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Category Archives: Product Development System

Get small to improve time to market

Small batches will help you improve time to market, read the difference  between the traditional and non-traditional approach to product development below. Traditional approach to product development (Batches of major activities) In a traditional phased-and-gated system, each phase is a batch of activities that has to be completed in order to produce a set of…
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Planning for an Uncertain Future: 8 steps in Scenario Planning

A recent article in MIT Sloan Management Review, “Using Scenario Planning to Reshape Strategy,”[i] indicated a resurgence of scenario planning that initially gained recognition in the 1960s and 70s. Royal Dutch/Shell has been the ‘poster child’ of success using scenario planning to address the instability and uncertainty during the 1973 oil crisis. I was fortunate…
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First Publication in the Book Series Exploratory PD is Now Available

Exploratory Product Development: Executive Version is the introduction to this new product development methodology. It will be followed later this year by a process volume that provides further detail, plus supporting tools and techniques. This executive version examines the organizational constraints imposed by a standard phased-and-gated product development process. We discuss why those constraints are…
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Why Traditional Strategy Does Not Win

Traditional strategy development assumes that markets/industries are stable, but today that is not the rule for most firms. Strategy is built upon certain vital assumptions about the external environment and about what the firm can control. For example, the external environment includes competitor activity, customer needs, technological developments, economic trends and regulatory changes. Virtually all…
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What does decentralized decision-making really look like?

Adaptability and the ability to react quickly is paramount to successful product development. Typically, the project team can make better and/or faster decisions than management because they are closer to the details of the project. But, does decentralized decision-making mean leaders are out of a job? No, definitely not. As a leader, it is not…
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Look at Product Development Differently … Take a Systems Approach

Some individuals have tried to simplify product development into two neat, pithy phrases: “choosing the right project” and “doing the project right.” These statements oversimplify the goal and imply that the work, coordination, and decisions involved in choosing the right projects and doing the projects right are simple and straightforward. The truth is, product development…
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Product Development New Year’s Resolution: Get a Strategy

If you read our past blog posts, you probably gathered that we believe creating a well-defined strategic framework is one of the most important activities in executing your product development system. This is what we see as consultants when we work with: …organizations that have well-defined strategies: CLARITY Exude a sense of purpose and clarity…
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Strategy and Uncertainty

When developing strategy, we have to make assumptions about the future of technology, customer needs and economic trends; in particular, what will change and how. Because the future is uncertain, we face the risk that our assumptions, and thus our strategy, are wrong. A traditional approach to creating strategy can be described as a waterfall. …
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How to lead product development teams: Mission-Type Orders

As a leader, it is not your responsibility to tell the project team how and what to do with the project, but rather it is to provide the necessary guidelines so they can make easy, adaptable and fast decisions. It’s getting everyone on board to achieve a common goal of a successful product. If you…
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Can an established organization act like a startup? No.

An established organization cannot act like a startup.  Can they learn from start-ups and apply techniques from startups? Yes. Recently, Waverly Duetsch, Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship, University of Chicago Booth of School of Business reported[i]  the burning question she gets from CEOs is “How can we be more entrepreneurial?”  Her answer was that established organizations…
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