Archive for Lean Product Development
Creating Flow with Don Reinertsen
Posted by: | CommentsDon Reinertsen was my guest on the Business901 Podcast this week for a discussion on Creating Flow. Don is president of Reinertsen & Associates, a consulting firm specializing in improving the product development process. I have followed Don’s writing for many years and recognize him as THE leading expert in the field of Flow. His writings are insightful, packed full of information and readable. When editing the podcast, I could not bring myself to cut hardly a word out of it. Even at the end, I included one more of his analogies about the use of tools. There will not be a written version of this podcast so I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity. 
Don’s contributions in the field of product development are recognized internationally. In 1983, while a consultant at McKinsey & Co., he wrote the landmark article in Electronic Business magazine that first quantified the value of development speed. This article is believed by some observers to have triggered the movement to shorten development cycles in American industry. It is frequently cited as the McKinsey study that reported "six months delay can be worth 33 percent of life-cycle profits". Don is well known for developing methods to quantify and manage difficult trade-offs between cost, schedule, and technical performance.
Don is also responsible for coining the term "Fuzzy Front End" to describe the critical early stage of product development and for the first practical application of queueing theory to development process design in 1991. He is known for developing innovative, but practical, analytical techniques for assessing the product development process. For 25 years he has focused on creating fundamental changes in the way organizations develop products. His 1997 book, Managing the Design Factory
Don speaks internationally on Lean Product Development. For the last 15 years he has taught executive courses at California Institute of Technology. For the last 6 years he has been teaching a popular course with the Management Roundtable, called Achieving Lean Product Development. His 2009 book, The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development
Related Posts:
who has influenced my thinking on Flow
Constant Feedback makes for Continuous Work Flow
Marketing Kanban Cadence
Agile, Scrum, Kanban, or is it just a Marketing Funnel?
Value Stream Mapping your Marketing
Flow
How effective does your Sales and Marketing team work together?
Posted by: | CommentsMany organizations would say not at all. Others believe they do, but really don’t know. A few will say very well, but I would believe these really, really don’t know. Why since they are so intertwined do they not work well? A few reasons:
No wonder they don’t like each other. However, I think I have an answer. In Lean Product development Eric Reiss believes that you need both a programming and customer development team. My idea is to make the marketers like the programmers and sales like the customer development team. My post on the subject, Receiving Better Response Rates thru Agile displays the diagram of the interrelationship that must be developed and elaborates on their roles.
But the bottom line is that they have to start building trust. They have to break down the dysfunctional aspect that exist between the two. They have to build Trust. Who better to explain this than one of my favorite authors Patrick Lencioni? In this short video, Patrick pinpoints the issue of group behavior in the final book of his popular corporate fables trilogy. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable tells a story and teaches lessons about using leadership to inspire real teamwork.
Patrick has a complete Five Dysfunctions of a Team Workshop Deluxe Facilitator’s Guide Package that is outstanding and can be a great start for not only sales and marketing but your entire organization.
Related Posts:
Improve Communication – Have more meetings?
Kanban made easy with Coveys 4Disciplines
What happens when the factory goes away?
Best in Market using Six Sigma in Marketing
Quit Listening to your Customer’s Heartbeat with a Stethoscope?
Posted by: | CommentsJohn Mariotti of Small Business Trends wrote an interesting article titled “A Hazard of Innovation: “Falling in Love With Your Own Ideas” on the American Express Open Forum. John states:
There seems to be widespread agreement that innovation is the path to profitable growth and competitive advantage. If that is true (I think it is true), then why aren’t more people doing it? And why do so many new products fail. I know of no “hard statistic” other than the generalized one “that over 90% of new products fail.” But again, I ask, why?
Here are a few proven methods to make your idea more successful and prevent its premature failure: First and Foremost – Focus Outside, Not Inside
If such common and deep-seated beliefs that lead to new product failures, (and they aren’t limited to products—it could be new processes, new acquisitions, new…whatever), what can you do to guard against this? How about getting some independent outside opinions?. Here are a half-dozen more “safeguard tests” that can be used to enhance the likelihood of success and reduce the chance of innovation failures.
- Market Research
- Focus Groups
- Surveys
- Consumer Panels
- Test Markets
- Truth Tellers
Trust, but Verify is a term used in delegation and management. When a group of New Product, Marketing or Sales people is exuberantly proclaiming the greatness of a product, investigate more deeply. If these proclamations are coming in the face of lackluster performance in any of the above six “safeguard tests” dig deeper, and fast. Verify that this is not a group who has “fallen in love with their own ideas.”
Don’t give up too easily or quickly—but don’t be afraid to “cut your losses” and move on. Innovation is wonderful, powerful, intoxicating and exciting. Failure is devastating. Use every means you can to prevent failure and improve the chance of success. Often, a small change, a minor difference in pricing, promotion, features, packaging, or placement is all it takes to transform a potential loser into a winner.
This is crux of the article and I encourage you to read it in its entirety. He explains each of the 6 points and the picture is worth the click. However, this article outlines many of the reasons that has driven me to start utilizing the Agile, Lean Product Development methods in marketing. Involving, Verifying, Creating and Scaling as early in the process as possible is imperative in today’s marketing. The motto: Fail often and Fail early approach is much better than hoping that you will be in that 10% of successes. I mean, really are you batting 900? If you wait for the perfect product there may be to much invested to change. The tools are there to facilitate early customer involvement but are we utilizing them? Are we even participating in our customer’s communities that will allow us to do this?
It is very difficult to get many organizations to listen for that heartbeat. They want to monitor the process but keep it inside to the last possible moment. If you think about your organization and the marketing of a new product is it your internal structure of marketing, engineering and finance that drives the process? Should innovation and development not be more centric to sales and customers? Developing better methods to hear the Voice of the Customer is essential. Is your organization still listening to your customer’s heartbeat with a stethoscope or have you moved on to an ultrasound?
Related Posts:
Go to MoSCoW and improve your marketing Copy
User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development
evaluate your Customer Needs
Receiving Better Response Rates thru Agile
Related Book:
Listening to the Voice of the Market: How to Increase Market Share and Satisfy Current Customers
