Running new products like a venture portfolio

The challenge

The company had a strong record in its own markets and the markets next to them. New products for new markets were harder. Part of the cause was the rigidity of its standard product development process. Its leaders wanted new product introduction to run more like a venture capital firm: close to customers, iterative and rigorous, with failing products found and stopped early.

The approach

1. Set the goals with the leaders. We agreed what the new process had to achieve with the executive and product management teams.
2. Compared the process with leading practice. A gap analysis against leading practice in new product introduction, with each recommended change marked for now or for the longer term.
3. Improved the process for products already in flight. More than ten new products were due to launch within six months, and the company wanted the new practices applied to them at once. A lean process improvement project ran on them, alongside the gap analysis.
4. Put the effort behind the likeliest winners. The changes pointed the teams at the products most likely to deliver customer value and succeed at launch.

The results

• More than $2 million saved by finding the products likely to fail at launch, early, and putting them lower on the list.
• Stronger customer validation for the products that went ahead, to raise their odds at launch.
• Many of the immediate recommendations put in place.
• Broader changes under way, to run new product introduction more like a venture capital portfolio.