Tag: Smart Innovation

Robert G. Cooper On Winning At New Products

by Bright Osadiaye, posted in Improve Academy, Leadership, Management, Workplace Learning
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My Takeaways:

‘A superior and differentiated product- one that delivers unique benefits and superior value to the customer- is the number one driver of success and new-product profitability.’

‘Building in the voice of customer is one of the strongest drivers of new-product profitability, and also of the time efficiency. But the great majority of companies miss that mark here- with insufficient VoC and no fact-based customer insights.’

‘People don’t know what they’re looking for until they see it or experience it. So get something in front of the customer or user fast- and keep repeating these tests all the way through to formal product testing or field trials.’

‘Introduce tough gates with teeth and kill the weak projects. The ressult is better focus- fewer but better development initiatives.’

‘The ability to leverage core competencies- both marketing and technical- are important project screening criteria. Attack from a position of strength!’

‘A cross-functional team, with clearly assigned and accountable team members, on the team from beginning to end, and led by a highly visible team leader, is a common denominator in best-innovating businesses.’

‘Gates prevent projects from moving too far ahead into the next stage until the critical activities have been completed, and in a quality fashion.’

‘Manage risk by breaking the process into increments. When the uncertainties and unknowns are high, keep the spending low.’

‘If you want speed to market, then focus- resource your projects properly.’

‘Agile breaks development into a series of short time-boxed sprints, typically two to four weeks long.’

‘The agile process is very fast and responsive- it is not plan based, but more ‘plan on the fly,’ sprint by sprint.’

‘Of the five most important drivers of businesses’ new product performance, idea management has the strongest impact.’

‘Customer visit teams are valuable for gaining real insights into the customer’s world: the ability to identify and focus on customer problems and unspoken needs, a Vital source of product ideas.’

‘Your own employees are excellent potential sources of new-product ideas. Yet all too often, internally generated ideas are either mundane or not acted upon.’

‘Project selection is part of the broader topic of portfolio management. It’s necessary to look at the broad topic- portfolio management- in order to be effective at project selection.’

‘Strategy drives your portfolio.’

‘The best way to destroy true or bold innovation in your business is to have tough early gates and use rigorous financial criteria to make these early Go/Kill decisions.’

‘Make project teams accountable for the projections they deliver. That way, projections are more realistic and accurate, and data integrity improves.’

‘Learn from the best-innovator companies. Develop a protocol for your gate meetings, including rules of engagement. And make sure there’s a process manager in the room with the authority to facilitate the meeting and enforce discipline.’

‘Your product-innovation strategy consists of the goals, objectives, and role for product innovation in your business; your strategic arenas- where you’ll focus your new-product efforts; where and how you’ll deploy your resources; and your attack plans- how you’ll win in targeted arenas.’

Source

Robert G. Cooper (2017). Winning at New Products: Creating Value Through Innovation

‘Competing Against Luck’

by Bright Osadiaye, posted in Health & Well-Being, Improve Academy, Leadership, Management, Personal Development, Workplace Learning
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‘Once you understand the customer’s Job to Be Done, it brings into sharp relief the true competition you face to be hired. This provides critical information for how to innovate to make your solution more attractive than any competitor’s.’

‘Seeing your customer through a job lens highlights the real competition you face, which often extends well beyond your traditional rivals.’

‘Closely studying how customers use your products often yields important insights into the jobs, especially if they are using them in unusual and unexpected ways.’

‘Developing a full understanding of the job can be done by assembling a kind of storyboard that describes in rich detail the customer’s circumstances, moments of struggle, imperfect experiences, and corresponding frustrations.’

‘As part of your storyboard, it’s critically important to understand the forces that compel change to a new solution, including the ‘push’ of the unsatisfied job itself and the ‘pull’ of the new solution.’

‘If the forces opposing change are strong, you can often innovate the experiences you provide in a way that mitigate them, for example by creating experiences that minimize the anxiety of moving to something new.’

‘After you’ve fully understood a customer’s job, the next step is to develop a solution that perfectly solves it. And because a job has a richness and complexity to it, your solution must, too. The specific details of the job, and the corresponding details of your solution, are critically important to ensure a successful innovation.’

‘Processes are invisible from a customer’s standpoint– but the results of those processes are not.’

‘When managers are focused on the customer’s Job to Be Done, they not only have a very clear compass heading for their innovation efforts but they also have a vital organizing principles for their internal structure.’

‘How you solve for a customer’s job will inevitably change over time; you need to build in flexibility to your processes, to allow them to continuously adapt and improve the experiences you deliver.’

Source:

Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, and David S. Duncan (2016). Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice