Khurana and Rosenthal (1998) - Towards Holistic "Fron Ends" In New Product Flashcards
When should you use holistic front ends in NPD
When competing on the basis of innovation
What are the front-end activities
- product strategy formulation and communication,
- opportunity identification and assessment,
- idea generation,
- product definition,
- project planning, and
- executive reviews
What is a holistic approach?
Combining 4 categories:
- Product strategy
- Product definition
- Project definition
- Organizational roles
What are the Front-End success factors?
Product strategy: strategic alignment between NPD and strategy, product positioning, NPD portfolio planning - balance risks & resources available
Product definition: early, sharp definition; preliminary market and tech assessment; detailed customer needs analysis; priorities for product features; recognize need to change definition
Project definition: project priorities; resource allocation planning; planning for technical/market contingencies
Organizational roles: project manager’s role; team organization throughout NPD; managing communications
front end 3 phases and tasks:
Prehase zero:
- opportunity identification: idea generation, market & tech analysis. includes 3 kinds of visions: business, project, product (product & portfolio strategy)
Phase zero:
- product concept
Phase one:
- Feasibility and project planning
tasks they need to do:
- identify customer need, market segment and competitive situations
- technology evaluation of current capabilities and requirements, alignment with existing business and technology plans
- identify core product requirements
- test the concept
- specify the resources needed to complete the project
- identify key risks and challenges
Key roles during front-end phases
- core team: cross-functional group responsible for key activities in phase 0 and 1
- project leader: facilitator, communicator and motivator
- executive review committee: provides essential checkpoints, go/no-go decisions
- senior management: general guidance underlying the formulation of product strategy, portfolio plans, and project resource plans
When are you more successful?
(1) link business strategy, product strategy, and product-specific decisions.
- product strategy includes: formulation and communication of strategic vision, new product portfolio at business unit level, product-platform strategy, product-line strategy as basis to support go/no-go decision
(2) senior management provided consistent leadership.
(3) understand the significance of a holistic approach -> instituting a formal, widely accepted process, or using cultural control as means of integration and organizational understanding.
- involve cross functional team:
Formalization of front-end:
leads to improved and speedy decision making, brings order to somewhat chaotic activity.
(1) process orientation; formal front-end process is explicit, widely known, characterized by clear decision-making responsibilities and specific performance metrics.
(2) explicitness of product definition and related issues; core customer benefits were cited while selecting product features, early prototypes were built and tested, alternatives were analyzed early on, proposed technologies were justified with care.
product concept should be defined explicitly enough to support analysis of the market and financial prospects for that new product, and to serve as basis for planning and scheduling the product development project. Goal -> keep product definition stable to avoid unreasonable delays.
(3) broader set of business considerations while making project justification decisions. -> incorporate downstream requirements in early product definition
risks of formalization of front-end
absence of formality or excessive reliance on it.
Culture driven approach in front end
(1) strong organizational culture based on cross-functional interactions
(2) “Subtle control,” i.e., ambiguous direction from management, and consensus and agreement among development stakeholders
(3) Deep understanding of new product development, including complex interactions, by key organizational members
attention on ensuring the key considerations - business vision, technical feasibility, customer focus, schedule, resources, coordination - were always on the mind of all key participants.
On what does the holistic front-end depend?
product context: more radical products tended to be defined less explicitly in the front-end
market context: front-end needs to be shaped in light of two kinds of external factors: market leadership & type of customer (proximity).
Organizational context: compatibility of roles played by core teams and senior management: overseer role - senior management actively leading and guiding the way -> drastic shifts within industry and strategic reorientation of company, PDP invovled a consortium of companies, product was complex system comprising several subsystems. =-= coach - guiding team members if and when they are in trouble, otherwise letting them follow their strategy and game plan -> good when substantial experience and succes in front end.
