It seems that everyone has been talking about metrics for years, yet few companies are satisfied that their metrics are the best they can be. It’s time to get back to basics. This pre-conference work session is designed for product development leaders who have more important endeavors to undertake than metrics, yet are keenly aware that implementing metrics correctly adds a necessary and useful tool to their professional toolbox. The session draws upon over fifteen years of research and experience in real-world product development metrics and incorporates an interactive component where the participants will generate a set of practical engineering metrics using a simple, proven method.

This workshop will walk your through the foundational elements of metrics (what they are and what they are not) and will outline metrics best practices as well as common mis-steps. Case studies will be reviewed in the areas of measuring both hardware and service development and then proceed to more challenging metrics including measuring co-development, innovation and customer needs. Participants will then be facilitated through the process of systematically generating, evaluating and prioritizing a basic set of engineering metrics. Within those metrics, the group will specifically address distinctions between:

·         Predictive versus results metrics

·         Leadership-level versus project / performing organization metrics

·         Culling the “critical few” versus scorching the earth with “massively many” metrics

Workshop Take-Aways:

·         An understanding of best practices in engineering metrics

·         Specific examples of metrics implemented by leading companies

·         Hands-on experience generating a basic engineering metrics framework

Wayne Mackey's expertise is grounded in over twenty years of hands-on leadership of large engineering, manufacturing, and procurement organizations. His management consulting is focused on product / service development, and he is especially effective in collaborative design, metrics, portfolio management and business strategy implementation. He is co-author of the new book “The Value Innovation Portfolio”.

GGI research in the late 1990s indicated that companies have many metrics in R&D and Product Development. However, these metrics are generally not well organized and do not facilitate horizontal linkage with cross-functions and vertical linkage across levels of the organization. The frameworks that do exist, such as a “scorecard that is balanced,” have more utility in transaction processing functions than they do in the inventive functions of Marketing, R&D, and Product Development. In 2002, GGI introduced a new metrics framework to industry aimed at inventive functions called the Linked Metrics Portfolio™. Approximately one hundred companies now have an application of this framework in their organization. In 2006, the USPTO granted intellectual property rights to GGI for this differentiable framework.

This workshop was designed to help companies construct a Linked Metrics Portfolio™ for their R&D and Product Development capabilities. Participants will leave the session having completed a draft of a portfolio of metrics that link at least three vertical levels of the NPD organization(s) together and most of the cross-functions that are engaged in NPD. The session will cover the following topic areas:

Morning Session

• State of Practice of NPD Metrics

• NPD Metrics Frameworks

• Corporate NPD Metrics

• Project NPD Metrics

• Functional NPD Metrics

• Improvement of NPD Metrics

Afternoon Session

• Organize Working Groups Based On Strategy & Industry

• Construct Project Metrics Portfolio

• Construct Functional Metrics Portfolio

• Determine Metrics To Link Upward In NPD Organization

• Construct VP-Level Overall NPD Metrics Portfolio

• Select The Few Metrics To Link Upward To CEO

• Polish The Linked Metrics Portfolio™

• Report-Out Your Portfolio To Fellow Workshop Participants

It would be helpful, but not required, to have a computer with you during the afternoon session. Portfolio templates will be available manually and in .ppt format. Teams of three or more people from the same company will work together as a group. Individual attendees will be grouped by company strategy [Innovator, Innovator-Extender, Balanced, Extender] into working groups of 5-7 people to collaborate in the creation of a portfolio. Please come prepared to roll-up your sleeves and generate a linked portfolio of metrics that will be readily adaptable to your company when you return home.

Braford L. Goldense is President of Goldense Group, Inc. [GGI], a nineteen-year old consulting and education firm concentrating in advanced business and technology management practices for line management functions. Mr. Goldense has consulted to over 150 of the Fortune 1000 and has worked on productivity improvement and automation projects in over 400 manufacturing locations. Abbott Laboratories, Bayer, S.C. Johnson, Ford, General Motors, John Deere, Philips, United Technologies, Carrier, Molex, Monsanto, Bose, and Shure are among GGI's clients. Prior to founding GGI in 1986, Mr. Goldense held positions at Computer Sciences Corporation's Index Group, Price Waterhouse, Lester B. Knight & Associates, and Texas Instruments.

Timothy P. Kirby has five years of industry experience spanning professional services, event planning, customer service, marketing, and sales. He has worked in the management consulting, executive education, aerospace, retail, and food service industries. At GGI, Mr. Kirby has worked with pharmaceutical and biotech companies, electrical and electronic component and systems manufacturers, and companies involved in the delivery the voice and video equipment and services. Mr. Kirby holds a BS in Business Administration at Northeastern University with concentrations in new venture management and marketing. Tim is a Member of the WW Board of Directors of the Society of Concurrent Product Development [SCPD]. He is a member of the American Production and Inventory Control Society [APICS] and is currently pursuing Certification in Production & Inventory Management [CPIM].
 

High performance companies have little patience with innovation organizations that act more like tenured academics than a proactive part of growing the business. Likewise, highly skilled innovators will not join or stay in an organization where their creativity is not valued. To rapidly make the transition from a collection of unfocused professors into an innovation competitive weapon, companies must clearly define the innovation skills they will need now and in the future and then communicate them throughout the organization.

In this highly interactive workshop, participants will:

1. Review examples of the critical few skills needed for the future from best practices across industry groups

2. Review a case study of one organization’s journey to better innovation organization skills

3. Develop a set of simple Excel-based "skills matrixes" for each major innovation job function

4. Learn how to distribute the matrixes via email and combine the returned data simply and efficiently

5. Use the combined data to define group training needs, individual development actions and outside hiring requirements

Key take-aways from this session include:

1. A menu of best practice innovation skills from industry leaders

2. A process to develop skills matrixes for any job type

3. A process to efficiently use skills matrixes in your organization

Wayne Mackey's expertise is grounded in over twenty years of hands-on leadership of large engineering, manufacturing, and procurement organizations. His management consulting is focused on product / service development, and he is especially effective in collaborative design, metrics, portfolio management and business strategy implementation. He is co-author of the new book “The Value Innovation Portfolio”.