Hands-on tips for improving NPD results by leveraging project team experience

1. To Err is Human,
To Keep Repeating Mistakes
is Bad Business:
Learning as an NPD Tool
Kenneth Bruss. Ed.D.
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2. Lew Platt, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard
observed:
“If H-P knew what HP knows, we would be
three times as profitable. ”
Source: Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What they Know, Davenport &
Prusak, Harvard Business School Press (1998)
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3. Implications for NPD
• The innovative nature of NPD is inherently risky
• While risks can’t be totally eliminated NPD organizations can gain
competitive advantage by acting on “lessons learned”
• Successful managers ask new teams how their plans reflect
experience gained from similar projects, and delay approval for
project teams that haven’t done their homework
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4. NPD Learning Flow
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5. Collecting Actionable Learning
• After Action Review (AAR) is a structured meeting providing
a simple but rigorous approach for analyzing the effectiveness
of an event or action
• Unlike a post-mortem held upon project completion, AAR’s
are held throughout the life of the project, enabling lessons
learned to be applied real-time when they can have greatest
benefit
• Compares what actually occurred to what was planned
• Identifies what was unique to this program and what is more
broadly applicable (e.g., system or process flaws which cut
across programs)
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6. Key AAR Questions
1. What were desired outcomes?
2. What were the results
3. What accounted for the results – attaining the goal
or variances (+/-)
4. What have we learned?
• What contributed to our success, which we should repeat?
• What mistakes should we avoid in the future?
5. What are next steps for the team, and for sharing
and acting on the learning outside of the team?
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7. Sample AAR
I. Objectives II. Results
A. S/W release by 6/5/09 A. SW release pushed out to 8/14/09
B. Hit revised SW release B. Missed revised date; released
date of 8/14/09 11/5/09
C. Reduce data entry time C. Successfully reduced data entry
from eight minutes to time from eight minutes to four
six minutes per report and one half minutes per report
III. Reasons for Results
A. Why was original S/W release date revised?
1. Lead developer quit early in the project…..
2.
B. Why did team miss the revised S/W release date?
1. Failure to adequately assess impact of lead developer’s departure:
1.a. Team failed to re-set the schedule to reflect major resource
change
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8. Sample AAR (cont.)
C. What enabled team to exceed data entry reduction goal?
1. Team successfully leveraged tools developed from Adare project
2.
IV. Lessons Learned
1. Faced with major resource change, thoroughly assess impact on
schedule
2. Although this was a derivative design, S/W development was not
derivative. Failure to realize this resulted in an unrealistic schedule.
V. Next Steps
Action Item Owner Due Date
1. Review LM3667 resource plan & schedule Steve 12/9/09
2. Discuss at PL staff meeting the need to Mark 12/16/09
revise New Project Assessment to ensure
better vetting of “derivative” projects
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9. Sharing Learning: Sample On- Line Library
Key features:
• Easily searchable
• Contains both AAR and key contact links
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10. Would your NPD Process Benefit from
Strategically Managing Lessons Learned?
• Are you satisfied with your new product success rate?
• Do your new products release on time and on budget?
• Do you effectively manage risk?
• Is re-work decreasing?
• Are you leveraging past experience to predict and
mitigate bottle necks?
• Are you able to transfer successful practices among
teams?
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11. Best practice companies recognize that “before,
during and after a project there are opportunities
to leverage the experience of others, and thereby
increase organizational effectiveness”
Source: Collison & Parcell – Learning to Fly, Capstone Pub., 2004
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