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Innovation Project Planning

Project planning is a best practice.  We all plan big projects at work that involve construction or R&D effort.  We create project plans when there is a requirement for integration of many functions and the coordination of multiple tasks.

Types of Project Plans

Traditionally, project plans are created based on the scope of work.  We estimate the tasks necessary to complete the project and calculate the duration of each activity.  Next, we assign resources by function and name to each task.  The output is a pre-determined project plan with a critical path of tasks and expected resources that show how quickly the project can be executed.

In an Agile framework, project planning uses progressive elaboration.  As in traditional project planning, we determine a list of requirements upfront.  However, in Scrum (the most common Agile implementation for innovation and tangible new product development, NPD) we determine product features necessary to satisfy the end-user’s application.  A rank-ordered list of features prioritizes project execution based upon developing the most important features first.

Scrum estimates are usually relative and compared to tasks with known duration and cost.  For example T-shirt sizing (small, medium, and large) is a common way of estimating Agile projects.  In this example, relative sizes are based upon known standards and each feature development is estimated relative to that standard. 

Visualizing the Project Plan

In traditional project management, the output is typically a Gantt chart showing task relationships and duration.  The critical path represents all tasks that must be completed on schedule to prevent the entire project schedule from slipping.  These tasks are often resource-constrained, as projects rely on experts to do specialized product development work.  In other cases, vendor-supplied equipment and customer use tests can be limiting factors.

In Scrum, the project schedule is not usually illustrated as a whole.  A product roadmap shows major feature releases for the product, often in conjunction with other products, services, and applications.  Task level planning is done by the team using the prioritized feature list.  Team members score the difficulty (and duration) of tasks needed to complete a specific feature.  A technique called “planning poker” helps the team reach consensus on the “size” of these tasks (e.g. relative sizing of small, medium, or large).

For operational work of the NPD team, a Kanban board (sometimes called a Scrum board) shows tasks assigned to the sprint.  As work is completed during a Sprint, a symbol of the task (usually a short description written on a sticky note) is moved from columns on the Kanban board indicating workto-do, work-in-progress, testing, and completed.

At a higher level, all of the “story points” or scores of the relative estimates for product design are added.  As each feature is completed, its score is subtracted from the total.  Thus the “burndown” chart shows an estimate of work remaining in each Sprint.  The burndown chart may be used in conjunction with the Kanban chart or these tools can be deployed separately.

Adjusting the Project Plan

Of course, no project plan is accurate or perfect.  The minute we put pencil to paper, the schedule is apt to change.  In traditional project management, a Change Control Board reviews major project changes according to the advice of the project manager.  In Scrum (Agile), changes to the project scope are expected, resulting in the iterative nature of the system.  Tasks not completed in one sprint are added to the “backlog” of the next sprint.  This is reflected in a lower-than-planned burndown rate as well as increased work-in-progress on the Kanban board.  NPD teams must be concerned if this backlog is too high.

Planning Projects

Innovation projects, construction projects, and engineering projects all require planning.  We must anticipate the requirements, the schedule, and the cost.  These estimates help decision-makers and project leaders determine investments and to assess tolerable risk levels.  Project plans indicate whether a project can achieve benefits that outweigh costs.

Consider the following elements as you plan your next innovation project:

  • Scope of work,
  • Number and complexity of features,
  • Necessary tasks and activities to do the work,
  • Resources available and skilled to do the work,
  • Realistic project schedules indicating duration (not just effort) of each task,
  • How to assess changes, and
  • Risk management.

Learn More

Project planning is foundational to effective project selection and should be directly linked to Product Portfolio Management for innovation work.  Please join me starting 7 February 2002 for a once-per-year unique opportunity to apply 100 Days to Effective PPM in your teams.  Register here.

If you’re interested in learning more about hybrid project planning (traditional waterfall blended with Agile/Scrum), please join me for WAGILE Product Development on 15 and 17 February 2022.  Register here.

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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Spiral Development for NPD Projects

New products are the lifeblood of any organization.  You can’t stand still, or you will quickly be overcome by the competition.  Customers not only expect, but indeed they demand, that products and product lines are frequently refreshed and revitalized.  Brands that fail to do so end up with financial issues and serious questions about their viability, like Sears and Payless Shoe Source.

How do successful companies maintain relevancy and prominence in a globally competitive and ever-changing marketplace?  Designing new products that delight customers and generate long-term revenue is a surefire bet to success.  Businesses also need to manage operations with processes like Six Sigma, yet continued growth and increased market share rely upon periodic new product launches to expand product lines and meet customer needs.

NPD Processes

New product development (NPD) processes are significantly broader than those of Six Sigma or traditional project management.  NPD starts with the organization’s mission and creatively builds customer demand through the product life cycle.  Conventional NPD processes are called “waterfall” since the steps in the design and development of a new product fall in a given order and cascade from one to another.  The most commonly instituted waterfall NPD process was developed by Bob Cooper and is a staged and gated system.

Traditional Staged and Gated NPD Process

In a classic staged and gated NPD process, work is done in stages and project decisions are made at gates.  The system design is optimized for risk management in whicheach stage of work requires greater investment than the previous one.  Gate decisions are made by cross-functional management teams of higher rank as the project moves forward.

There are many benefits to a traditional staged and gated NPD process.  First, the system is designed to proactively manage financial and market risk.  If the work in a particular stage does not provide the new product concept, then a “No” gate decision will halt further development.  In this way, risk is minimized.  Another strong benefit of a staged and gated NPD system is that the work required for each stage is clearly delineated, and NPD team members understand gate requirements in advance and in detail.

However, as implemented, many organizations fail to take advantage of the full capability of a staged and gated NPD system.  Cooper intended for frequent customer interactions and that both customer needs and customer satisfaction would receive positive marks in order for a new product project o advance at a gate decision to the next stage.  Instead, many firms fail to involve the customer once the initial project charter is drafted.  Moreover, many gatekeepers err to measuring past progress rather than validating the effectiveness of future project plans.  (See Gatekeeper Training to read more about this topic.)

Spiral NPD

To counteract the negative implementations of a traditional staged and gated NPC process, a Spiral NPD Process has been designed by Bob Cooper and associates as an update to the original water system.  In a spiral process, increased iteration is introduced to each stage of work.  These increments incorporate rapid testing and customer feedback, much like a sprint in an agile project management framework.

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Spirals allow the work of a stage to be broken into smaller, more manageable chunks.  These iterations also encourage NPD team members to test ideas, concepts, and prototypes with customers to gain their feedback.  Steps within a stage cycle through Build-Test-Feedback-Revise functions in order to ensure the product under design will meet customer needs.

Other areas in which Spiral NPD adopts agile practices include the daily stand-up meeting and sprint retrospectives.  The daily stand-up meeting encourages NPD team communication and collaboration via a quick. 15-minute meeting.  Typically, the dedicated team members gather in their designated work area (often called a “war room”) to briefly outline their efforts and challenges.  Each person addresses only three questions and detailed discussions are taken offline and with only the parties directly impacted by this issue.

  1. What did I accomplish yesterday?
  2. What do I plan to do today?
  3. Do I have any challenges to completing my work?

Benefits of Spiral NPD

Using a hybrid agile-staged and gated system for innovation, such as Spiral NPD, can accelerate product development.  With its iterative customer feedback loops, Spiral NPD is more responsive to customer needs.  In addition, Spiral NPD enhances the productivity of the NPD team and of the organization as people work on the right things at the right time.  Feature, product, and business objectives are better prioritized since the voice of the customer is intimately woven throughout each new product development cycle.

Implementing Spiral NPD

In my observations, the biggest challenge for organizations transitioning from a traditional waterfall planning process to an adaptive innovation ecosystem, is a change in culture.  Management no longer dictates top-down directives and project leaders no longer set out aggressive schedules and budgets.  Instead, NPD team members are self-organizing and self-directing.  The NPD team itself will decide how to work each iteration and stage in the product development life cycle.  The sprint retrospective drives learning and behavior change immediately into the next Build-Test-Feedback-Revise cycle.  Project managers also transition into servant leader roles, adopting transformative skills to drive change and flexibility focused on customer expectations.

Learn More

To learn more about Spiral NPD, we are holding a special workshop on Agile NPD on 23 & 24 April 2019 in Houston, Texas, USA.  Register here for the 2-day Agile NPD workshop and save on a full 3-day experience including a one-day pre-workshop course on Design Thinking.  Use code “bundle” at checkout and save 15% on both courses.  Contact me at [email protected] or 281-280-8717 for more information on innovation, project management, and leadership training or coaching.  I love helping individuals, teams, and organizations achieve their highest innovation goals!

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Agile in New Product Development

For some time now, agile project management methods have been a hot topic.  The agile philosophy emerged in 2001 as a group of software developers tried to find a better way to launch completed products.  Until then, they had struggled with severely delayed schedules and rampant budget overruns.

So, what is magical about agile?  Really, there is nothing mysterious or bewitching about the agile approach.  Instead, the philosophy encourages a development framework that forces a team back to the fundamentals of new product project management.  And in innovation, those fundamentals are the customers and their needs.

The Agile Philosophy

The agile philosophy is built on a set of four values that favor customer interaction and activity over planning and contract negotiation (agilemanifesto.org).  Traditional project management frameworks, including the staged-and-gated decision process in new product development (NPD), can become document-heavy.  Especially large and risk-averse organizations tend toward adding processes, procedures, and policies to reduce project failures.

Instead of adding documentation to a project plan, the agile methodology adds more communication and testing.  The research to create more detailed plans does indeed make the team more aware of project risks, but it does nothing to actually address those uncertainties.  Brainstorming alternatives to implement IF a risk is triggered is a good practice but testing those alternative solutions in a trial will reveal the best answer in a clear and unconditional manner.

Thus, agile supports close customer interactions, lots of prototype testing, cross-functional (vs. sequential) project tasks, and collaborative communication.  These values are foundational in a successful NPD program, especially if the team is targeting a radical or disruptive innovation.  This is why software products served as an early demonstration of agile implementation.

It is very difficult to document the various cases in which a software tool will be used before the code is written.  It’s also next-to-impossible to know which features customers will use and how they will use them.  Agile allows the development team to build and test to generate information rather than preparing plans with assumed requirements.

As an example, my favorite hobby is scrapbooking, and I make greeting cards for friends and family.  In fact, if I skip a holiday, they are still asking for a handmade card.  I have been subscribing to a scrapbook/card-making magazine for several years to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and to find inspiring, creative ideas from other artists.  I like to take copies of the magazine with me on trips as it is easy to thumb through while in queues or at the airport or in the evening at a hotel.

The publisher began putting a one-page ad into the magazine a couple of years ago about developing a mobile app.  The mobile app would let you view the card photos on your phone or tablet.  Now, keep in mind that the full magazine content includes photos of cards, supply lists, vendor information, and instructions to duplicate the art exactly.

Unfortunately, the publisher moved forward to develop their mobile app without consulting readers (customers).  They spent a lot of money to develop the new product (the app), but it is not differentiated from other, free sources of photos of greeting cards.  In designing a mobile app, the publisher moved away from what made their print magazine special (supply lists, instructions, and grouping of product examples).  I found out recently that the publisher is out of business – losing their base product (magazine) at the cost of a new product (the app) built without customer input.

How Do You Implement Agile in NPD?

Because agile methodologies were originally designed for software, companies working with tangible products sometimes question whether the approach is right for them.  The answer is a resounding, “Yes!”  Remember that the agile framework for project management is a return to fundamentals – what do customers need and is what we are designing meet their needs?

Some of the core principles within agile are very easy to implement.  For example, the idea of rapid prototyping to gain real customer feedback is a step that any NPD team can incorporate to any process immediately.  Talking to and observing customer when they use your product or try to solve a particular problem is inexpensive and drives the agile value of customer interactions.

Other aspects of agile are more difficult to put in place at a firm.  In particular, the agile framework changes the culture of the NPD team and changes the way we do design and development work.  First, teams will learn how to work together collaboratively rather than doing R&D, engineering, or marketing work in sequential silos.  Next, the development effort proceeds much faster – in sprints – with the concepts of time-boxing and delivery of working features at the forefront.  Finally, old forms and templates, and especially directive management, are replaced with transparent and interactive measures of project status.

Scrum

Scrum is the most common implementation of the agile philosophy in new product development.  Scrum utilizes short, but intense, work periods that create usable deliverables.  For example, while a software project might product a few lines of tested code at the completion of a 1-week sprint, an NPD team may product a full customer journey map at the conclusion of a month-long sprint.  Neither deliverable yields a fully integrated working product, but each sub-system is completed and ready-to-go in a short period of time.  Each deliverable is independently tested and validated with customers.

In addition, Scrum utilizes three important roles in implementation.  First, the product owner represents the voice of customer.  This ensures the close interaction with both customer and business needs throughout the life of the NPD project.  The Scrum Master is not a traditional project management but acts to facilitate work and communication among team members and business interfaces. 

Finally, the Scrum team is a cross-functional, collaborative group that does the work of the project.  They remain focused on the project throughout the development cycle.  This team is small enough to make critical product design decisions and is diverse enough to address product development issues across the engineering, operations, and sales spectrum.

Agile NPD

Agile has moved beyond a hot topic to a way of life for many companies.  By re-focusing on the fundamentals of new product development, an agile project management approach can speed time-to-market and increase the quality of the products launched.  Moreover, the very nature of an agile approach to NPD drives more creative and disruptive innovations.

Learn More

To learn more about agile in new product development, we are holding a special workshop on Agile NPD on 23 & 24 April 2019 in Houston, Texas, USA.  Register here for the 2-day Agile NPD workshop and save on a full 3-day experience including a pre-workshop course on Design Thinking.  Use code “bundle” at checkout and save 15% on both courses.  Contact me at [email protected] or 281-280-8717 for more information on innovation, project management, and leadership training or coaching.  I love helping individuals, teams, and organizations achieve their highest innovation goals!

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A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

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Innovation Ecosystem

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

Key Components of Innovation

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

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

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

Innovation Strategy

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

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

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

Product Portfolio Management (PPM)

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

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

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

NPD Process

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

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

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

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

Team and Leadership Training

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

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

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

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

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

A Successful Innovation Ecosystem

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

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

Learn More

Feel free to contact me more information on customized NPDP training.  I can be reached at [email protected] or 281-280-8717.  I love helping individuals, teams, and organizations achieve their highest innovation goals!

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A Division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Study.  Learn.  Earn.  Simple.

“Wagile” in New Product Development

Most businesses today employ a new product development (NPD) process to manage innovation.  Studies indicate that over 80% of leading US companies use a phased and gated framework to convert embryonic ideas to commercial products.  Yet research also shows that about half of all new products fail.

So, it is not surprising that companies are looking for other systems to manage NPD projects.  Because Agile has been successful in software development, many firms are considering project management frameworks, like Scrum, for physical new product development.  You can learn more about traditional, waterfall NPD processes here and Scrum for NPD here.

A disadvantage of Scrum in physical product development is that while features can be designed during a typical two- to four-week long sprint, it is often difficult to test a feature without the availability of the whole product solution.  Consider, for example, testing automatic collision avoidance on a vehicle without knowing the weight, horsepower, or tire diameter of that vehicle.

“Wagile” for NPD

So, we know that NPD projects must be faster and more responsive to customer needs than we can normally deliver in a traditional phased and gated process.  We also know that going fully agile is not practical in many situations.  What’s the answer?  “Wagile!”

“Wagile” is a hybrid of waterfall and agile processes, adopting the positive aspects of each project management framework to physical product development.  Wagile processes are faster and more flexible than conventional staged and gated processes but recognize the whole system as a product.  Moreover, wagile processes interface with customers at key intervals to determine functional needs and to garner important design insights at the right times in the project life cycle.

Iterative Wagile

Iterative wagile processes are often used for new product development projects that have a few, higher risk technical or market uncertainties.  The market is known and developing so speed-to-market is a critical factor in commercial success.  Frequently the firm has significant technical competency in the product category and is skilled at quality production in this product arena.

In this variety of wagile NPD project management, sprints are applied early in the process to address specific technical questions or to gain customer feedback for a particular product feature.  The business case is documented upfront and project requirements are known within a wide bandwidth.

The iterative sprints are used to answer some specific questions so that the product design can be locked.  Once those design requirements are determined, through a series of iterative technology or market experiments, a traditional waterfall process is followed for prototype generation, technical development, and commercial launch.

An example of a product for iterative wagile development is the iPad™.  The market was generally known and growing as the use of eReaders was expanding in 2010.  However, the iPad touchscreen required technical design beyond the smaller iPhone™ screens and some user interactions needed testing.  However, once these design specifications were frozen, technical development and product manufacturing followed Apple’s traditional project management models – the same used for other existing products.

Incremental Wagile

In other cases, new products are really new platforms built to serve customers and users with new technologies and with novel applications.  Consider, for instance, wearable fitness trackers.  The goal of the NPD project is to deliver quality and to meet customer satisfaction objectives.  Customers needed to be educated on how the product worked yet were knowledgeable about the intention and utility of the product.

For fitness trackers, an incremental wagile NPD process was appropriate.  While technical and market uncertainties were both high, it was important to test proofs and prototypes in the marketplace.  A minimally viable product (MVP) that simply counted steps was a first version of the product.  The company gains market insights from the niche customers using an MVP and develops a second version of the product, purchased by a growing customer base.

Again, technical requirements are developed based on customer insights and feedback rom using the real product.  Another, more sophisticated version is released based on this new market information, and the cycle repeats itself again and again.

Incremental wagile is an especially useful project management approach for a new product category.  Fitbit™, like Kleenex™ and Xerox™, identifies the product category for fitness tracker today, yet functionality is radically more complex than the original step counters released as MVPs just a few years ago.

Wagile for NPD

Each NPD project is unique in some way.  Thus, applying the “right” NPD and project management process approach requires evaluating several variables for the project.  Some of these factors include the following.

  • Technical uncertainty
  • Market uncertainty
  • Customer availability
  • Company culture
  • Team structure
  • Competitive threats

However, most NPD projects can be successfully implement using a waterfall (staged and gated), agile (Scrum), or hybrid (wagile) approach.

We invite you to learn more about “wagile” new product development in an upcoming Agile NPD or New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification workshop.  Check out our full class schedule at Simple-PDH.com.  Please contact me if you’d like a free pdf copy of the Scrum Body of Knowledge (SBOK) and check out our current course list for Agile NPD and Scrum here.  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!

 

Reading Recommendation

Some great references on agile and Scrum are:

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

© Simple-PDH.com

A division of Global NP Solutions, LLC  

Scrum in New Product Development

One of the hottest topics in project management and product development today is Agile.  Agile is a set of values that generate several different project management frameworks to increase productivity, customer satisfaction, and team morale.  While agile methodologies are widespread in software and IT, they are only recently being adapted to the development of physical products.

The Agile Manifesto

The core values of the agile philosophy are reflected in The Agile Manifesto.  This proclamation was produced by a group of software developers in 2001 in an attempt to improve speed-to-market and accuracy of product delivery.

The Agile Manifesto compares a preferred way of doing things in a project to the traditional way.  So, while conventional project management tools, techniques, and procedures are not rejected outright, the agile philosophy recognizes a better and more efficient way to accomplish project tasks.  These are shown on the left-hand side of the comparison statements, while conventional policies are shown the right-hand side.

  • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  • Working products over comprehensive documentation
  • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
  • Responding to change instead of following a plan

Scrum

While there are literally dozens of implementations of the agile philosophy, the most commonly adopted framework for physical product development is Scrum.  Scrum is an adaptative, flexible approach to projects that allows for iterative development and improves communication across a team and with the customer.  Elements of Scrum fall into three categories:  artifacts, tools, and roles.

Artifacts

A key artifact or process in Scrum is the idea of time-boxing.  This produces a rhythm and cadence in the work and, for product development, helps to minimize risk.  Several events are time-boxed or limited.  The first is the sprint.

A sprint typically lasts two to four weeks and is a period of intense work for the product development team.  Only a few, priority tasks are completed in each sprint so that the team maintains focus.  For example, a sprint may be designed to gain customer insights through market research by conducting customer focus groups or testing a particular concept in a real environment.  Sprint tasks re prioritized to bring the highest value to the project as early as possible.  Thus, by keying in on a few, critical items early in the project, a new product can be designed with appropriate features that customers want and need.

A disadvantage of the sprint in physical product design is in the definition of “done”.  Whereas a software project can deliver completed lines of code at the end of a sprint, physical product development sprints may deliver test results or qualitative market research.  It may be useful to view the sprint as a learning period.

Other artifacts in Scrum include the daily stand-up meeting and retrospectives.  I’d like to refer you to other posts and papers for more information on these artifacts.

Tools

As indicated, the new product development (NPD) team works on gaining customer feedback or delivering a working feature during each sprint.  A crucial decision-making tool for Scrum is the product backlog.  This is loosely like a list of project requirements in a traditional phased and gated product development process.

The product backlog is developed at the beginning of a project and is constantly reviewed and updated (“groomed”) during the project life cycle.  Product features and attributes, along with the most critical customer experiments are listed in rank order.  Items from the product backlog are worked during any given sprint.  The NPD team commits to only work on a product backlog item during a sprint which can be completed in the timeframe (e.g. 2 to 4 weeks).  In this way, the highest business value items are worked first.

In physical product development, it is of high value to determine the business case for a new product as well as to test a minimally viable product (MVP).  Market studies and technical experiments are often conducted int eh early sprints to determine customer need and product feasibility.  Such knowledge-building activities are designed to eliminate uncertainty in the product development effort.

Scrum Roles

Three important roles in a Scrum project are the team, the Scrum Master, and the product owner.  A cross-functional, co-located team does the work of the project during the time-boxed sprints.  Close collaboration among team members is often cited as a reason for improved productivity in an agile project versus traditional staged and gated processes.

The Scrum Master is a bit like a project leader yet works in a service role more than a directional one.  The team largely decides how to accomplish tasks during any given sprint while the Scrum Master interfaces with the customer, and removes roadblocks and obstacles facing the team in their daily work.

The product owner is a unique role in Scrum and a role that is frequently overlooked in practice of traditional NPD and project management processes.  Product owners create the prioritized product backlog, making the decisions of which features are most important – and valuable – to the business and to the customer.  It is the product owner who approves features and applications at the end of each sprint.  NPD projects benefit from creating personas for the product owner to assume in this role.

Agile for NPD

While initially designed for software development, agile methodologies are gaining traction in NPD for physical, tangible product development.  Often, the agile processes, like those in Scrum, are overlaid on a traditional NPD process.  Learning cycles are especially important in the market and technology development of a new product.

Please contact me if you’d like a free pdf copy of the Scrum Body of Knowledge (SBOK).  To learn more about applying agile to new product development management, check out self-study and other NPDP Workshops.  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!

 

Reading Recommendation

Stories of entrepreneurial success, like Airbnb, using agile techniques for new business are artfully included in The Creator’s Code and Barking Up the Wrong Tree (affiliate links).  I also dedicate an entire chapter to traditional NPD processes in NPDP Certification Prep:  A 24-Hour Study Guide, and you can find additional references at https://globalnpsolutions.com/services/npd-resources/.   Some more great references on agile and Scrum are:

 

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

Scrum Roles

Scrum is the most popular project management framework to implement Agile philosophy.  The Agile philosophy emphasizes people over processes and working products (software) over documentation.  Scrum uses small, collaborative teams to conduct project work in short phases (called “sprints”).

Like other Agile project management processes or frameworks, Scrum focuses on the people involved in executing the project.  There are three core roles in Scrum as well as several non-core functions.  The core roles include the Product Owner, Scrum Team, and Scrum Master.

Product Owner

The Product Owner (PO) is a key role in any Scrum project.  POs represent the voice of the customer so that there is continual business value assessment throughout the project life cycle.  The PO will work with the customer, and in some cases is the customer, to determine a list of product features and requirements.  Requirements are prioritized and listed from highest impact to business value to less influential features.

During project execution, the PO will recommend a set of these requirements for the project team to develop.  In Scrum, this list of requirements is called the Prioritized Product Backlog.

At the completion of each interval or iteration of work (the sprint), the PO evaluates and approves completed features.  Requirements are designed with measurable “done criteria” upfront so that the PO and Scrum Team agree in advance to these acceptance criteria.  As product features are completed, the PO brings forth the next highest value set of requirements for the team to work from the Prioritized Product Backlog.

Scrum Team

The Scrum Team (ST), also known as the development team, does the work of the project.  They create the features and functions of the product and strive to meet cost and schedule requirements during each iteration.  Because the ST is involved in estimating the project requirements, they are highly committed to meeting the completion targets agreed at the start of each sprint.

Aligned with the Agile philosophy, the ST is people, not process, oriented.  Team members serve as specialists-generalists, meaning that each brings unique skills to solve the project problems, yet everyone supports the team in an equal fashion.  As indicated, all Scrum team members participate in estimating requirements during the sprint planning meeting so that they are committed and motivated to completing the agreed-upon deliverables during the sprint.

Scrum Master

One of the most important roles for a Scrum project is the Scrum Master (SM).  Unlike a traditional project manager, the SM is a facilitator who acts to remove roadblocks and obstacles that hinder the work of the Scrum Team.  After all, project work will advance the quickest if the team members are allowed to work uninterrupted.

On a daily basis, the SM will consult with all the Scrum Team members in a short meeting.  During this Daily Stand-Up Meeting, each of the team members reports what s/he did yesterday, what s/he plans to do today, and if s/he is encountering any obstacles.  The SM facilitates this meeting and ensures it does not last longer than 15 minutes.  At the conclusion of the Daily Stand-Up Meeting, the SM works to alleviate roadblocks identified by the team, thus streamlining product delivery.

Implementing Scrum

Implementing Scrum is paradigm shift for most companies.  Understanding Scrum roles is a starting point to transition from top-down project management to a customer-oriented project execution framework.  The PO represents the customer’s viewpoint while the ST acts autonomously to create project deliverables.  A SM facilitates the project and intercepts conflicts that might arise between the PO and the ST.

Normally, it is recommended to involve an entire organization in Scrum training to adopt the principles of Scrum which are markedly different than conventional, document-driven project management techniques.

If you’d like to learn more about Scrum, please join us for a free webinar that overviews this project management framework.  Or if you’ve already identified what you don’t know, please join us for a 2-day Scrum Master Certification Workshop where you will demonstrate new skills with both practice and testing.  Contact us at [email protected] or 281-280-8717 for more information.

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

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by Global NP Solutions, LLC