaluating failure and taking deliberate steps to learn from any real or perceived defect.

First, you must equip yourself with a growth mindset.  Outcomes are not a result of bad luck or only because of in-born talent.  We can improve our own performance through deliberate practice and applied effort.  Recognizing the gap between current and desired performance allows us to design a path forward.  In NPD, we must fully understand the customer in order to design, develop, and launch an effective product solution.

Next, as we accept failure and recognize that defeats introduce learning opportunities, we must take focused action to address the performance gap.  Acting without action is just stirring the pot.  Or as Einstein is quoted as saying, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.”  In NPD we must carefully survey markets and customers to understand their needs and how existing product solutions meet or don’t meet these needs.

Professional skills development also requires focused practice and deliberate actions to improve performance.  Many individuals seek to demonstrate learning and continuous improvement through professional certification.  We offer new product skills development with industry best practices in innovate coupled with certification training in New Product Development Professional (NPDP) workshops.  You can demonstrate continuous learning through an affordable self-study course or in a customized face-to-face training session.  Contact me at [email protected] or 281-280-8717 for information on new product development training or professional management coaching. At Simple-PDH, we want to make it simple for you to study, learn, and earn and maintain your professional certifications.

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

© Simple-PDH.com

A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC

Sustainability in New Product Development

Sometimes words and phrases have more than one meaning.  We think of “sustaining the business” as an ability to retain customers and make money over the long-term.  “Sustainable forests” are those in which trees are replanted when their counterparts are harvested so we can have lumber for our homes and furniture.  Yet, “sustainable innovation” means designing and developing new products that follow practices that respect both economic and environmental-friendly processes in their sourcing, use, and return (disposal).  Thus, sustainability plays a significant role in life cycle management for new product development (NPD).

The Product Life Cycle (PLC)

A product life cycle (PLC) is defined as the normal sequence of steps through which most products progress.  (You can learn more about the PLC in the professional development course on Disruptive Innovation.  The topic of PLC is covered for both NPDP and PEM candidates.)  In the Introduction phase, a product is initially commercialized.  A company will work to create brand awareness and may not make a profit in this stage.  The market is small and costs are high for manufacturing and in recovering development expenses.

The next stage is the Growth phase.  At this point in time, sales accelerate and firms begin to realize profits.  Costs begin to decline as manufacturing takes advantage of economies of scale.  More customers are aware of the product and sales volumes increase.

As products become more attractive in a market, competitors will begin to sell products with similar functionality.  This is called the Maturity phase of the PLC.  Sales peak during this stage and companies need to differentiate their products with added features and complementing services in order to maintain market share.

Finally, as trends and customers’ habits change, products enter the Decline stage.  During this phase, sales and profits tumble.  Companies must make tough decisions to either withdraw from the market or must make a significant commitment to revamp the product.  In the latter case, the revised product will re-enter the PLC at the Introduction phase.

Elements of Sustainability

Focusing on sustainability is really just another application of customer-centric marketing.  Sustainable innovation strives to meet the needs of one generation of customers without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.  Working on sustainable new product development takes into account three key elements called the Triple Bottom Line:

  • Profit,
  • People, and
  • Planet.

These elements both drive and support a business strategy’s financial goals (profit), social objectives (people), and environmental commitments (planet).  Metrics of sustainable innovation are built on financial, social, and environmental goals.

Note that sustainability issues are encountered throughout the product development and marketing processes.  Customers are interested in preserving the environment and so firms should address the Triple Bottom Line in raw material selection, for example.  Consumers are also more aware than ever of disparities in labor markets around the world, so companies can address social concerns through design and manufacture of products with appropriate attention to the people element of the Triple Bottom Line.  Finally, without financial motives, companies cannot support social or environmental causes, so new products must drive financial and profitability goals, too.  A well-conceived and unique business model allows a firm to differentiate itself from competitors and focus on the Triple Bottom Line in unique ways.

Sustainability and the PLC

Management makes a series of decisions throughout the product life cycle regarding the product, price, distribution (place), and promotions (e.g. advertising, marketing, and direct selling).  Not surprisingly, these decisions today must also look at the customer’s perception of the firm’s impact on the Triple Bottom Line.  For instance, as consumers demand more eco-friendly products, NPD practitioners and marketers will undertake decisions regarding recyclable packaging for the product.  Promotions in the Introductory phase can target customers with higher environmental values by emphasizing the reduced impact by using packaging that can be easily recycled.  Such marketing can help to build a favorable brand awareness and support the firm’s strategic commitment to the environment.

During the Growth and Maturity phases, manufacturing is often expanded –especially in international arenas to take advantage of lower cost labor and varying regulatory environments.  A firm committed to the Triple Bottom Line and sustainable innovation will maintain the highest standards for fair pay and pollution control regardless of the countries in which it operates.  The company gains a competitive advantage by reducing fuel consumption in distributing the product in global markets by establishing factories around the world.  Again, the company’s strategy, supported by its actions, will build brand preference and differentiation with customers focused on social and environmental concerns.

Finally, minimizing disposal impacts leads to sustainable innovation decisions in the design and development of a new product.  We all know the mantra of reduce, reuse, and recycle.  Companies committed to a product life cycle with these principles can outlive the Decline stage by breathing new life into old or retired products.  Reduce, reuse, and recycle also drive early development decisions regarding materials selection, manufacturability, and product usage.

Going Forward:  Sustainability in NPD

As consumers become more conscientious of their purchase decisions and the impact they have on profit, people, and the planet, NPD practitioners and engineering managers need to focus more on sustainable innovation.  Products have a given life cycle and a sustainable innovation strategy will encompass design decisions into the product development process to ensure the mission and vision are appropriately executed.  Life cycle assessments will look at a product from perspectives of raw materials acquisition, manufacturing, use, and end-of-life disposal.  Companies that meet customer expectations that satisfy financial, social, and environmental needs will succeed with NPD and innovation near the long-term.

Note that life cycle management, including sustainability, is now a part of the New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification exam (starting May 2017).  To learn more, please check out our NPDP workshops.  We know that time is really the fourth critical element in managing products, so we want to make it simple for you to study, learn, and earn your professional certifications.  For more information, please contact us at [email protected] or 281-280-8717.

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

© Simple-PDH.com

A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC

Work-Life Balance

Depending from which generation you hail, your definition of “work-life balance” probably is quite different than your co-workers of another age.  Baby boomers stereotypically report to the office daily and value work above many other pursuits.  Gen X-ers (myself included) put as much energy into our time off work as we put into work.  Finally, Millennials are struggling to find out where the line is that seems to blur work and social life.

Regardless of your age and approach to work-life balance, it is true that all of us spend more time than ever connected to technology.  You know, that annoying habit of pulling out your smartphone to check a fact in the middle of a conversation.  Or asking Siri to identify the artist playing the background music at the coffee shop while you meet with an old friend.  And, of course, constantly checking email to see if the project work was done correctly while you were out of the office.  We certainly do rely on technology!

Technology for Learning

A second aspect of work-life balance is that we often stay connected in our off-hours so that we can get ahead.  While it is probably fruitless to imagine digging out from under the gigantic heap of bits and bytes that make up our cluttered inboxes, we can use technology to better manage our work tasks.  The calendar function is a great way to parse the day and schedule important activities.  In addition to project team meetings, you can use your calendar to block time for in-depth, quiet, strategic thinking and for personal growth.  My calendar is blocked Thursday starting a 3 pm for a networking event which will cover both items (quiet time for thinking during the drive to and from the event location, and personal growth by meeting new people at the event).

We also can use technology for learning.  Block time on a regular basis for building skills that will advance your career.  The amount and frequency of learning events will be a function of your educations and knowledge-building goals, but the time commitment needs to be regular and long enough to complete a new activity in each session.  Five minutes normally won’t cut it!  For new product development professional (NPDP) training, we recommend one hour per day for six weeks, with one day off each week.  Committing to learning new skills for a professional credential will reap huge rewards for personal and career growth.

Learning for Work-Life Balance

Learning a new skill can help us better balance work goals and find joy in our personal lives.  Career-oriented objectives often are only met through demonstrated commitment to our chosen profession.  Without a doubt, professional certification is rapidly growing and demanded by employers to show that you are absolutely dedicated and knowledgeable in the field.  Many job openings today require certification, such as Project Management Professional (PMP), to even apply for open positions.

Unless you let your certification lag (and we hope you don’t!), professional certification is yours.  You are equipped with the demonstrated education, knowledge, and experience regardless of your current job.  Professional credentials are portable and show your commitment to learning in the industry.  Most valuable certification require continuing education and your professional development hours (PDH) expand your skills to include emerging topics of interest and new best practices.  Learning is truly a lifelong endeavor.

As you learn and master new skills, you will find that it enhanced the work-life balance.  Your passion for your chosen career cannot help but spill into your personal life as you grow.  Leadership and team management skills are not limited to on-the-job implementation.  You can use leadership skills as Boy Scout Troop Leader, to organize a community garage sale, or to head a medical mission in Africa.  We all need continued improvement in our team skills to better manage new product development projects, engineering teams, or even sensitive family decisions.  Learning for career growth does not stop at the office door.

Using Time Wisely

While many of us check our work email as often as we check Twitter or Facebook, it is important to unplug.  Studies (CEP, March 2017) shows that the best workers actually take their annual vacation time, get enough sleep every night, and exercise regularly.  I tend to combine these pieces of advice and go hiking on vacation which leads to very restful sleep.

But, of course, we are not always on vacation.  In fact, most of the time we’re not.  Most of the time, we are striving to get better at what we do.  So, using the calendar function discussed above, along with the benefits of continuous learning, schedule time to gain or maintain your professional credentials.

For those that are already New Product Development Professional (NPDP), PMP©, or Professional Engineering Manager (PEM) certificates, you will need to commit at least two hours per month to on-going learning.  Some of that will occur during network meetings designed to bring together like-minded professionals.  However, re-certification for many candidates requires 60 PDHs every three (3) years.  You can supplement network meetings with easy-to-use online learning.

The advantage of online learning is that you can block one hour in your schedule every month for quiet time.  You can use downtime at the office, during your commute, or time at home.  Because online learning is easy to access on any platform, you can choose when and where to learn.  If you are seeking a new credential to advance your career, you will probably balance your home life against attaining new skills.  If your current employer actively supports educational initiatives, you can block one hour per day for six weeks to gain the necessary knowledge to back-up your work experience.  Online learning gives you flexibility to manage your own time against your own work, family, and leisure commitments.

Check out any of our online courses at Simple-PDH.com.  We know that work-life balance is important so we want to make it simple for you to study, learn, and earn your professional certifications.  For more information, please contact us at [email protected] or 281-280-8717.

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

© Simple-PDH.com

A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC

Adapting to the Work World

A recent Harvard Business Review article by Thomas Davenport and Julia Kirby (June 2015, page 58) discusses five options people have to respond to encroaching automation.  The premise is that computers and automation have gone from taking over the dirty and undesirable jobs to making decisions and replacing knowledge workers.  As computers move into the realm of decision-making and complex problem-solving, the authors explain, people will find themselves out of work.

Consequently, they propose five steps to maintain career relevancy in an age of advanced automation.  These steps favor different skill sets and goals.  Each step, however, requires an educational pathway to learn new skills and demonstrate mastery.

Step Up

Some tasks can never be done by a computer.  Computers cannot, at least not yet, predict strategies that align with political, economic, social, and technological (PEST) trends.  Knowledge workers will always be needed to assess the data and trends compiled by computers, but automation cannot synthesize such data into a comprehensible strategy.

As an example, Project Management Professionals (PMP) must synthesize a great deal of information regarding the project status, budget, and schedule.  Certainly, computers provide the data but only a skilled project manager can make decision regarding various resources to address shortfalls in the schedule, for instance.  Project managers learn and demonstrate these skills when they earn the PMP credential, a certification based on education, the body of knowledge, and experience.

Step Aside

Davenport and Kirby’s second approach to beating automation is to “step aside.”  Computers, even Watson, remain un-human.  Automation cannot build relationships, integrate team members, or inspire workers to achieve more.  Stepping aside means allowing the computer to do its work while applying your skills as a knowledge worker to building emotional intelligence.

One example of stepping aside is the Professional Engineering Manager (PEM).  Engineering managers most definitely rely on the calculations and methodologies that can only be conducted by computers.  Yet, the overall vision and inspiration for research, development, and engineering work is a fully human endeavor.  PEMs demonstrate interpersonal and visionary skills to guide and shepherd developments needed to advance technology and its role within a progressive society.

Step In

“Stepping in” is another approach to managing one’s career in an age of automation.  Here, an expert codes, programs, and manages the very computers that are providing data and information for decision-making.  A choice to “step in” requires a higher skill set with application of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) competencies.

To program and codify new learnings and to be able to take advantage of new opportunities, an individual will need to gain appropriate education and maintain higher skills.  While specialty skills in programming might be required, more important analytical skills that allow a person to diagnose problems and needs will serve well for someone to “step in”.

Consider that computers routinely perform most of the calculations and output the necessary data for statistical process control.  Yet, the data itself has no impact on continuous quality improvement until someone acts on the data.  An error in programming may lead to declining performance rather than improved quality.  Quality professionals, who are certified in Six Sigma, for instance, can step in to ensure data collection, assessment, and outputs are accurate.

Step Narrowly

Throughout history, people have made a name for themselves by working in a niche market.  Automation will be profitable when it is applied to mass markets and bulk processes.  The cost of developing software to replace an expert wine steward, as an example, would be cost prohibitive.  Thus, stepping narrowly allows individuals to combat a job takeover by computer automation.

Another example of stepping narrowly is in the field of innovation.  New Product Development Professionals (NPDP) must exhibit “T-shaped” skills:  depth in one area but broad curiosities that serve customers in many ways.  NPDPs not only align corporate strategic objectives with distinctive project goals and they must apply schedule, budget, and quality tools to commercialize new products that meet market needs.  Unique certifications, like NPDP, demonstrate depth of knowledge and experience in a field like innovation while also exhibiting mastery of skills across relevant disciplines (engineering, marketing, and project management).

Step Forward

Finally, Davenport and Kirby note that nothing stands still, especially technology.  It is unlikely you will lose your job to a computer if you are working on the next generation of applications and analytical intelligence.  Therefore, stepping forward makes a deliberate approach to gaining and applying new skills that create next generation opportunities.

When an individual “steps forward,” s/he recognizes and applies emerging tools and techniques to existing situations.  By stretching the platform, new opportunities can be captured for growth.  An example of “stepping forward” is applying Scrum to traditional project management environments.  Conventional project management focuses on upfront planning while the iterative Scrum methodology continually delivers value through tight customer interfaces.  Applying the Scrum framework in new situations realizes new opportunities for growth and speed-to-market.

Adapting to Automation

Our work world is changing.  Automation is advancing to the point that computers can begin to make some decisions and solve problems that were previously reserved for the human brain.  We must adapt to a new working world and utilize computers to help our own careers.

Five steps have been proposed to adapt to automation and its encroaching battle for knowledge workers.  We can step up, step aside, or step in.  In other situations, we may need to step narrowly or step forward.  In any case, however, today’s workers must continually evolve and develop new skills to stay ahead of the competition (human or computer!).

Gaining a professional credential is one way to demonstrate and validate your education and work experience.  Learn more about gaining and maintaining professional certifications at Simple-PDH or contact me at 281-280-8717.  It’s simple to study, learn, and earn!

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

© Simple-PDH.com

A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC

 

The 19-Cent Banana

I was getting ready to go on a weeklong vacation.  My bags were packed, hotel and airline reservations ready, and I cleaned out the refrigerator.  No fresh fruit, veggies, or milk was left to spoil while I would be gone.  It was completely empty – no yogurt, no orange juice, and no eggs.

But, then I realized that with an early morning flight the next day, I just might want to have a little snack before driving to the airport.  At the supermarket,  I picked up one yogurt, one apple, and one – just one – banana.

At the checkout, the clerk scanned the yogurt and put it into a bag.  She typed the code for the apple, weighed it, and put it into the bag.  Then came the banana.  Again, the clerk typed in the appropriate code and weighted my fruit.  Uh-oh!  An alarm went off on the register.  The banana cost only 19 cents.  An override was required for any price less than 20 cents.  The purchase of a single banana resulted in a deviation of business processes and a manual override that slowed the normal flow of activities at the supermarket as well as my hurried shopping trip.

Business Processes

We establish business processes for many different reasons.  For example, quality standards often require the implementation of repeatable business processes to maintain acceptable levels of customer satisfaction.  Other business processes ensure operations and manufacturing are cost efficient, while some other business processes provide checklists so that critical (but infrequent) activities are not overlooked.  Thus, most business processes serve to aid productivity and efficiency of the organization.

On the other hand, some organizations use business processes as a crutch.  They substitute data analysis and decision-making with filling in forms.  These firms tend to suffer a lack of creativity in problem-solving and reduced levels of employee morale.  Staff are discouraged form acting upon information, even to the point of leaving customers with unwieldy functions or clunky products.

New Product Development Processes

In my experience, some companies enforce business policies that fail to add value yet are so afraid of risk that they are paralyzed and cannot improve performance.  I have encountered firms that use a staged and gated new product development (NPD) process in such a way that the system actually reduces innovation and creative problem-solving.  Most common are large corporations that are highly risk averse.  They introduce an artificial sense of security by abusing these business processes.  Decisions are deferred and information that is normally required for late stage development is forced into earlier, screening phases of work.  By pushing more accurate estimates into ideation stages, creativity is hindered and new, exciting innovations are traded for incremental developments.

Effective Business Processes

Effective business processes are utilized by teams to accomplish project work without unduly hindering the team’s activities.  Procedures that aid productivity serve as reminders and checklists to ensure critical activities are not omitted when necessary.  In product development, for instance, a staged and gated process will verify that customer test data has been collected and analyzed before a project moves to the next, more expensive, phase of work.  Likewise, intellectual property protection will be assessed prior to releasing the product for sale in the open market.

A hallmark of effective business processes is that they originate from best practices and the positive outcomes of successfully completed projects.  Note that the alternate approach places roadblocks out of a sense of fear or aversion to risk.  Business processes that add value are those that enable products to be developed quicker and enable teams to work tougher more productively.  Scrum and Agile methods, for example, integrate the voice of customer into an iterative development process that rapidly delivers workable solutions.

Back to the Banana

As I left the supermarket, I had to ask myself what value were they adding by setting a 20 cent floor price on any item?  Was the store trying to protect against fraud or theft?  And don’t people, every day, buy just enough food for one, quick meal, including a single banana?

My conclusion is that a 19 cent banana is not atypical nor an unusual purchase.  I don’t believe the supermarket added any internal value by requiring an override for a purchase of less than 20 cents.  Further, because my “one banana” purchase took longer than expected, the store detracted from their normally excellent customer service.

Effective business processes are designed to institute best practices, ensure project work is not overlooked or omitted, and to add customer value.  Continuous review through lessons learned should improve existing business processes and eliminate those that do not aid in work teams’ efficiency or productivity.  I encourage you to take a look at your business practices to search for – and eliminate – the “19 cent bananas”.

In the meantime, please join us for a workshop on NPD best practices.  Contact me at [email protected] with the subject “19 cent bananas” for a special discount code to save 20% on our next face-to-face NPD course.  At Simple-PDH, we want to make it simple to study, learn, and earn your professional certifications.

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

© Simple-PDH.com

A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC

What Makes a Great Team?

We do not operate in a vacuum.  None of us exists solely for ourselves or for our own benefit.  All of us co-exist I relationships at home, at work, and in our leisure time.  Ata work, especially, we find ourselves in complex relationships that cross demographic, organizational, and experience ranges.  We work in and on teams to accomplish product and project work, advancing technology to benefit customers and markets.

Yet, some working teams are more successful than others.  It may be the composition of the team members or it may be the challenge of the problem that the team is solving.  Moreover, successful teams are often directed and managed by servant leaders.

Let’s take a look at each of these elements in turn to better understand what makes a successful project or engineering team.

Team Composition

Just as we do not, and cannot, operate solo to accomplish objectives, a great team is not homogeneous.  Creativity thrives when teams are made up of individuals with a variety of backgrounds.  These team members introduce different perspectives to the team and can broaden the team’s overall viewpoint in order to come to a better outcome.

In his book, “Smarter, Faster, Better,” Charles Duhigg relays a story of a Yale MBA student named Julia.  Julia was excited to be a part of Yale’s elite study groups.  Yet, she never really bonded with the other team members and instead felt like they were at odds – competing against one another.  Alternatively, Julie found herself serving as a very productive team on another team working on a business case competition.

The difference in team structure, Duhigg explains, is what makes a successful team.  Julia’s study group was mainly homogenous.  Team members had similar educational and work backgrounds.  However, her case competition team had a wide diversity in age, experience, and career pathways.  The latter team accepted open dialogue and encouraged idea generation.  Thus, the team’s composition allowed them to be successful.

Challenging Problems

Teams are most successful when dealing with “stretch goals” that drive extended performance but are not intractable problems.  If the problem is too simple, there is no reason to convene a cross-functional troubleshooting team.  And if the problem is impossible, then there is little chance an ordinary team can find a unique and lasting solution.

Interestingly, most of us recognize the depth and challenge of a problem right away.  You see the signs of a “too simple” problems as the team members check out and engage with their electronic devises instead of the project.  There is little conversation and one person gets saddled with creating the entire solution.

In the case of an intractable problem, tempers may flare as individuals imprint their personal ideology and philosophy on a solution that would not completely resolve the problem.  Perhaps, sub-dividing a “too large” problem can help direct teams to better solutions.

Effective teams are challenged by problems for which they share basic knowledge and in which they each bring a piece of the puzzle to solve.  As with team composition, the challenge for a team must be cross-functional requiring give and take among team members.  Also, team members must be free to collaborate in order to create a solution larger than themselves.

For example, introducing a different-sized package of cookies may be a problem that is too small for a typical new product development (NPD) team.  Creating a perfect snack that is fat-free and sugar-free but as tasty and pleasing as a chocolate chip cookie may be a problem that is too large for the same team.  Yet, introducing a flavor variant (strawberry newtons in addition to fig newtons) may be just the right-sized challenge for a team.

Successful teams need to be able to measure their own progress as well as recognize that they are each individually valued.  This starts with the right composition of team members with diverse skills and experiences.  Then, challenging the team with an appropriately difficult problem to solve allows the team to prosper.

Servant Leadership

We have all been there.  We were called to be a part of a team but the leader makes all the decisions and simply hands out work assignments without discussion.  The work gets done (grudgingly) and is delivered at a minimum level of quality.  No one wants to work with “that person” again.

The best leaders are servant leaders.  They ask what they can do to help the team.  They work to remove roadblocks and obstacles.  They get their hands dirty and they pitch in to help achieve the team goals.  Servant leaders respect each team member for his or her diverse skills, background, and experiences.  Effective leaders help team members select work that is within their expertise but will also challenge them to grow both professionally and personally.  Servant leaders think first and foremost of the customer, the team members, and the problem before promoting their own agenda.  Productive leaders are selfless, practice humor, and delegate work to build everyone’s strengths.

Leadership characteristics of a servant leader may be inherent within some individual’s personalities.  Yet, leadership can be taught and people’s basic skills can grow to make them more effective leaders.  Famously, focusing on one’s emotional intelligence (EQ) is one way in which to strengthen a servant leader’s capabilities and empathetic responses.

Great Teams

Great teams do no deliver great results by happenchance.  Instead, superb teams are carefully designed and structured to encompass diverse experiences and backgrounds.  This variety of experiences leads to greater creativity and ability to address challenging problems.

Moreover, teams should be challenged with appropriate problems to solve.  Problems that are “too small” discount the skills and abilities of team members.  Problems that are “too big” are overwhelming and can paralyze a team from making even small steps toward a solution.  Cross-functional teams should be convened to address business challenges that require diversity of thought and experience, and will appropriately drive focus and collaboration among team members.

Finally, teams will be most productive when led by a selfless, self-deprecating leader.  Servant leaders help the team accomplish its goals by removing obstacles and by reinforcing individual strengths.  Leadership skills can be taught and will enhance an individual’s basic skills and abilities to execute projects.

One way to grow your teams and leaders is through professional certification.  If you have questions about existing or upcoming certification or PDH courses with emphasis on project, product, or engineering management, please contact us at [email protected] or by phone at 281-280-8717.

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

© Simple-PDH.com

A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC

Marketing and Quality

Welcome (Back) to Simple-PDH

Welcome back to Simple-PDH.  We are celebrating our one year anniversary and a recent upgrade to our web page.  It’s behind the scenes stuff, but you can now access course materials faster than ever.  Our mission is simple – we want to help you gain and maintain your professional credentials in product development, project management, quality and marketing.  Feel free to share your feedback at any time by contacting us by email.

Marketing and Quality

What do marketing and quality have in common?  Among many things – the customer!  Marketing focuses on identifying the customer needs while quality focuses on meeting those needs to the full and complete satisfaction of the customer.

Marketing View of Customers

Marketing often takes a very data-driven view of the customer.  Marketing research will include studies of customer behaviors and attitudes.  Often this information is used to improve product placement but it is also utilized to generate new ideas for product development.  In fact, new products and services cannot be successful without customer feedback.

Customer feedback comes to the marketing professional in a number of ways.  First, financial data provides insight into perceived value of products and services.  For example, market share informs a firm of the percent of sales it makes relative to its competitors.  New products strive to impact a market share metric to validate that features in the product design meet customer needs.

Other marketing research methods are used to understand customers’ evolving needs as well as trends in social, economic, and political environments.  Tendencies in fashion or technology drive product and service development so that customers will continue to seek out and purchase desired products.  Trend analysis often leads to new product designs and helps project teams understand important attributes for the new product.

Customers and Quality

Customers also serve as the number one focal points in any sustainable quality program.  Companies are generally in business to make money and those revenues are achieved via sales to customers.  Consumers will not accept a low quality product as a solution.  Thus, quality improvements must first identify drivers of customer satisfaction.

Interestingly, many quality tools mirror or overlap those in marketing research.  For example, focus groups and nsurveys are both used to gauge customer satisfaction.  Results of these studies influence marketing campaigns and improved production.  Focus groups utilize collaborative discussions among a group of potential or existing customers.  The in-depth conversation may reveal new customer needs (marketing) as well as reliability concerns (quality).

Moreover, sustainable quality program, such as total quality management (TQM) and Six Sigma, recognize the value of the internal customer.  An internal customer is another party within your firm that receives your work product.  A poorly prepared packing slip is transferred to the accounting department (internal customer) who prepares the invoice.  A wrong invoice eventually triggers a complaint from the ultimate customer (external).  Thus, quality involves a full focus on customers throughout design, production, supply chain, marketing, and sales.

Marketing and Quality for the Customer

Companies need to always focus on the customer first and foremost.  Firms that fail to do so will lose business and flounder against the competition.  Satisfied customers will return to make additional purchases and will share stories of a positive experience with their friends, families, and social networks.  Online social sharing is especially valuable today as many new customers check product and service reviews prior to making a purchase.

Marketing and quality management share many tools and methods to gather data, such as financial analysis and customer interactions in focus groups.  When these functions collectively support identifying customer needs and delivering solutions that satisfy the customer, a business can beat the competition soundly.  Yet, it is an ongoing battle as customer needs continue to evolve over time and as technology and fashion trends drive new needs.

Finally, marketing and quality share one more trait.  We are happy to announce that we will be offering new courses in both marketing research and quality management in 2017.  These workshops are designed for you to learn how to implement a customer-centric view into all of your organization’s activation from development to production to marketing and quality improvement.  We also dedicate several modules of our New Product Development Professional (NPDP) courses to marketing and quality.

If you have questions about existing or upcoming certification or PDH courses, please contact us at [email protected] or by phone at 281-280-8717.

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

© Simple-PDH.com

A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC