Product Development is how your company competes. It needs to incorporate all three elements of a competitive system.
The Product Development Team is not just the horizontal cross functional team, but also is the vertical axis that crosses hierarchical boundaries.
The Product Development System does not function mechanically. Rather, it functions organically, maturing and growing stronger over time.
Product Development is how your company competes. It needs to incorporate all three elements of a competitive system.
The Product Development team is not just the horizontal cross functional team, but also is the vertical axis that crosses hierarchical boundaries.
The Product Development System does not function mechanically. Rather, it functions organically, maturing and growing stronger over time.
Investment Strategy
The actual marketplace competition fulfilled by product development begins with strategic decisions about how to execute the product roadmap and elaborate the product portfolio. The informed decisions that lead to the significant investments incurred by product development create both the range and limits on profitability and corporate growth over the mid-range future. This late maturing subsystem determines the level at which you'll compete.
Strategic Planning
The work that culminates with a successful new product being delivered to market initiates with the development of a Strategic Plan. The compass heading provided by the plan informs decision making throughout the organization, including within the other PDOS subsystems. Critical decisions regarding the investments in the development of core and other competencies, as well as of new products align to the strategy.
Knowledge Based Decision Making
The Knowledge Based Decision Making subsystem is the Product Development sibling to the executive function's Fact Based Decision Making. While KBDM permeates successful Product Development organizations, in the actual competitive venue of development projects, the critical decisions that are captured as the product Concept are informed by pre-existing and newly generated knowledge of the marketplace and of corporate capabilities.
Innovation (New Knowledge)
The Innovation subsystem elevates the competitive capability of the organization, its competences. It creates new knowledge in the form of disruptive technologies and novel methods of applying current technologies. It focuses on challenging all existing organizational standards, looking to continuously improve how it operates, and to compete in the marketplace from a position of greater strength and competitive advantage.
Knowledge Base
Knowledge is the Value currency of Product Development, and the PD Knowledge Base supports and glues together the other PD operational subsystems. The PD Information System, beyond housing data and information that serve as the building blocks of PD knowledge, also holds standards, transactional processes' workflow, and functional tacit knowledge shared between project teammates. PLM has emerged as the critical PDIS tool.
Project Execution
The Project Execution subsystem is the part of the Product Development System that in the most narrow of views is seen as Product Development. The realization of the expanded view of the Product Development System does not diminish the critical importance of execution. Supported by new execution paradigms and product development specific information technology tools, longed for improvements in project predictability and reliability are now being achieved.
Expert Workforce Development
In any competitive venue, it is understood that success ultimately relies on having great players. The competitive performance of your players is developed outside of the bounds of the competition itself. The intention of, commitment to and execution of investing in all of your product - development - critical subject matter experts - your assets - not only directly results in a more competitive team, but facilitates the recruitment of additional skilled players.
