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2.2 Obtain customer involvement over the entire time-to-market cycle

Summary
Best product teams/organizations involve the customer during each phase of the TTM cycle (not just the development portion) to assure product superiority and a shorter TTM schedule.

Normally, customer information is gathered at the front end of the development cycle with after-the-fact feedback at beta.  Information typically comes through the sales account team or the marketing function.  The quality of the information may be further eroded, depending upon the quality of the relationship between marketing and development or the project team.

2.3 Quickly find out the requirements necessary to make the product superior in satisfying the customer's business solution

Summary
Best product teams/organizations distinguish between customer requirements and product specifications.  They work hard to get requirements right in terms of the solution the customer is really looking for.

Normally, specifications are considered "right" regardless of customer need.  "Customers typically don't know what they want. If they do it usually confirms what we already knew."

2.4 Quickly convert priority requirements into product specifications

Summary
Best product teams/organizations develop product specifications by:

• Systematically studying the customer's priority requirements.

• Learning and responding to the total customer satisfaction "formula."

Normally, customer requirements are skipped in favor of going directly to product specifications.  Customer input is acknowledged only when large customers complain.

2.5 Use short form specifications to start design concurrently with refinement of customer needs

Summary
Best product teams/organizations develop short form ("abbreviated") specifications in order to start design while they are concurrently refining customer requirements and product specifications.

Normally, work on product design does not start until specifications are fully defined.  Or, design begins with few, if any, specifications.

2.6 Use flexible containment to delimit and converge specifications

Summary
Best product teams/organizations recognize that freezing specifications does not take into account the changing needs of the customer over the development cycle.  Instead they:

• Work consciously to minimize the "change volume."
• Attempt to incorporate as many changes as possible early in the development cycle (when the rework penalty is less).

 

Normally, a change control strategy does not exist or is ad hoc resulting in an arbitrary freezing of specifications or a large volume of specifications that tend to rise throughout the development cycle.

2.7 Cannibalize and expand your own product lines with rapid incrementalism

Summary
Best product teams/organizations make rapid and incremental changes to their own product lines consistent with changing customer requirements. They're willing to "cannibalize" their own inventory if necessary.

Normally, the team is reluctant to "cannibalize" its own products.  Big projects are common and they get bigger during re-plans. Developing "incremental derivative products" (from a "platform") is not common.

3.0 Right Time

Product life-cycles are short and steep, and there's a great deal of competition from Asian and now third world countries--especially in the high technology sector. Therefore, entering the market at the Right Time is critical to a company's survival. This almost always involves being first to market, at the time when demand is just beginning to accelerate. By entering the market at the Right Time, companies can sometimes contract to sell at the highest average selling price for an extended period of time, avoiding the price degradation that inevitably occurs over time. FastWorks provides tools that turn the schedule from wishful thinking into a dynamic tool for managing the process, reducing time-to-market without compromising other requirements:
Ensure that the organizational structure supports fast teams

Know the cost of being late to market, and use that cost-of-delay as the primary driver for speed. Implement fast decision-making procedures that authorize fast starts. Make schedule KING. Create fast schedules and rigorous tracking systems.

3.1    Implement fast decision-making procedures that authorize fast starts and provide fast guidance
3.2    Make schedule king
3.3    Fast schedules and rigorous tracking systems
3.4    Throughout the host organization, emphasize team and cross functional processes to accelerate better provisioning
3.5    Install a rapid decision-making forum
3.6    Know the cost of delay and use it as the primary driver for speed

3.2 Make schedule king

Summary
Best product teams/organizations recognize the cost of being late to market, that for every day saved there is an enormous leverage on profit. Therefore, maintaining or pulling in the new product development schedule is of the highest priority and has a high profile within the company.

Normally, to "make schedule king" would require significant, perhaps unacceptable, trade-offs to quality and/or costs.

3.3 Create fast schedules and rigorous tracking systems

Summary
Best product teams/organizations use critical path scheduling systems and involve the whole team in interactively planning the program. These teams spend 3x the time in planning their work than normal teams. They reconcile the schedule to the targets and if the gap is too great, kill it before it starts. When started they aggressively refresh their plans every week and are constantly looking for ways to pull-in the schedule – before it slips.

Normally, when schedules exist they are not reflective of what is actually happening on the program and therefore not used by teams to manage the work effort. Schedules don’t represent the “real” time necessary to accomplish the goals, but rather reflect the “not bought-in to” program targets of senior managers. Large slips are typical and unforeseen.

3.4 Create a fast organization structure: fast provisioning with minimum interrupts

Summary
Best product teams/organizations promote and create mechanisms to provision the product teams quickly with resources, information and fast guidance where required. The host organization works with the product team to minimize the schedule impediments.

Normally, product teams and the entire development organization "default to delay" much of the time because they are waiting for the hierarchy to decide/act.