The Product Pulse

It has been an amazing year in the product portfolio management space and it is time to reflect on accomplishments and new goals on the horizon. As the year comes to a close, I'd like to share the most popular product development resources of 2011. The list covers a variety of information on how PPM tools coupled with best practices can achieve a greater ROI while effectively managing resources to maximize productivity. It's a good set of reference material as you begin planning initiatives for 2012.

Five most widely read product development resources of 2011:

1. Navigating the New Normal: How Companies Handle the Portfolio Management Question -- The article addresses how companies are navigating the potential pitfalls and unknowns facing product development professionals today.
2. Improving Portfolio Decision Making -- Author Jim Brown of Tech-Clarity reveals how PPM plus best practice processes are a great enabler of ROI for product development firms the world over.
3. Right Resources, Right Management, Right Time -- The video highlights how to effectively allocate and manage resources to maximize productivity.
4. Play to Win with Your Product Portfolio -- The webcast shares proven strategies on how to confidently assess the value of your product portfolio and improve the odds of success.
5. Innovation Tools: Enablers or Derailers? 4 Easy Steps to Keeping It on the Rails -- The post provides answers on how to drive measurable business results through innovation processes and tools.

We want to hear from you. What resources did you find beneficial and why? Did you find a particular subject valuable that did not make the list? Tell us why by posting a comment below.

Happy New Year and I look forward to connecting with you in 2012!
Linda

"Innovate or Die." It's the current battle cry for businesses trying to get or stay ahead of the competition and remain viable in the market. But how do you avoid innovation for innovation's sake, and instead drive measurable business results through innovation processes and tools?

Birds of a Feather Innovation Leaders Workshop

I learned the answer to that question (and more) at the Birds of a Feather Innovation Leaders Workshop in Chicago a few weeks ago. The event was sponsored by Brightidea and hosted on the Kraft campus. The speakers were great and I especially appreciated their willingness to share what did and did not work in their innovation endeavors. Here's the Cliff's Notes version in four easy steps:

1. Prepare to Innovate!
   Often companies jump right into idea collection with their employees and customers, desperately searching for the next big thing without giving any consideration to organizational preparedness. I think it was Yoda who said: "There is great responsibility in receiving the idea." Okay, maybe it wasn't Yoda, but it sure sounds like him because it is so profoundly true. For successful innovation, it's necessary to ensure the organization:
   1. is in the right mindset (that of problem-solving)
   2. has supporting processes and tools in place
   3. is properly structured/staffed to execute the processes and administer the tools
   4. is culturally prepared to respond.
   Whatever you do, don't skip these steps! It will sink the innovative spirit of the organization and backfire in harmful ways. I'm not saying you need to spend months and years getting ready to innovate; I'm just recommending that you have answers to the above questions to ensure you are equipped to handle and implement the changes innovation programs can bring.
   
   
2. Focus! And Capture Needs BEFORE Ideas!
   There is a time and a place for the electronic employee suggestion box and open innovation. But having a short-term (2-4 week), focused innovation campaign that gives people a specific problem to solve often leads to more valuable results. And by narrowing idea capture down to a specific problem to solve, it's much easier to define metrics (hard or soft) to determine success and benefit.
   
   
3. Brand It, Baby!
   One way to get people excited about driving innovative results is by branding and marketing your innovation tool and specific campaigns. With today's technology, there is no excuse for rolling out a vendor-branded software tool. Presenters at the conference had full-blown advertising campaigns, including videos to explain the objective and generate hype, and logos with associated color schemes to skin the software. Re-branded programs and tools had names like "Think Tank" and "Idea Kitchen" to really capture the attention of idea submitters. Some companies even sponsored specific "Innovation Days" around a particular campaign to encourage involvement and ownership. Don't fall victim to assuming that "if you build it, they will come." (Field of Dreams; not Yoda.) By branding your innovation program, you're sure to drive quality ideas that deliver results… because it is, after all, about the results.
   
   
4. Show Me the Money!
   Sometimes solving a problem and the feeling of accomplishment in contributing to the success of the company is a reward in itself. But for most of us, a little incentive or some recognition for the great, problem-solving ideas we submit goes a long way. You know how it feels when you put thought and effort into something and it seems as if your idea has dropped into a black hole where there is never so much as a reply or simple, "thank you." It sucks. And why would you waste your precious time on something to which management is only giving lip service. Whether feedback comes in the form of public recognition for being a top innovator (that's FREE for all of you penny pinchers keeping track at home) or in the form of a big fat check (option B, please!), it is critical for the success and sustainability of your innovation program to reward good ideas.

So there you have it, Product Pulse Peeps…innovation in four simple steps. Implementing an innovation tool and program isn't hard, but you can't skip any of the steps if you want to drive real results. As it relates to innovation, Yoda would say (and this time, you can look it up!): "Do or do not. There is no try."

"It's the best thing since sliced bread!" Cliches like this stick around for a reason. To this day, we hear this statement everywhere. So, arguably, sliced bread must have been considered a pretty darn good invention. Or at least one would think. But what do we really know about how sliced bread was invented? I decided to find out.

In 1912, an Iowa inventor named Otto Rohwedder invented a bread slicer. Bakers of course declared it totally useless, since sliced bread would quickly grow stale. For most people -- end of story. But not for Rohwedder.

For 13 years, he searched for ways to hold the slices together, including -- believe it or not -- hat pins. It wasn't until 1927 that he partnered with Frank Bench of the Chillicothe Baking Company in Missouri. Together they created the Rohwedder Bread Slicer, which not only sliced the bread, but wrapped it too, which kept the bread fresh.

And so, the Chillicothe Baking Company was the first to sell sliced bread in 1928. In 1930, the first commercial machines were used in the US and UK under the Wonderbread brand. And by 1933, over 80% of all bread sold was pre-sliced.

So what are the lessons from this?

• Don't think "better," think "different": Rohwedder decided to eliminate a manual task rather than improve it. He didn't focus on making it easier to slice bread, he removed the need to slice it at all by selling it pre-sliced! In Selling the Invisible, Harry Beckwith said, "It's fine to do something 15% better until someone else does it 100% different." Or as Henry Ford put it, "If I asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse."
• Just Do It!: Rohwedder built countless prototypes and persisted for years. He kept moving forward trying different things. Award-winning design firm IDEO calls this "enlightened trial and error." Besides, as Walt Disney said, "It's kind of fun to do the impossible."
• Don't Be Put off by Gaps; Address Them: Instead of being discouraged by the gaps in his product, Rohwedder relentlessly sought to address them, applying the same creativity that he brought to the original invention.
• Seek More Brainpower: It wasn't until he partnered with Frank Bench that Rohwedder made a significant breakthrough. Organizations can do this by leveraging the collective intelligence of their employees, suppliers, and customers.
• Embrace Technology: It was Bench's technology that enabled the combination bread slicer and wrapper. Is technology a commodity? Rohwedder and Bench didn't think so. Neither do Apple, Wal-Mart, or Google.

Through these timeless and proven strategies, Otto Rohwedder transformed an entire industry and the consumer lifestyle that continues to this day. In fact, next year will be the 100th anniversary of his first model.

Social Media is a fact of life. It impacts not only our personal lives every day, but our business lives as well. Malcolm De Leo, Chief Evangelist at Netbase, is responsible for helping people see the power of social media as a data source for driving the business. Join us at PIPELINE 2011: The Online Conference for Innovative Product Development where Malcolm, during his closing keynote presentation, will share how social media fits into your organization's innovation process.

Malcolm has recently blogged about the challenges and impact of social media in the Enterprise. He says:

"… About two months ago I discussed the concept of culture based adoption. This idea, which discussed how new software is as much about getting people to use new tools as it is about changing culture in the process, is at the center of the social media debate in my mind.

For many months, I have learned much about what I consider the slow adoption of social media as a data source. In working with many companies in many fields, I have heard many reasons why they are slow to integrate what is clearly impacting all of us everyday. It's not accurate. It's biased. Only gen y is online. Companies are poisoning the data. The list goes on and on. But what often amazes me is this. When confronted by what I consider fear of change within the corporation (a topic of the politics of innovation), I always ask people one simple question. When you are about to buy an appliance or an electronic product what is the first thing you do? The all say go to the web and read up. This to me highlights the struggle social media faces within the Enterprise. The ENTERPRISE is not telling the WE or the ME (my earlier post) that social media is extremely important. There is cultural misalignment and therefore resistance to this new and powerful idea. The proof is in the fact the everyone (ME) turns to the web immediately about hundred times a day through their phone."

Read Malcolm's full blog post at The Innovation Muse-ings.

From the convenience of your desktop, join us and watch Malcolm's presentation at PIPELINE 2011. You'll find that it's not unlike live conferences: you can connect with other attendees, hear keynotes, choose speaker tracks, network, access sponsor resources in the Expo Hall, etc., -- with one major difference. You don't have to leave your desk.

Oh, and did I mention it's free? Check it out at www.PIPELINE2011.com.

Not a day goes by in which I am not asked: Carrie, what do you see as the coming trends for product development companies? (Well, maybe a day or two passes without the question -- but with my travel schedule, I can be awfully hard track down.)

Given that, I thought I'd share with you the Top Five Trends for Product Development Companies that I've collected from gurus around the world.

1. Portfolio Management: It's not just for IT anymore
   It used to be that IT was the only part of the organization applying the portfolio management discipline to its decision-making process. No more. I'm seeing a tremendous uptick in the number of R&D and Engineering groups applying portfolio management to the product portfolio.
   
   Why? According to Dr. Bob Cooper, Co-Founder of Stage-Gate and acknowledged braniac, "in order to win when developing new products, you must do products right and do the right products." And portfolio management can help you do both. It's really a natural fit.
   
   
2. Ideas, I need more ideas!
   Here at Planview, we recently surveyed 900+ people in our 2nd annual product development benchmark survey. "Not being able to drive innovation fast enough" has moved up to a top 3 pain point -- from #6 last year -- neatly trading places with "cutting costs without cutting the future."
   
   Driving innovation by getting more ideas into the funnel, and using smart, collaborative software to manage these ideas, is critical as we all go from cost-cutting recessionary moves to growth- and innovation-intensive tactics in this new economic environment.
   
   
3. People, I need more people!
   Ouch. Year after year -- as validated in our benchmark survey -- "too many projects for our resources" is the dubious winner as top pain point that product organizations face.
   
   Companies must place greater emphasis on resource capacity planning as part of the investment decision making process. No longer can they afford to look at their product portfolio myopically based solely on financial impact.
   
   
4. Incremental will only get you incremental
   The economy's back: now, it's about the breakthrough ideas -- creating products that are new to the world and that will drive new revenue. Investing only in incremental innovation -- enhancements and modifications -- is safe, which is great when you're hedging your bets. Your competition isn't hedging its bets. Should you be?
   
   Smart product organizations strive for a balanced product portfolio, with resources (people and money) allocated both to breakthrough and incremental innovation. Just ask our good friends at Kalypso -- they'll point you in the right direction.
   
   
5. It's a green world after all
   Whether it's a household cleaning product or an airline, a product's brand is now encompassing the impact on the environment. Selecting the right offerings for a product portfolio now is as much about their sustainability as it is about price point, market timing, competitive impact, and more.
   
   But while we all want to buy the world a Coke and sing in perfect harmony, the reality is that companies must make intelligent portfolio selections based not only on their green impact but also on their bottom-line impact, and will be making careful tradeoffs to ensure a pipeline geared to deliver the optimal mix of both.

So there you have it, Product Pulse Peeps… the top five trends I'm seeing for successful product development companies. Tell me what you're seeing!

Happy New Year, Product Pulse Peeps!

At the end of last year, I was lucky enough to attend the Stage-Gate® Innovation Summit 2010. In addition to getting some quality time to swoon over my professional crush, Dr. Bob Cooper (I even got to get my picture taken with him -- he looks less excited than I do), I was fortunate enough to hear Dr. Scott Edgett speak on raising the bar in product innovation. As always, this dynamic duo got me thinking.

Carrie Nauyalis, Dr. Bob Cooper, and Dr. Scott Edgett
at the Stage-Gate® Innovation Summit 2010

Similar to the 2010 Product Portfolio Management Benchmark Survey sponsored by Planview and presented at Pipeline 2010, Stage-Gate recently completed a study to determine how businesses are doing in the product development innovation arena. One dataset that struck me was this one:

• Average business' rates of commercial success = 52.3%
• Average business' rates of failure = 26.5%
• Average business' rates of "kill prior to launch" = 21.2%

The curious point about this: Stage-Gate reports that this 52% success rate (higher than what I've seen reported from some other research and analyst groups) is actually a bit lower than what they've seen in the past. The reason for this decrease, according to Dr. Edgett? In 2010, companies invested less in innovation. Very interesting, Dr. Scott.

For me, a prime take away from this study is that we must raise that bar if we're going to raise the commercial success rate of our product development efforts. 2010 was a year for retrenching and rethinking. 2011 invites us to raise the bar on innovation.

So, what are your goals for driving innovation in 2011 and for increasing your company's success rates? Click on the Comment link above and share your company's grand plans for 2011! (Dare ya!)

I was re-watching Chris Trimble's PIPELINE 2010 presentation -- if you haven't seen it yet, you should check it out, it's free -- with an eye to doing a post about one of his key themes (the conflict between Operations and innovation) but realized I'll need to come back to it in a future post. Rather, what makes sense to speak to now, seasonally, is something he alludes to a couple of times: that of the responsibility of innovation to change the world.

At the beginning of his talk, he says that "I think we've lost our way a little bit… because we've let innovation become synonymous with the latest cool gadget… To me, innovation is much bigger than that. To me, innovation is about changing the world."

Sure, I like my iPhone. And with my Causeworld app, I can "check in" to local businesses and then donate my points to charities (hint, hint: download it, it's free). But let's take it to the next level, hmm?

I was watching a recently posted TED Talk video of Tata Motors' engineer RA Mashelkar -- a super-inspirational fellow in his own right -- titled "Breakthrough Designs for Ultra-Low-Cost Products." I don't know where you're reading this, but I'm writing it from the comfort of my American desk with all my American creature comforts. Mr. Mashelkar's reality -- the Indian reality -- is one of a country where 4 billion people earn less than $2 a day.

He talks about Tata Motors' founder, Ratan Tata, giving a small team of engineers the charter to design a car that could hold an entire Indian family safely. His only restriction: it could not cost that family more than $2,000. His only edict: question the unquestionable. Tata was so successful with the Tata Nano that every major car company on the subcontinent has now released its own nano-sized vehicle. But just as importantly, he made Indians believe that they, too, were equal to the dream of car ownership. Ratan Tata is India's Henry Ford (one who puts kids through school. Watch the video.)

He also talks about the Jaipur Foot -- prosthetic limb replacements that are fitted on the spot. In the US, this costs $20,000. The Jaipur Foot costs $28 (I’m sure these prosthetics aren't apples-to-apples comparisons, but for the Indian man who could never afford the US version, having this option must be amazing). I'm not going to do it justice, so watch the video, at about 10:35 in, you will see a man climbing a tree, then jump down and run up and down the lane, all with no pain. It's truly joyous.

This, then, is what the business of innovation can be about. Applying our smarts and technology to generate awesome revenue streams while making a difference in the world.

Innovation is a two part challenge. First, you need the breakthrough idea. Then, you have to execute it. Unfortunately, the second step is usually underappreciated or overlooked. Chris Trimble, author of The Other Side of Innovation has spent more than ten years studying this topic. On November 10, 2010, he's going to share his findings about the one thing that vexes even the best-managed corporations: how to execute an innovation initiative.

Not ready to jump on another plane to hear nuggets of wisdom? You don't have to. That's because Chris is presenting about innovation in an innovative way -- at a virtual conference called PIPELINE 2010: The Online Conference for Innovative Product Development. If you've never attended a virtual conference, you'll find that it's not unlike live conferences: you can connect with other attendees, hear keynotes, choose speaker tracks, network, access sponsor resources in the Expo Hall, etc., -- with one major difference. You don't have to leave your desk.

Oh, and did I mention it's free? Check it out at www.PIPELINE2010.com.

Consumer Goods Growth & Innovation Forum Review -- Part 2 of 3

The 2010 Consumer Goods Growth and Innovation Forum did a great job selecting its panel of presenters, especially in light of their theme of New Product Resurgence: Bringing Back the Consumer and Driving Growth. They found a winner when they invited Michael Becker from the Mobile Marketing Association to present. Becker has a wealth of knowledge on all things mobile, especially as it relates to using mobile technology for marketing purposes. Just check out his latest book: Mobile Marketing for Dummies.

Becker presented a session at the Forum titled Reaching the Consumer through Mobile Marketing, covering new and innovative ways consumer goods brands can use mobile marketing to engage existing and potential consumers around new product ideas. He gave oodles of amazing examples from around the world on how manufacturers and retailers are using mobile technology to drive revenue and secure extreme brand loyalty.

Here are a few of the most progressive and forward-thinking case studies on mobile marketing that Becker cited:

• The retail electronics giant, Best Buy, is employing mobile marketing in a big way to interact with consumers online and in the store. Shoppers can text a product number to receive more detailed information and product specifications than could ever fit on a store shelf, and can then compare products without ever having to talk to a salesperson. Additionally, they can download the iPhone Best Buy app to see weekly deals and make purchases, thus driving incremental online sales.
• Ringtones have become such a personal expression of individuality but can also communicate a message or promote a brand. In an effort to encourage the use of condoms in India, a mobile phone ringtone campaign was combined with television, audio, and online ads to advertise safe sex practices as being "a smart choice."
• Calvin Klein Jeans did something quite clever with one of their most recent billboard advertisements in both NYC and LA: instead of plastering a delicious, black and white photo of a saucy, young model up on the billboard, they put up a QR (quick response) code titled GET IT UNCENSORED. The amazing thing about the billboard -- Calvin Klein's target audience (young, attractive,  tech savvy, hip, twenty-somethings) knew EXACTLY what to do with the QR code. Once passersby accessed the video, they could then share the QR code with their friends on Facebook and Twitter. Talk about a product going viral! And as a bonus to all of this, Calvin Klein got useful statistics on their consumers.

Having a strong web presence and being active on social media sites simply isn't enough anymore, especially if your target consumer is a member of the Attention or Social Age, succeeding those geezers in the Information Age. Mobile marketing is viral, global, and is only going to grow over the coming years.

Becker's recommendation to the CGT Forum attendees was to "mobile-enhance" traditional marketing methods, focusing on ways to integrate mobile rather than focus on mobile marketing by itself. So to that, I say:

Part 1: Move Over P&G and J&J: Now There's Something a Little More “Quirky” in the Mix

Consumer Goods Growth & Innovation Forum Review -- Part 1 of 3

The 2010 Consumer Goods Growth and Innovation Forum just concluded in South Beach on Friday with a big bang… including a spontaneous and refreshing F-bomb from an amazing new innovator. But, more on him in a moment.

This year's conference, produced by CGT, had a theme of New Product Resurgence: Bringing Back the Consumer and Driving Growth. The conference presenters represented a who's who list of consumer product giants, including Kraft, Mars, Colgate-Palmolive, and Kimberly-Clark. They covered a variety of topics on everything from Brand Management to Developing Leadership and Talent. The sessions and personal exchanges amongst the 50+ executive attendees were rich, engaging, and motivated towards sincere, helpful solutions based on real-life experiences.

One of the biggest highlights of the event was the presentation of the Innovation Awards. Some of the winners included the new Liquid Pencil made by Newell Rubbermaid, the new Jeans Diaper made by Kimberly-Clark, and the big, grand prize winner: MooBella Ice Creamery Machines. While all of the attendees were given a Liquid Pencil (I used mine to draft this blog post -- thank goodness it erases!), we were disappointed that there were no MooBella samples to enjoy. (Hint, Hint for next year, Bruce!)

For me, the two presentations that stood out the most were Ben Kaufman, Founder and CEO of Quirky, on Group Think Tank, and Michael Becker of the Mobile Marketing Association on Reaching the Consumer Through Mobile Marketing because they demonstrated the true spirit of innovation, how quickly consumers are maturing, and how rapidly the products game is changing overall.

While Michael Becker's presentation on Mobile Marketing left many furiously adding items to their marketing To Do List (more on him in Part 2 of this Forum Review), I must first share my enthusiasm for the presenter who left my jaw hanging open. Please allow me to introduce to Ben Kaufman:

• Ben started his first company, Mophie, the day he graduated from high school.
• Six months later, Mophie took home the Best of Show award in the innovation category at MacWorld with his invention: the Song Sling for the iPod Shuffle.
• The next year at MacWorld, Kaufman felt like he had to top the previous year's win, so he handed out pencils and notepads to attendees on the trade floor, asking them to come up with new product ideas for the iPod accessories. The crowd delivered with 120 unique ideas. The Mophie gang scanned them in, allowing over 30,000 people from around the world to collaborate to develop a brand new product in 72 hours: the Bevy.
• Ben Kaufman was named the #1 Entrepreneur under 30 by Inc. Magazine in 2007.
• Mophie got acquired around the same time and Ben immediately started his next company, Kluster, to develop the technology platform to gather direct consumer feedback from around the world.
• Based on Kluster's technology, he then founded his current passion: Quirky. Ben wanted to share the thrill of taking a product to market with the world. So every week, ideas are submitted online, the community votes, submits product names, comes up with a logo, and by Friday afternoon a new product is born. Everyone who participates in the process shares in the profit. Killer, huh?
• Oh, and did I mention he's is only 23. He'll turn 24 next month. Happy Birthday, Ben!

Kaufman's keynote presentation covered much of his personal history, which, in itself, is completely inspiring and fascinating. But he had some terrific lessons learned to share with the legendary experts in the room, especially as it relates to innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit. Quirky and Kaufman have tapped into the inventor in all of us. Consumer goods companies can certainly learn a lot about the products consumers want to buy from focus groups and customer satisfaction surveys. But the times… they are a changin'. And I believe that innovators like Kaufman are leading the way on how to do this in a new "quirky" way. (Oh, and yes, Ben was the one who dropped the F-bomb during his presentation. It was classic!)

Part 2: When Is a Phone No Longer a Phone? When It's a Way to Connect with Your Target Market!