NPD PRODUCT LAUNCH: Delivering the Product to the People

WHITE PAPER NPD Product Launch: Delivering the Product to the People By: Neil Stolovitsky E-mail: sales@geniusproject Website: www.geniusproject.com Genius Inside | November 2011 Copyright © 1997 – 2011 Genius Inside. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system or translated into any language, any form, by any means without the prior written consent of Genius Inside. Information in this publication is subject to change without notice and does not constitute any commitment on the part of Genius Inside. Genius Inside may have patents or pending patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, and other intellectual property rights covering the subject matter of this publication. Furnishing of this document does not in any way grant you license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or any other intellectual property of Genius Inside. Genius Project for Domino®, Genius Project On-Demand®, Genius Project Enterprise® and the Genius Inside logo are trademarks of Genius Inside Inc. Lotus Notes® is a trademark of Lotus Development Corporation. All other company and product names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies. All rights reserved. Agile Development: Redifining "Management" in Project Management NPD Product Launch: Delivering the Product to the People © | Page 2 / 5 NPD PRODUCT LAUNCH: Delivering the Product to the People By: Neil Stolovitsky, Senior Solution Specialist November 2011 Abstract Typically New Product Development (NPD) projects are recognized for their rigorous gated process that ensures every step in the development cycle passes stringent criteria and scrutiny by all parties responsible for a product’s success. Moreover, at the heart of every successful NPD project lies a talent pool and leadership with a vision and objectives that not only need to be met, but more importantly accepted by its consumers at the end of this process. With this is in mind, it is crucial that the project activities and input of the pro ject team and stakeholder’s are aligned with the overall vision of the project. The product launch stage of NPD projects is critical in that it takes a working prototype and makes it available to consumers. It’s the stage where a product will make its debut and prove its performance in the marketplace. Leveraging the experiences and results for the prototyping stage, the product launch stage is the most extensive phase that requires the detailing of development, design, production, distribution and marketing across the supply chain. Furthermore, this stage is the most involved including extensive participation of all resource groups. From engineering and marketing, to operations and production, the new product development project will pass multiple tests ensuring quality assurance, costs and aesthetics will meet consumer expectations. In this paper, I will be focusing on the impact people have on the successful launch of a new product and the important role the effective planning of people and the projects they serve can impact a new product’s final acceptance in the marketplace. Planning the Launch: Opening the Gates to Success In new product development and innovation projects, the product launch stage is where an idea is mass produced for consumption. This stage in the development process is where organizations put their money where their mouth is. Here is where engineering and design are ready for full production; quality control and testing are implemented; and the distribution and sales of the product is delivered to the final consumer. Consequently a rigorous gated process is required to ensure the product launch stays true to the expected design and quality. With so many places where things can go wrong and the bulk of a new product’s investment on the line, a gated process can ensure that the right experts provide their input increasing a product’s success in the market. Furthermore, during this stage the new product development project touches multiple points along the supply chain where each stakeholder will impact the quality and delivery of the final product. As this is the cases, many stakeholders will mean an increased risk of issues that will ultimately impact a product’s successful launch. In order to streamline the complex processes of a product launch, there needs to be a governance framework in place to control the flow of information and provide the necessary transparency of project data to optimize the decision making process. Furthermore, the implementation of a gated process alerting stakeholders along the path will provide quality control and value added input from the right people at the right time. They key to setting up a gated process is to first have stakeholder involvement and input in the development of this process. Secondly, it is necessary to build evaluation criteria that will qualitatively assess the progress of the NPD project. NPD Product Launch: Delivering the Product to the People © | Page 3 / 5 To effectively assess the progress of the project, organizations can implement a score card system that will provide the necessary checks and balances alerting the team of progress and/or issues. Within the product launch phase, from sourcing, production and testing, to compliance, intellectual property, quality control, technical feasibility and distribution, a balanced score card system can help organizations gauge both financial and non- financial metrics providing insight into the most relevant information for quick and informed decision making. A typical balance scored card for NPD projects should consider the following success factors to measure the performance of a product launch:  Financial Impact – some considerations may include the impact on ROI, revenue growth, and market share  Customer Impact - some considerations may include the impact on customer experience, customer retention and market acceptance  Internal Operations - some considerations may include the impact on quality control, efficiency improvement, and business performance  Innovation and Lessons Learned – some considerations may include the impact on R&D, acquired expertise, and business alignment Developing metrics around these success factors will provide the necessary visibility to clearly analyze where the project is today and where it is going so that key stakeholders can make appropriate adjustments and changes ultimately increasing the positive results of the NPD project. Resource Planning: Making sure the Baton Ends Up in the Right Hands Probably more than any other stage during an NPD project, the product launch stage will leverage the most resources in an organization. During this stage the effective use of resources will ensure a product’s successful production, distribution, marketing, as well as its movement along the supply chain impacting the bottom line. This stage is all about effective execution and the ability to streamline all processes related to a product’s launch. With so many steps in the process, developing an effective strategy to ensure that you have the right people every steps of the way requires careful and detailed planning of your resources. NPD Product Launch: Delivering the Product to the People © | Page 4 / 5 One of the biggest challenges organizations face during the product launch is adhering to projected timelines. Typically the biggest factor in timeline delays can be attributed to a shortage in talent and/or resource availability. Having an effective resource plan every step along the path and a risk management strategy in place to address unforeseen bottlenecks, will mitigate cost overruns and improve time to market of the new product. Successful resource planning goes beyond the intended project. In fact, the ability to have a complete view of existing resource utilizations and external resources across the entire portfolio of projects will deliver a more accurate depiction of resource performance within any given project. The truth is, in most project-centric organizations resources are shared across portfolios and having the ability to strategically focus resources and talent on the best fit projects will yield the best results. With this in mind, resource planning needs to be incorporated into an organization’s project portfolio management (PPM) strategy, especially during the product launch phase where the organization will face the heaviest usage of resources and where the successful execution of these activities are critical. The most effective way to start planning resources is to have a clear understanding of the strengths and limitations of your resource pool. Here are some questions project managers and resource managers should ask themselves:  Do we have the necessary talent and skills internally to execute? If not, do we have the means to recruit the necessary resources?  Do we have an effective way to gauge resources availability and skills across the organization?  Do we have a strategy in place for the “hand off” of activities along the supply chain?  Do we have a way to gauge to potential bottlenecks and/or issues?  Do we have a risk management strategy in place to address changes and emerging issues?  Do we have the ability to run “what-if” scenarios and see the direct impact of new resource assignments on existing projects? In the final analysis, effective resource planning during the this phase is all about planning for the unplanned as well as getting the most out of your talent without negatively impacting the overall goals of your organization. The truth is, it’s the people behind the execution that are responsible for the success or failure of a product’s introduction into the market. The Proof is in the Pudding: Careful Planning Will Mean Success Time and time again, history has proven that better planning will improve a project’s chances for success. For NPD projects, effective planning is delivered in multiple stages. Each and every stage requires an approval process that will evaluate the progress of the NPD project. Furthermore, each stage will have its own checks and balances assessing its own activities. This rigorous process is attached to strategic goals and/or critical success factors that drive a product’s final outcome. During the product launch, the careful planning achieved in previous stages is put to the test and the established objectives are hopefully realized. For many organizations the product launch phase can be the point of no return where time, money and resources are heavily invested into the project. From this particular reason alone, meticulous planning of activities and the flow of information from diverse stakeholders can mean the difference between success and failure. A successful NPD strategy will allow individual stakeholders (e.g. sales, marketing, distribution, engineering, production and operations) all have their valuable input in the product launch’s direction while still maintaining their departmental independence to execute their piece of the plan. In addition, global visibility across the entire product launch phase can be shared to assist in their own responsibilities, as well as provide the necessary visibility to project stakeholders responsible for the total success of the launch. NPD Product Launch: Delivering the Product to the People © | Page 5 / 5 Beyond the meticulous planning of resources and activities, a successful product launch plan must be inclusive and have the ability to be available to all stakeholders at any given time. Both collaboration and business process mapping strategies are necessary for a successful plan to achieve successful execution. After all, NPD projects are ultimately judged on the fruits they bear in which the market will determine once exposed to the newly developed product. Genius Project: Supporting Product Launch At the heart of every NPD project, lies the successful execution of the product launch plan transforming an idea to a commercially viable product ready for distribution to its intended market and consumers. Genius Project's resource and project planning capabilities allow you to develop a comprehensive project plan and provide organizations with clear visibility into their resource pool and talent responsible for project success. More importantly, Genius Project is shipped with a workflow engine that supports your phase review process ensuring that you are getting the most out of your NPD projects. In Genius Project’s Resource and Project Planning modules, the NPD product launch stage can be tracked and managed by allowing you to:  Support your entire NPD phase review and/or gated processes  Build complete product launch plans through a powerful Gantt chart  Effectively assign activities and have team members provide progress  Manage cross project resource usage and allocation conflict  Gauge resource availability and utilization keeping the plan on track  Create more effective and profitable project teams through appropriate staffing  Availability management and capacity planning  Provide a thorough and documented review process  Define common metrics, KPIs and risk factors for evaluating performance To learn more about Genius Project and its new product development and planning capabilities please go to: http://www.geniusproject.com