Are You Successfully Launching New Products into the Market?
If you are not satisfied with your new product launches or your success rate is still below expectations, this article may be of interest to you.
It is typically a challenge for big companies to launch new products or technologies to the market on time, on quality, on cost and meeting or exceeding objectives.
While many companies are successful in the research and development of new technologies, before launching them into the market, they have to go through a very complex internal process shaped by organizational structures, internal boundaries, bureaucracy and politics.
Managing product launches successfully implies clear goals and strategies, influential leadership, discipline, technical and commercial mastery, rigorous process management, problem solving, effective upstream and downstream communication, teams’ spirit, focus and commitment.
However, before forming a team to launch a specific product, technology or service, you need to make sure that this is indeed the right product, technology or service to be launched, that the odds of success are the highest possible, and that the company actually has sufficient human and financial resources to make it happen.
Some elements of a Successful Product Innovation Process and Product Launch are briefly described below:
1. Innovation master planning.
I still remember those early days in my Product Innovation Leader Role, when Initiative Master Plans were nothing more than a wish-list of good ideas. Typically, Marketing and Product Research would put on the table the available technologies and ideas and decide on timings without input from other commercial and technical experts. To make matters worse, many times they would commit these new products to customers, putting the organization under big stress with poor outcomes. Before trying to make an Innovation Master Plan out of only Brainstorming, the functional top leaders must start defining clearly the goal the company must achieve and the right strategies that will make it happen. Based on those strategies, technical and commercial resources would start producing the ideas that would eventually become projects. Available technologies and the time to have them qualified will help mapping out the timeline of the innovation master plan. This plan must be realistic, achievable, and financially measurable to be able to support the targeted business growth.
2. Constrained Resources allocation analysis.
As you probably know, there are three critical elements that must be in place before deciding to execute a certain project: People, Time and Money. In this section, I will focus on People, as Time and Money should not be constrained if we previously did our Master Planning job right.
Projects require human effort. The effort is assessed based on the technical complexity implied in the scope. Although I have observed constraints mostly in the technical area, the analysis must be done based on your known constraints. The effort will vary by function and by project stage, so the experts must estimate the portion of full-time resource needed by stage. The end result will be the sum of all full-time portions along the project life, allowing us to uncover if there are sufficiency gaps or not.
3. The art of successful Initiative/Project Management.
Initiative management is an art. For many years I had to play the role of Project Leader with my teams spread all over the world. Guiding teams through behaviors, actions, skills and approaches needed to effectively manage the Stage / Gate Decision-Making Process demands Influence, Focus, Discipline, Interpersonal Skills and effective Top-Down Communication from the Project Leader. The Leader is the expert of the Initiative Management Process and the engine that will keep the project moving fast while balancing the risk. The strength of the multifunctional team will depend in a great part on the mastery and direction of the Project Leader.
4. Stage/Gate Decision-Making process.
The concept of Stage/ Gate Decision Process is not new. Its origins date back to the 1940’s, but Robert D. Cooper took it to the next level in 1986 with his book “Winning at New Products”. The process I was able to master during my time in P&G was mainly based on Cooper’s concepts. Every initiative must go through clear Decision-Making Process, divided by Stages, with a clear Decision Criteria by the end of each stage and a good picture of the implications moving forward to the next phase. This will keep the project moving fast while balancing risk. The Project Leader is both the owner of the Stage/Gate Decision-Making Process, and the driver of the Decisions to be made by the Stake Holders.
5. Multifunctional team’s effectiveness assessments.
Project Leader must be watchful at all times of the health and effectiveness of his or her team. A Team Effectiveness Assessment Tool must be available for the Leader to conduct the analysis at any time during the life of the project, as soon as performance gaps are detected. Available tools like “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” from Patrick Lencioni are of great help and available as needed.
If you are interested in learning more about our course to increase the success rate of your new product launches, email us at TalentDevelopment@grupoazimuth.com.
Mauricio Velázquez García