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The Many
Religions of New Product Development!
Battling for
Mind-Share
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As I sat through another Product Development
conference, I couldn't help but muse on the misleading
cordiality among the speakers. Each speaker told his
story with seemingly perfect wisdom. My gosh, what they
said had to be true… one speaker was a Senior Director at a
notable Fortune 100 company, another was a leading professor
from a major university, and still another was a consultant
from a well known firm. The speakers even agreed with
each other, in a polite, public way.
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The passion each speaker shared with the audience
toward their approach to product development was, in many
ways, inspiring. It was almost religious. The speakers
believed whole-heartedly that organizations would benefit
significantly by embracing their approach. But this
shouldn't be a surprise. There was no way a speaker would suggest
shortcomings to their approach. They were disciples
of their ideas and approaches. But there are
too many approaches, too many religions. Unfortunately
there is no theorem, master schema or, for that matter,
religion that pulls them together. Let's face it, no
organization could possibly embrace everything that the
speakers suggest as the right way to do product
development. It would be impossible to get an
organization to carry out so much at once.
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The problem today
for NPD managers and executives is that there is
an ongoing battle to win "mind-share." Software vendors,
consultants, service providers and academics alike, all want
to influence managers on how they think their organization
should improve new product development. Over the last
five years the mind-share battle has intensified as software vendors
push ever harder for a share. For every academic or
consultant espousing a better approach, there seems to be an additional
five to ten software sales people telling you why their software
is even better. In fact, let me declare that if you've
been a manager in new product development
for over a few months and have not yet been
approached by a software sales person, perhaps you may
wish to re-evaluate your credibility in your organization. The shift in
mind-share has been considerable and the consequence
is that the "passion" toward competing approaches for improving
NPD is at a feverish pitch.
I
do not profess to have all the answers. But I do believe
I have a unique and studied observation to what I think of as
the "New Product Development Industry." For over 20
years I've consulted only on new product development.
Perhaps my best learning, though, has come from listening to
intelligent people challenge an orientation, or put boundaries
around an orientation. When one expert asks another
expert to qualify a statement or two, you cannot help but
think about things differently.
So, at the risk of sounding
like I am putting forward yet another orientation to consider,
let me offer up ten simple guidelines to help managers and
executives to get through the plethora of approaches espoused
by NPD industry leaders and followers
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1 |
Disregard
passion |
The passion expressed toward a method, process, system or orientation neither makes it right nor makes it wrong. Disregard passion. It obscures practicality. Organizations simply cannot do everything at once. Focus
on the obtainable.
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2 |
Do things
differently |
Improvement to NPD can only come from
taking actions and doing things
differently. Do not double-up on the
"same-old, same-old" approach. If notable
improvement is needed, then the organization
must proactively embrace something new. But make
sure its the organization doing the embracing, not just a couple of managers.
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3 |
Hindering forces
abound |
There are always internal forces hindering the organization from changing an old approach and embracing a new approach. Do not let hindering forces dictate what is best for the organization.
Do not be blind to the hindering forces, they are always there.
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4 |
"Best-in-class" is yesterday's
news |
"Best-in-class" is not always best for
you. Following another company's
"best-in-class" approach of yesterday is usually
not "best-in-class" for your organization
tomorrow. Focus on your future, not on
someone else's past.
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5 |
Understand your
options |
Try to understand all of your options for improvement. But never introduce all of them to the organization. Introducing too many options is too confusing. Filter them out first. Eschew
obfuscation!!
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6 |
Evaluate fit, readiness and
need |
Evaluate all approaches on three
criteria: "fit,
readiness and need." At any given time,
the majority of orientations or approaches simply will not
deliver the benefits you want.
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7 |
"Consistency-in-use" pays
dividends |
The
consistent use of any method, process, system or
orientation is prerequisite to gaining benefits
from it. Do not start a new orientation or
approach unless your organization will commit to
it. And only commit to it when you see a
path to gaining
consistency-in-use.
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8 |
Perception of value is
everything |
Senior management’s perception of the
expected value to be gained from a new approach
is more important than what actually will
happen. “Perceived
value” always precedes successful
implementation. Drive home the
value proposition of what needs to be done.
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9 |
Management's
Complaints
will
energize
change |
Senior management's complaints about the current situation provide the energy to remove organizational constraints toward establishing a new approach. Make sure you
collect and store this energy. Use it wisely to drive
implementations.
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10 |
Roadmap your
improvement
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Roadmap your improvement over a two year
horizon, giving great detail to coordinating
tasks and milestone during the first six
months. It is easier to be successful when
everybody knows where they are going and what
they have to
do. Roadmaps make it tangible and doable.
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A Call for Action!
No doubt, managers face many challenges and
problems when moving forward with NPD
improvements.
But the biggest mistake is in simply doing nothing.
Without a concerted effort to improve new product
development, even the best-in-class winds up with
the rest-in-class. Improving
new product development productivity is serious
business that requires focus, commitment and resources. Most of all, it
requires action.
So here is my call for your action.
Get on with these
steps:
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Audit and assess your current practices,
methods and approaches across all aspects of NPD
to identify strengths, weaknesses and
opportunities for
improvement. Get help here if you need it.
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Evaluate all available practices, methods and
approaches that are different from those currently being
carried out. Use
criteria that reflect: Need, Fit and
Readiness
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Draw a roadmap of a full improvement
plan over 24 months, greatly detailing the tasks
and deliverables of first 6 months.
Make sure to coordinate the timing of
all activities
and outcomes.
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Invest in the plan with both money and
people’s time.
If you do not believe you or your organization can
conduct a full assessment or give due diligence
to all alternatives by yourself, do not hesitate
to hire in someone who can.
There are
consultants that can do this (including yours
truly).
Exploit their
knowledge. They can help your
organization to gain benefits faster. Use them as
you need to.
Cutting through the many religions of new
product development is not easy. Listen and
learn from the conference speakers and the
salespeople knocking on your door. But
as you move to improve new product development
within your organization, consider the advice
above.
You and your organization will be glad you
did. |
Approaches to
Improving Product Development
Simply look at the table
of contents in PDMA's
and Book or
ToolBook of New Product Development. (Yours truly
is a contributor to both). The topic
diversity is mind-boggling. Or, consider my
quick list of some orientations that people are
passionate about. Each could warrant an
implementation initiative. Each would demand
resources. And, obviously, no organization
could possible take them all on at
once.
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Quality: DFSS (Six Sigma),
QFD, DFME/A
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Enterprise Systems: Process Management,
Doc Management, Project and Task Management,
Project Management, Portfolio Management,
Front-end, Stage gate,
Roadmapping
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Marketing Research: VOC, Competitive
Intelligence, Value Chain Analysis, Forecasting,
Customer Satisfaction, Qualitative and
Quantitative
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Creativity Techniques, Approaches,
Events: Lead users, Systems Supports,
Ethnography
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PLM (Product Data Management)
Integration
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Process (organization and teams), Cross
functional Teams, Rewards, Stages and
Gates
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Portfolio Management: Balance, Impact,
Speed
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Risk Assessment Management / Mitigation:
Monte Carlo Simulations, Modeling, Nominal Group
process
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Training In Skills and
Capabilities
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Organizational Change:
embracing the new
Project Management:
Resource Leveling, Project Leadership, Gantt
Charts and Task Plans, Critical Chain Buffer
Management
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Technology Planning / Management
Roadmapping, Directional
Policy
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Screening and
selection: Criteria, Modeling
Co-development:
Partnering to leverage
resources
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Requirements Management, VOC,
tradeoffs
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Outsourcing and
Off-shoring
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Decision Support Systems, Governance,
Sarbanes-Oxley
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My Best
Regards,
Paul O'Connor
The Adept Group Limited,
Inc.
Tel: 904-273-5319
www.adept-plm.com
Focused on Productivity in New
Product Development
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Brief
Bio on Paul O'Connor:
Paul O'Connor is an expert in the fields of New Product Development
Productivity. He has conducted assignments, implementation initiatives
and benchmarking activities with such firms as Akzo-Nobel, SBC,
Hercules, Shell Chemical, Procter & Gamble, Black & Decker,
L & F Products, DuPont, Polaroid, Kraft, Raychem, Bausch &
Lomb, Exxon, Nabisco, Ameritech, Corning, Dow, Eastman Chemical,
Pitney Bowes, Lucent Technologies, S.C. Johnson, Eaton, US West,
Calgon Carbon, Milliken, Reynolds Metals, Kodak, Mead Paper, AT&T,
Shuford Mills, General Electric, McNeil Labs, Blue Cross Blue Shield,
Uniroyal Chemical, DuPont-Dow Elastomers, Sprint, UPS, Ashland,
Johnson & Johnson, AlliedSignal, Praxair, Senco and Stanley
Tools.
Mr. O'Connor is Managing Director and principal shareholder of The
Adept Group. Paul is also Past-President of the Product Development
and Management Association, and teaches Portfolio Management for
PDMA and the Institute for International Research. More
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