Visualizing New Product Development

Portfolio and Pipeline Management (PPM) is critical to NPD productivity. Research on numerous implementations suggests that a key to superior PPM is to engage top management in consistent PPM practices. This may sound simple, but it is no small order. First, metrics need to be agreed upon and put into practice.  Next, top managers need to use these metrics consistently to make critical trade-off decisions. To get needed agreement and consistent use of metrics, you'll need good graphical views the metrics showing the relevant trade-offs.  These views must engage management while revealing insights and information for good decision making.

PortView^TM is a desktop software application that does this.  PortView^TM gives you extraordinary flexiblity and capability to create, display, and share superb views of your PPM metrics. The terrific news is that PortView^TM is priced to put on a credit card.

PortView^TM couples an easy-to-use interface and straightforward statistical analysis with Adept Group’s deep knowledge of Portfolio and Pipeline Management. The results are powerful. PortView^TM delivers outstanding views of PPM metrics that easily engage top management. Consider some of the PortView^TM users:

Using PortView^TM

PortView^TM reads the data from its source (e.g., an MS Excel spreadsheet). Next, merely assign the variables or data fields to how you wish to view them. Once the view looks the way you want it, simply save it, print it or create a PowerPoint slide of it. Because PortView^TM creates Microsoft Windows Metafiles (wmf), users also have full editing capabilities over every detail of views from within PowerPoint… resize, group, change fonts, recolor and even publish to the web.

1. Read your PPM data / metrics into PortView^TM
2. Create your view in PortView^TM
3. Create a PowerPoint Slide of the portfolio view

PortView^TM offers many unique features tremendously valuable in PPM:

• Ease-of-use, with many pre-established and optimal defaults

• Handling and filtering of metrics, with no restriction on the number of projects included.

• On-screen display of "drill down" project metrics and information.

• Direct creation of MS PowerPoint slides.  Also enables insertion of views into MS Word for full text reports.

• Zoom for closer-in views.  Axes and all variables instantly adjust.

• Reads a data source into array (in your computer’s memory) for extremely fast data manipulation.  Data source is not disrupted.  Quick changes made to data within PortView^TM may be saved as a separate data file.

• Enables plotting of Strategic Groups, such as target markets, project types and technology platforms

• Enables charting of Strategic Buckets and their statistical summaries.  

• Direct-to-chart display of labels (names next to each bubbles)… built-in algorithmic separation of text so that there is no overlay of labels

• Fast and easy use of templates.  Simply click on next month’s data for next month’s view.

• Setting and using Strategic Bucket or grouping values as axes (categorical axes).  For example, using “stage of development” along an axis.

• Dividing data fields into ranges of “n-tiles” (e.g., quartiles). 

• Displaying calculated data on Strategic Buckets (means, data ranges, etc.) into both views and data tables.

•  Using data to show “Projection Vectors” that visually communicate dynamic changes over time (e.g., this project is moving in this direction)

• Conditional screening of metrics (for example: show projects from one specific business unit… click and show projects from another business unit)

• Using the slice within the bubble to display proportional metrics (e.g.,  % profit, Marketing as % of FTE, % growth rate)

• Extremely fast editing of views with MS office style "undo" to help correct mistakes

For those that learn on their own, PortView^TM has an extensive help system.  Yet, the user interface is so intuitive, that anyone who knows what a spreadsheet looks like can be an expert with PortView in just a thirty-minute explanation over the phone.

If you are interested in this powerful PPM tool, please request a download of the fully functioning PortView^TM demo. 

The demo simply restricts the number of projects displayed at any given time.  All other functionality is available to the user.

To receive the download of the demo version of PortView^TM , email a quick request to