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The Culture of NPD Processes

We all know that culture influences business outcomes more than any other variable.  Great strategies must be translated into effective business plans and implemented at the operational level.  Yet, if there is a breakdown in communication as a result of cultural conflict, a great business strategy can fail mightily.

Having an open, accepting cultures paramount for success in innovation.  The ability to “fail” allows new product development (NPD) teams to take risks.  Without risks, there is no opportunity for innovative growth.  And, of course, growth drives learning.

If you’ve read this far, you’re probably thinking, “Yes, culture impacts innovation success, but what do I do about it?”  The answer is that every organization must adapt their NPD process to their culture.  When there is a logical match between organizational culture and the NPD process, strategic goals for innovation are readily achieved.

Different Organizational Cultures

Culture is an unwritten set of rules that dictate how a group of individuals interact.  At a societal level, Asian cultures are known for group consensus while American and European cultures are better known for independent actions.  There is no right or wrong culture; however, people’s behaviors will reflect the dominant culture.

The Prairie Dog Culture

Prairie dogs share a lot of their living space with other prairie dogs.  They mostly live underground within a complex network of tunnels.  Yet, a sentinel is posted who alerts the group to a threat at which point, the entire community responds as one – diving into the tunnels for safety.

The Lion Pride Culture

Lions, on the other hand, are fairly solitary animals in the wild.  Lion prides have a hierarchy that leads to the paternal head.  As in the movie, The Lion King, the head lion might make poor decisions, but the rest of the pride follows.  Similarly with a good decision, the pride follows along obediently.

Everything In-Between Culture

Of course, between the extremes of a prairie dog clan and a hierarchical lion pride are the vast majority of organizational cultures.  Some companies lean more heavily to one side than the other.  Yet, every organization has a distinctive culture that encourages (or discourages) innovation.

Culture and the NPD Process

One of the biggest challenges of Agile implementation for tangible product development, and in large corporations, is cultural change.  The Agile philosophy pushes decisions to the lowest levels in an organization.  However, many senior executives are threatened by their perceived lack of involvement in these day-to-day decisions.  They wonder how they can take responsibility for profit and loss, if they don’t control each and every decision.

Of course, this lack of trust results in a hierarchical decision framework.  From an innovation standpoint, these organizations find it impossible to adopt Agile processes.  Instead, fear of failure results in a review- and approval-heavy staged-and-gated processes.  It’s not unusual to see “half-gates” in these organizations, as senior leaders micromanage the decision points.

In my experience, hybrid NPD processes like WAGILE and Lean NPD, are excellent transitions for hierarchical organizations investigating improvements in speed-to-market.  WAGILE (read more here) is a great NPD process when the product managers have close communication and interaction with end-users and customers.  Lean NPD is a better approach for organizations that innovate in B2B or wholesale markets, relying on market research external to the core development team.

Culture is the Crown of Innovation

Culture not only drives strategy, but culture dictates the innovation process.  Risk-averse organizations are challenged to transition to Agile, regardless of their desire to do so.  Instead, adopting a hybrid waterfall-Agile NPD process allows the organization to design and deliver new products quicker, cheaper, and better while building on internal strengths.

Want to learn more?  Join the PMI CBC chapter on 17 May for a brief discussion of Project Management in New Product Development.  Register here for this free event.  Also join our monthly Product Development Lunch and Learn webinar on 13 June at 12 pm Central Time to learn more about Project Management for NPD Processes.  Register here. 

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Project Management Skills

In the past few weeks, we have been exploring the similarities and differences in roles between project managers and product managers.

To wrap up this series, we describe specific skills to master for each role.  In this post, we will discuss project management skills and next week, will take a look at those necessary for success as a product manager.

Strategic Project Management Skills

Project managers must view the outcomes of their work from a strategic perspective what is the goal of the project?  How does this particular project advance objectives of the firm?  Why is it project important now?

Businesses undertake projects for just three basic reasons.

  1. Improve revenue (growth)
  2. Reduce costs (savings)
  3. Stay in business (competition, regulatory)

Project managers with a strategic viewpoint will reinforce growth, cost reduction, or regulatory compliance in their work.  It is important to understand why you’re doing a project before developing detailed plans.

Tactical Project Management Skills

All business strategies are converted into tactical plans and operational activities.  Tactics describe how an activity, or task will be done, how it will be completed, and when the product or feature will be released.

Project managers are experts at tactical skills, such as creating and managing project schedules, monitoring actual cost versus budgets, and mitigating project risks.  In fact, much of the role of a project manager in new product development is to monitor and manage risk.  This is the purpose of any staged-and-gated process or the WAGILE approach to develop new products with speed and agility.

Projects often require significant capital investment and resource commitments.  Senior executives do not make these decisions lightly.  So, a large part of the project manager’s job is to reassure senior executives at their decisions were appropriate.  (Of course, it is also important to inform them if the project is completely off the rails and was a poor decision.)

For example, if a product roadmap indicates a next generation product release by year-end, the project manager will develop a schedule with appropriate resourcing with the following tasks.

  • Proof of concept (2 months)
  • Customer feedback (1 month)
  • Generate product specs (1 month)
  • Design and produce prototype (2 months)
  • Customer feedback (1 month)
  • Finalize product specs (1 month)
  • Initiate manufacturing (1 month)
  • Quality check and ramp up production (1 month)

Operational Project Management Skills

As indicated earlier in this series, project managers are often responsible for much of the day-to-day execution of a project.  This means that project managers need strong technical skills to help team members in trouble-shooting and mitigating risks that can impact schedules or budgets.  Project managers are also responsible for reporting project status from project initiation to close-out.

Thus, project managers need to master communication, negotiation, and leadership.  While all successful new product development team members should be good at communication, negotiation, and leadership, project managers utilize these skills up and down organizational strata as well as peer-to-peer.  For instance, knowing what level of detail to communicate to whom can drive a successful dialogue and help project managers enable decisions.

Project Management Skills

Successful project managers demonstrate mastery in many skills.  Join us on 11 April at noon CDT (1 pm EDT) for an open discussion session of project vs. product management.  Learn more here and REGISTER HERE.

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Product Manager and Project Manager Roles

Societies mature and in a competitive free market, job specialization results from those advances.  Long ago, a family raised its own food and used the by-products for other uses (e.g., cattle delivered beef to eat, leather for shoes, and fat to make soap and candles).  Today we have farmers and ranchers raising meat and produce that we purchase at the supermarket, and we buy our shoes at different stores depending on special needs (e.g., running shoes at a sporting goods store and dress shoes at department stores).

Specialization also trickles into our job functions.  Previously, project managers juggled strategic and tactical objectives, balancing business needs with the day-to-day implementation of project tasks.  Moreover, the project manager was also typically responsible for people and talent management, including development and learning plans for project team members. 

Project managers, like the family of bygone days, also managed multiple tasks – negotiations for contracts (with help from purchasing and legal), quality planning, and risk management.  In this way, project managers “owned” the project and understood benefits as well as costs.  A highly skilled and experienced project manager zooms in and out from a macro-viewpoint to detailed tasks and activity implementations as needed throughout any given workday.

Recent Introduction of Product Management

In the last several years, a new role has surfaced in many businesses.  That is the role of a product manager.  Conceptually, a product manager handles a project’s strategic linkages between the business or customer needs and the technical development and design teams.  Ideally, the project manager then can focus solely on execution of day-to-day tasks.

With continued job specialization, product management is sometimes further classified by in-bound and out-bound product marketing.  To gather customer and business needs, product managers must analyze consumer behaviors, market trends, competitors, and so on.  But product managers also work as brand or category managers, helping to determine product features and release roadmaps.  The former represents in-bound marketing and the latter out-bound product management.  In both cases, product managers remain attuned to customer needs above all else.

The Need for Product Management

How do you know if your organization needs a product manager?  One organization with which I have worked recently had conducted R&D activities, product development, and customer interactions through individuals called “project managers”.  As their business has evolved, they were purchasing and re-branding many different product solutions from outside vendors.  The role of project manager changed to product manager.

In this situation, individuals originally spent the bulk of their day-to-day activity monitoring budgets and tasks to convert a new idea into a saleable product.  They Interacted closely with their manufacturing facility to ensure quality and proper inventory levels.  They established schedules and supervised technicians and specialists who gathered experimental data to continually improve product designs.  Small teams often visited the factory (located in the same building as the project team) in order to ensure product development progressed at the right pace.

As the company transitioned to more off-the-shelf and out-of-the-box product solutions, the role of the project manager was not as crucial as that of a product manager.  No longer were the factory development trials critical path items.  Instead, they assessed quality by gathering samples from the outside vendors.  Because the firm’s product cycle follows the school year, timetables and schedules for off-the-shelf products are set without negotiation.  Coordination activities adjusted from day-to-day to year-long sales cycles.

Product managers learned forecasting and sales techniques to balance the technical expertise they had previously established as project managers.  In this way, the product managers truly served both the business and their customer.

What is Your Role?

Learning to distinguish between the roles of project management and product management is important for today’s complex business challenges.  Learn more at our free webinar on Project vs. Product Management 11 April at 1 pm EDT/12 pm CDT.  Register here for our monthly product development lunch and learn.

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Is Agile a Digital Version of Waterfall?

I first encountered the terms “analog” and “digital” in high school physics.  While I probably remember more about the pranks my classmates played on our teacher, the terms analog and digital repeatedly popped up in my engineering education.  For those of you who had a high school physics teacher NOT named Mr. Founds, we’ll touch on the definitions of these two words and investigate how they relate to product and project management.

Analog vs. Digital

Analog – in layman’s language – means you can select whatever value you want.  Think of an old-fashioned radio tuning dial that turns back-and-forth.  As you seek a particular frequency, you first hear static, then a mix of static with the music, then the music comes in strongly.  If you turn the dial too far, you’re back in the static zone.

In Houston, I enjoy listening to 89.3FM.  With a digital device, there are exact increments, and your radio “dial” will lock onto specific stations.  So, in my car, I tune from 89.1 (static) to 89.3 (music) to 89.5 (static).  The “digital” increment on my car radio is 0.2 on the FM frequency.

Waterfall Project Management

Waterfall project management has fallen out of favor in recent years.  I believe there is a place for waterfall project management, especially in the space of tangible product development.  In general, waterfall suggests upfront planning and a detailed list of features and requirements for the new product.  Usually, detailed schedules are created during early project planning phases, with assigned tasks and resources.

Agile Project Management

While extensive upfront planning can work for projects with low levels of technical uncertainty and low levels of requirements uncertainty, waterfall fails to be flexible and adaptable to changing customer needs throughout the project lifecycle.  When the schedule is disrupted, the plan must be re-created and tasks dependent on other tasks fall behind schedule.

Agile project management promises flexibility by planning just the minimum work necessary to build a minimum set of features (often called an MVP, minimum viable product).  Teams and tasks are designed to be isolated from interruptions (dependencies).  Autonomy and empowerment are key to success in Agile implementations.

Agile is Digital Waterfall

The drawback, I believe, of many Agile implementations is a heavy emphasis on the ceremonies and artifacts of the process.  Instead of using these elements as tools to assist development work, some Agile teams use the ceremonies and artifacts in the same way waterfall teams use upfront planning tools (e.g., Gantt charts and critical path analysis).  The sprint increment in Agile becomes a set of planning meetings that could have been handled with a larger, upfront activity in waterfall.  In essence, sprints tune the radio at specific frequency increments while waterfall can spin the dial to get close to the final result.

WAGILE Product Development Meets in the Middle

Some of the equipment I used in engineering school had a combination of analog and digital tuning.  You used the digital selection to get to the right range of data (e.g., the left end of the radio dial) while you used analog tuning to get to the specific reading (e.g., 89.3 FM).  Other pieces of equipment were the opposite – using analog selection to get within range and digital selection for a specific, known incremental value.  Regardless of the device, the benefits of combining analog and digital were obvious and well above analog-alone or digital-alone.

WAGILE product development is much the same.  We use a hybrid project management model, picking the best aspects of waterfall and of Agile.  (Thus, the name – WAGILE.)  Overlaying incremental feature development with frequent customer interactions onto a disciplined, risk-balanced staged-and-gated process can lead to faster development times and increased customer satisfaction.

Learn more in the upcoming WAGILE Product Development workshop (15 & 17 February).

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Project Management Skills

Recently I moderated a panel discussion for my local PMI® (Project Management Institute) chapter.  I wanted the questions to be engaging for both the speakers and the audience.  Of course, we started with the prerequisite “Who are you?” and “How did you get here?” questions.  The other questions, I hoped, inspired learning – especially for new project and portfolio managers.

In no particular order, here are the questions the project management panel in Coastal Bend Texas addressed.

Lessons From Failed Projects

Projects fail.  For many different reasons, projects fail.  Product innovation professionals know more about failure than other project managers because there are a lot of uncertainties in new product development (NPD).  The best view, I think, is to treat failure as a learning opportunity.

Projects fail – normally – in several arenas.  Poor planning results in too few resources committed to the project.  Not enough money can result in poor quality outputs.  Not assigning the right people to do the work can result in delays.  Not understanding the final product of the project yields a mismatch between technologies and markets.

Effective project planning requires addressing the triple constraint upfront, regardless of your preferred project management system.  The scope of the project must be achievable, while the budget and timeline (schedule) must align with the stated goals and objectives of the project.  For NPD projects, the scope must also align with the innovation strategy.  (Read more about strategy here.)

Living Life Backwards

Another question for the project management panelists was to think about what they would change in their younger selves if they lived life backwards.  This is a bit of a rift on my presentation to the University of Washington graduate students earlier this year (read more here).  We gain wisdom with years and (hopefully) would advise our younger selves against stupid mistakes.

One area of importance to project managers and portfolio managers is communication.  Wisdom brings clarity to our communications.  Project managers must communicate to several different groups of stakeholders with different needs.  Team members need to know what to do and when.  Some inexperienced team members might need to learn “how” to do certain tasks.   The project management leader serves as a mentor for the team.

Other stakeholders are interested in the overall progress of the project, the money spent, and expected completion.  In product innovation, our customers are involved in testing a product features and marketing collateral.  Yet other stakeholders are internal customers, needing manufacturing specifications and quality standards.  Communicating with each group necessitates a different level of detail.

In addition, communications may be synchronous or asynchronous, meaning some information must be discussed and debated face-to-face while other data can be provided without a lot of explanation.  High performing project managers and portfolio managers utilize the type (synchronous or asynchronous) and format of communications to match the needs of their stakeholders.  This is learned only through wisdom that we gain by experience.

Certification

Finally, another question for the panelists was how their various firms view certification.  Since they were speaking at a PMI meeting, support for the PMP® (Project Management Professional) certification was high.  However, product innovation professionals also benefit from New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification, which is more encompassing of innovation than PMP.  Learn more here.

My personal belief is that certifications have become almost as important as university degrees.  However, there are a lot of different certifications from which to choose.  What’s important in certification is to have an educational component to validate knowledge and understanding of the field.  Another important component is testing and continuing education.  All industrial fields are continuously changing with emerging best practices.  Having a continuous education component ensures that industry practices overlay academic theories.

Summary

Many project management skills are strategic and relational.  Of course, it’s important to know how to create a balanced and integrated schedule and budget.  But it’s also important to value learning and communication, especially for portfolio managers.  Oftentimes we miss opportunities to learn from failure yet project managers, especially those working on innovation projects, must be willing to learn to grow.

Wishing you all the best in the new year.  Please contact me at info at globalnpsolutions.com if you want to learn more about managing new product development projects.  We are also offering our limited, once per year course on portfolio management – 100 days to Effective Product Portfolio Management.  Learn more here.

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Being Busy

“Busy.”  That has become the American answer to “How are you doing?”  I recently saw a videoblog where they described the two categories of people who are busy.  Low to medium self-esteem people say they’re busy because they want praise from others.   They are doing work for other people and seek reassurance.  Mid to high self-esteem people, he said, are busy because we want to show our work to others by accomplishing much.

But are we really all that busy?

In another post I have written about waiting.  (Read about Waiting and Creativity here).  Many of us consume all our free minutes looking at our cell phones.  Some play games, some read Facebook, others check stock prices, and still others do email.  Yet is that really busy?  Can we use that free time for something else?

Time-boxing in Scrum

One of my favorite tools for managing time, schedules, and busy-ness is time-boxing.  This method is borrowed from Scrum Project Management.  In Scrum, activities are routine and repeated within pre-specified blocks of time.  (Read about Scrum for Product Management in a blog here or in Chapter 3 of The Innovation ANSWER Book, 2nd edition.)  The iterative nature of sprints (time-boxes for doing work in Scrum) help to accomplish more with less “busy-ness”.

For example, in a 2-week iteration in Scrum, the team will meet for 4-hours at the start of the “sprint “ to plan and prioritize work tasks.  Each workday starts with a 15-minute “stand-up meeting”.  At the conclusion of the sprint there are 4-hour meetings to review the work and outputs of the sprint, and to conduct a lessons learned review (called a “retrospective”).

Time blocks in Scrum are sacred.  Work should not take longer than scheduled, or else the planning was poor.  With each iteration following the same pattern, a clear flow of work is established.  The work habit becomes ingrained in team members so that productivity improvements naturally occur over repeated sprints.

Of course, sprints are not perfect.  Surprises in technical development and product design occur so that tasks are not completed in the allotted time frame.  These roll over to the next iteration as “backlog” but the number of new tasks for that next sprint are reduced to keep the work manageable.

Scrum teams are busy but they are doing business not just busy-ness.

Time-Boxing for Innovation Leaders

Innovation leaders and product managers can use the idea of time-boxing to improve productivity as well.  The idea of following habits to establish flow is recommended in many, many self-help books.  Habits reduce our decisions and preserve our high-level brainpower for more important tasks.

A good habit is to keep the things you need for each day in the same place.  I have a “purse” table where I store my purse, car keys, and gym bag.  I don’t have to waste precious time in the morning searching for a required item.  Another habit I follow is to select my clothes for the next day each evening.  I put my clothes in the bathroom next to the shower, so I don’t have to make a decision early in the morning.

Time-boxing is a habit for your schedule and can free up “busy” time.  For instance, checking email is a low brainpower activity.  If your inbox looks like mine, there’s only 5 to 10% of email that matters.  There are interesting and educational newsletters to read (like this one!), but there is also a lot of junk.  I time-box email for mid-morning so that I can save my early morning focus for critical work.

You can also use time-boxing for managing innovation projects.  Using a tool like planning poker helps the team to estimate task durations.  Retrospectives, post-launch reviews, or lessons learned conducted at the end of each iteration provide immediate feedback on what to improve for the next phase of work.

Note that if you are using a traditional staged-and-gated process for managing innovation projects, you should still conduct routine lessons learned reviews.  Schedule an extra hour for each gate review and answer these simple questions.  (Read more in Chapter 3 of The Innovation ANSWER Book, 2nd edition.)

  • What was done right?
  • What was done poorly?
  • What can be improved?

While some of your team members may change as you scale-up design and development work for new product development (NPD), the people that stay with the project team will incorporate these learnings as habits and best practices.

Are You Busy?

Being busy really means consuming time – a very precious resource.  I prefer to think of being busy as being productive.  Whether we are low-esteem or high-esteem people, our goals in busy-ness are to create positive change.  Innovation leaders are in a unique position to create change through products, services, and applications.

Do you want to reduce the busy-ness of your product development teams?  Make sure they are working on the right things!  Learn how by joining me for the special PPM in 100 Days workshop starting 7 February 2022.  This intensive, customized, and real-world workshop is only offered once a year.  Feel free to contact me at info at Simple-PDH.com for more information.

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Project Controls in Innovation

Controlling is often a misunderstood management function.  In everyday use, we use the term “controlling” to mean manipulating or limiting other’s behavior.  Yet in engineering management, project management, and new product development (NPD), controlling is an important process that helps the team leader assess the performance of a project and of his or her team. 

Definition of Controlling

Let’s define controlling as follows, consistent with the American Society of Engineering Management (ASEM). 

“A management function of measuring performance and comparing the results with established standards to ensure that the work conforms to requirements and brings a desired outcome.” 

Defined in this way, controlling is a critical function that assures work meets expectations.  If at any time, the project outcomes are not meeting expectations, we make adjustments to bring the product or project work into alignment with the plan. 

Steps in Controlling

There are typically four steps that product and project managers follow in controlling. 

  1. Set a baseline,
  2. Measure performance,
  3. Compare the baseline against performance measures, and
  4. Take corrective action as necessary. 

Set a Baseline

In project management and NPD, setting baselines for performance should be easy.  In reality, however, setting baselines requires substantial planning effort on behalf of the project leader.  The baseline must reflect the best outcome of project planning.  Principles of project management dictate that during the initiation phase, the project leader and team members identify requirements from all project stakeholders.  Gathering and documenting project requirements ensures that stakeholder expectations can be met. 

In innovation projects, customer needs are documented in the PIC (product innovation charter).  During all stages of the structured NPD process, the innovation project team will test customer needs to ensure alignment with the product design.  One way in which to map customer needs to engineering design specs is to use the QFD tool (quality function deployment).  Read more about process design here. 

Measure Performance

In Step 2 of controlling, we measure the performance of engineering and project teams.  Here, both individual and team member performance are assessed as well as the project requirements.  For example, if a new product development project had a customer requirement to increase battery life by 50%, the engineering team would measure all new battery designs against the performance standard.  A new battery with just 20% increase in lifetime would be inadequate, while a battery with a life that is 48% longer is considered a successful technology.  The project is approved when it meets the technical hurdles and would move along in the NPD process. 

image from creative commons with free to share and use

Compare Baseline Against Performance

In Step 3 of controlling, the project leader and project team members assess the project performance by comparing current design elements against the baseline set forth in the project plan.  It is important to ensure that the baseline and product performance requirements are measurable so that this comparison is meaningful.  Objectives are stated in measurable terms and metrics are gathered without difficulty or subject to opinion or interpretation. 

Again, for instance, battery life extension of 50% is measurable.  The initial battery in the current product demonstrates an average of 3-hour life before requiring a recharge.  Sample batteries in lab tests demonstrate 4-hour, 4.2-hours and 4.4-hours.  These data points are easy to compare to the initial product performance level.  The product development and innovation teams strive for measurable goals and objectives to improve customer satisfaction. 

Take Corrective Action

At the heart of the controlling process is the idea that correcting errors early leads to higher quality products and that the development effort will be less expensive overall.  Thus, the final step in the controlling function is to take action based on analysis of the data from Step 3.  In the case where performance matches expectations and baseline plans, no action is required. 

Frequently, controlling will reveal that a project is over-budget and/or behind schedule.  In these situations, the project manager and sponsor must work with the customer to modify the plan.  Some tools are available to help accomplish the work within the required time frame, but these schedule adaptations normally require additional costs (e.g. crashing and compression).  Further, missing the timeline for a new product launch can impact the overall profitability of an innovative new product. 

Controlling Function

In engineering management, project management and new product development, controlling is an important management function.  The four steps in controlling are: (1) set a baseline, (2) measure performance, (3) compare the baseline against performance, and (4) take corrective action as appropriate.  To learn more about the controlling function and other ways to improve new product project execution, you must earn your New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification.  Check out our training and speaking schedule for innovation and project management here. 

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The Wagile Philosophy

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
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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 [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  

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Identifying Your New Innovation Workflow

In a recent blog, we discussed how to Use SWOT to Reset Your Business and Innovation Strategy.  As has been said, execution overrules strategy any day.  Strategy is important because you have to know where you’re going and to explain why you’re headed there.  But how you get there and when you get there is even more important. 

I often think of strategy as a destination.  An analogy is found in planning a vacation.  The destination (for me) is often a National Park (where I’m going) so I can go hiking (why I’m going).  The SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) yields insights to help in the decision-making process of laying out a business destination and innovation goals that will increase revenue and lead to customer satisfaction. 

Yellowstone National Park, 2018

How I get to a National Park and the timing of vacation are related to workflows.  I could fly to a nearby city and rent a car or drive to the park directly from home.  Driving usually takes longer but allows me to easily carry bicycles and camping gear.  In the end, flying or driving achieves the same goal – hiking in a beautiful place – but the execution of the plan is quite different for each case. 

What is a Workflow?

We often don’t think a lot about workflows.  Somehow work just gets done.  If tasks or activities are behind schedule, someone calls a meeting to figure out why.  But it is more efficient to establish processes upfront and follow a standardized path – a workflow – to achieve repeatable success.  A workflow is thus a system or process. 

Even for tasks and activities as unpredictable as developing a new product or service, we need a process that informs the project team how to convert an idea into a saleable product or service.  The workflow illustrates a series of steps with assigned roles and responsibilities.  The system also includes decision-making criteria to indicate whether a particular initiative should continue to advance.  These decisions are particularly important for product innovation as trends in customer needs, markets, and technology can change during the development life cycle. 

Workflow is NOT a Schedule

As good project managers, we always prepare project schedules.  These include key milestones and deliverables.  Innovation systems often use gate reviews to establish the continued attractiveness of a product idea through design and development.  Product portfolio management reviews determine strategic alignment and value-add for innovation projects.  The workflow captures these hand-offs and decision points as well as responsible team members to accomplish the work. 

A schedule is different than a workflow in that it shows (often as a Gantt chart) which tasks must be done and in what order.  A schedule shows overlaps in activities and highlights the critical path that determines the earliest possible completion date for a project.  Project managers are held accountable for delayed schedules.  In my vacation analogy, the airline has a specific schedule and if I miss the flight, my entire vacation is delayed. 

Designing an Innovation Workflow

First, remembering that a workflow is not a schedule, list all the tasks that must be done to transform an idea into a product innovation.  The list should include direct tasks (such as prototype testing) as well as indirect activities (such as applying for a patent).  Next, as shown in the figure, order and prioritize these tasks to optimize the project goal.  Remember that activities like concept testing can be conducted in parallel with technical development and production testing. 

Innovation Workflow, copyright Global NP Solutions

As you begin to order the required tasks and activities, you will find that some are dependent on others.  This is not unlike putting together a project schedule but as you create a workflow, you can identify methods to optimize your resources when you recognize a dependency.  In scheduling, we must increase the time if Task A must be fully completed before Task B starts.  Yet in a workflow, or systems analysis, we can collate certain dependent activities or decisions for a management council or portfolio review. 

The workflow considers roles and responsibilities, skills and competencies, and training needs of functional staff to complete activities.  An effective workflow identifies cross-functional relationships as well as cross-training for various roles so that the project work progresses continually.  Then, when hold times or transfers and hand-offs are unacceptable, resource allocation is optimized to eliminate overload (Step 5). 

As with all innovation projects, the innovation system itself should be tested.  Prototype the workflow on a “typical” new product development (NPD) project to identify bugs, holdups, or bottlenecks in the workflow.  Then, as you implement the workflow across all projects and functions, relentlessly streamline the process.  Continuous improvement and being aware of bureaucratic sand traps is key to successfully maintaining optimized workflows. 

Innovation Workflows

Learn more about the innovation workflow matrix here.  You will see many of the common project and innovation management systems categorized by serial or integrated teams on the x-axis and via waterfall or Agile philosophy on the y-axis.  Learn more about product innovation in New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification self-study course.  Then, join me on 18 June 2020 at noon CDT (1 pm EDT, 10 am PDT) for a free Q&A webinar on the Life Design Master Mind group where you will apply the Design Thinking workflow to current challenges for knowledge workers maintaining full employment.  Register here and we’ll see you soon!

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A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

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5 Most Effective Skills Innovators Need

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

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

#1-Know the Fundamentals

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

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

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

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

#2 – Identify and Manage Barriers to Innovation

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

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

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

#3 – Plan, Execute, and Be Flexible

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

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

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

#4 – Collaborate with Everybody

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

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

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

#5 – Evaluate and Measure Success

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

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

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

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

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

Necessary Skills for Innovators

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

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

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

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

Learn More

There are two ways to learn more about leadership skills for innovation.  First, New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification addresses best practices in innovation from devising a business strategy to idea generation and to market research for product concept testing.  Second, CIOs, NPD leaders, and R&D managers who are committed to taking their innovation program to the next level must participate in the Innovation Master Mind (IMM).  IMM is a 6-month peer coaching group that allows you to extend your NPD knowledge beyond NPDP certification and to collaborate with other CIOs and innovation managers.  You will realize improved efficiency and growth from our Life Design Master Mind (LDMM), IMM, or through NPDP certification which entails a deep dive into strategy and NPD processes, including design thinking.  Feel free to contact me at [email protected] 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.

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