A

Balancing Tradeoffs Between Speed, Flexibility and Cost

Some product developers unthinkingly pursue speed to market when a related development objective, such as minimizing variation in delivery date or the flexibility to make late changes would actually suit their objectives better. Others opt for speed when optimizing product cost or performance or minimizing project cost would make them more money. Some follow a detailed process and avoid mistakes so that they don’t waste time on rework.

This workshop will help you to select your speed objective wisely for each project, choosing the development approach that suits your business objectives and making decisions consistently throughout the project consistent with your chosen approach. It will also sensitize you to unproductive tangents to rapid development that are likely to derail your desires for speed, such as the concern that speed is achieved by “skipping steps” or that speed leads to lower costs.

Come to this workshop to put speed into a context that suits your business objectives rather than just blindly pursuing speed because everyone else is. This workshop will be interactive; you will try out the techniques to see how they work.

What You Will Learn

• How to calculate the cost of delay

• The other five trade-off rules and how to calculate them

• Handling special cases and checking your calculations

• What happens when you demand speed, cost, and scope without prioritizing?

• Is flexibility more valuable than speed, and how can it be achieved?

• The doing-it-right-the-first-time trap

Preston Smith began specializing in rapid product development in 1984 as an internal consultant, became an independent management consultant concentrating on time to market issues in 1986, and earned Certified Management Consultant (CMC) standing in 1990. He has led more than 100 workshops in 23 countries on advanced product development topics. Over a 20 year period prior to becoming a consultant, he held engineering and management positions with North American Aviation, Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, IBM, Bell Laboratories, and General Motors Research Laboratories. Preston is co-author of the popular book, Developing Products in Half the Time. Preston is book review editor for the Journal of Product Innovation Management. He holds a Ph.D. in engineering from Stanford University, and is a member of the Product Development and Management Association, the Society of Concurrent Product Development, the Agile Project Leadership Network, and the Agile Alliance.

B

Accelerating Innovation with the Right Strategic Choices and Practices

This workshop will provide you with a framework to make the right strategic choices on innovation for your industry. It will also examine specific practices and tools used by leaders to move ideas quickly through the development pipeline. The session will include a self-assessment on product development maturity, and exercises on how to apply the tools within your company.

Specifically, attendees will learn how to:

• Make the right strategic choices to enable speed
• Apply a comprehensive framework to reduce time-to-market
• Enable better and faster decisions from idea through launch
• Facilitate faster project execution
• Use different approaches to speed-up breakthrough vs. incremental innovations
• Leverage metrics to guide and drive continuous improvement

Mitch Beaumont is a Principal in the Product Innovation and Development practice area of PRTM. Based in PRTM’s Newport Beach, CA office, Mitch has hands-on expertise in helping companies achieve long-term business objectives by transforming their capabilities in the areas of product innovation and development. His clients are established and emerging companies in the medical equipment, biotechnology, wireless communications, automotive, and consumer electronics industries. Mitch is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a BS Degree in Electrical Engineering and the University of Southern California with an MS Degree in Electrical Engineering. He received an MBA Degree from The Anderson School at UCLA.

Richard Meyer is an Associate in the Product Innovation and Development practice area of PRTM. Based in PRTM’s Newport Beach, CA office, Richard has worked with companies across a range of industries, including automotive, industrial, defense, energy services, healthcare services, and medical equipment. He has extensive strategy and planning experience, and he has helped to improve the time-to-market and investment efficiency of product development organizations. Richard is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley with a BS and an MS in Mechanical Engineering and the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan with an MBA.

C

The Right Toolbox for High-Speed Innovation and NPD

There are countless tools available to the new product developer. Many of them claim to improve development speed, but many of them are self-serving hype or appropriate to only the narrowest of situations. This workshop will help the learner become a product development tools strategist. Attendees will get an overview of the toolbox, and a more systematic approach to selecting tools that are most appropriate to their situation.

The workshop will be highly interactive, and some pre-workshop reading and preparation is necessary. Through this “action learning” approach, participants will be able to express their specific needs and get tailored attention.

Topics may include:

• Agile Product Development

• How to remove speed bumps and rigidity from your development process

• How to front loading the development process to achieve maximum speed

• Rolling wave technique for managing project planning and execution

• Selecting project lifecycles that foster flexibility

Greg Githens is an expert in innovation, new product development, and project delivery. He has over 25 years of experience in program management and strategy related to new product development. As senior contributing editor for PDMA Visions magazine, Greg has earned a reputation for effectively communicating pragmatic, insightful product innovation tools. Greg is also co-author of Successful Project Management and a contributor to the PDMA Toolbook for New Product Development.

D

Accelerating Global Teams and Alliances

A global team can be very powerful and effective in high-velocity new product development. A team of international partners can work around-the-clock to introduce compelling new product into either local or global markets, taking advantage of global skills, diversity and capacity. However, these alliances and partnerships must be formed and managed carefully, with the right communications every step of the way.

Forming and managing global alliances for NPD takes tough decisions, investment, excellent planning and special skills. In this workshop, you will learn:

• How to decide what pieces of the project to outsource or off-shore

• How to organize for global team building and management

• How to set and manage expectations

• How to collaborate remotely, minimizing travel

• How to build this team for long-term success

Scott Elliott is well known globally for his experience in high-tech and electronics design, manufacturing and supply chain management. With over 25 years of engineering, management and consulting experience, Scott brings unique, practical insight to all aspects of technology business, including business strategy alignment, supply chain management, world-class manufacturing and R&D management. He is founder and Managing Partner of TechZecs LLC, a global firm that practices consulting and interim executive management for high-tech companies. Scott holds bachelors of science, masters of science, and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of California.