The best technology companies know that high performance teams are not just nice to have - they're critical to success. And can be your secret weapon for a competitive advantage. This is a workshop, conducted for attendees of the 2014 CoDev Conference (Jan 26-29, in Phoenix, AZ). You will learn the common (and most crippling) challenges that product development teams experience, and easy to apply processes and tools to get your teams back on track. These tools are from "Innovate Products Faster: Graphical Tools for Accelerating Product Development", and can be downloaded at www.tcgen.com/book/tools.

1. Managing High Performance CoDevelopment Teams
Scott Elliott & Jeanne Bradford, Principals
TCGen, Inc.
Presented by:
92 Crescent Street | Waltham, MA 02453 USA | Tel: 781-891-8080 | Fax: 781-398-1889 | www.CoDevPD.org

2. By the end of the session, you will be able to…..
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Assemble a high-performance co-development team, with clearly defined roles
and deliverables
Navigate different process, language & cultural issues across multiple
companies
Evaluate and monitor development partner’s capabilities
Define the project management style, process and check-in points for the team
Keep the project within bounds, or respond rapidly when it is out
Eliminate political roadblocks that throw teams off-track
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3. Agenda
1. Introductions
2. Building High-Performance Co-Development Teams
• Graphical Tools for Building a High Performance Team
 Break out 1: Identifying & resolving issues across development partners
• Graphical Tools for Managing the Team
 Break out 2: Construct an Attitude Influence Diagram
3. Extended Teams and Innovation:
• Crowdsourcing & Gamification
• Social Innovation Best Practices
4. Time for Action
 Break out 3: Creating an Action Plan
This is an interactive session!
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4. Instructor Biographies
Experience with Innovation & Execution
• Architected & implemented the Apple New Product Process
(ANPP) which is used by all Apple product divisions
• Co-Author, Innovate Products Faster
• Co-founder, TCGen, Inc.
• Consulted to leading companies including Cisco, Dolby,
Amazon and Hitachi
Jeanne Bradford
Scott Elliott
January 27, 2014
• Invented Surface Transverse Wave Resonator and High-Speed Optical
Photodiodes
• Former Operations Manager for the HP/Agilent Microwave Technology
Center
• Led HP/Agilent Management Consulting arm and HP Consulting Global
Supply Chain Practice
• Founded and led TechZecs LLC
• Consulted to leading companies including HP, NI, Keithley Instruments,
SGI, Agilent, and Verigy
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5. Introductions
• Introduce yourself!
• What are 2-3 things you’d like to get out of the workshop today
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6. High Performance Teams
Innovation & speed are lost or gained everyday at the team-level
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Key elements
– Well defined roles & responsibilities for team and management
– Core-team model customized for each project
– Empower the team with a high level of authority
– Instill a culture of trust and collaboration
Conditions for success
– Top management supports team autonomy
– Middle management supports cross functional approach
– Team members trained an adopt core team model
This is challenging within a company, and even more so across multiple
development partners!
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7. Co-Development: “Just Right” Processes
“Just Right” processes: the least amount of process, and not a bit less
Growing organizations
that need to scale
quickly
Large organizations
choking on
bureaucracy
But what happens when you and your development partners have a different
definition of “just right”?
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8. Team Collisions: Language, Culture, Decisions
• Often within a company, product teams don’t use the same language or
decision-making processes – let alone across companies.
• Team members learn to work within their own cultures.
• All of these elements get amplified when working across companies.
• Time is gained or lost everyday at the team level.
So how do you apply light-weight, “just right” processes that help you
navigate in the complex world of co-development?
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9. Graphical Tools for Building High Performance Teams
PROJECT TEAM WHEEL
FUNCTION PHASE MATRIX
Team
Leadership
Who’s Doing
What
ATTITUDE INFLUENCE DIAGRAM
PINCH POINT DIAGRAM
Politics
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Decisions
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10. Graphical Tools for Managing High Performance Teams
BOUNDARY CONDITION DIAGRAM
PARTNER PERFORMANCE RADAR CHART
Focus
Capability
PROJECT CHECK-IN TOOL
Agility
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11. Project Team Wheel
Identifying Project Team Leadership (and gaps)
What is a Team Wheel?
• A graphical snapshot of team leadership, critical functions of the project, and the specific individuals
responsible for each function.
• The concentric circles of the wheel differentiate between the project manager, the core team, and
the extended team.
• This tool provides a powerful picture of gaps in staffing and can drive decision-making to mitigate the
risks and avoid project disruption and delays.
Which Business Problems Does the Tool Solve?
• Illustrates any lack of adequate resources that is often at the root of project failures.
• This tool quickly identifies risk areas so they can be addressed before significantly impacting the
team's schedule.
• Reinforces product allegiance over functional allegiance.
Benefits:
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Helps to ensure that team members are available for your project
Visually identifies resource gaps on a team
Describes the extended team functions that a core team member represents
Minimizes surprises (or project failure) attributed to not having the right resources in place
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12. Project Team Wheel
Identifying project team leadership (and gaps)
Project Manager
Functional Leads
Extended Team
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13. Project Team Wheel
How to Apply the Tool:
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Step 1: The project manager creates an initial draft of the wheel by populating three concentric
circles with the project team resources.
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The innermost circle contains the project manager's name and title
The next circle is populated with titles and names of 4 to 10 core team functions that are vital for getting
the
product to market.
The outermost circle identifies the extended team that will supplement the core team. (More
appropriate for mid- sized and larger projects.)
Step 2: The project manager reviews this diagram with the core team and ensure they support
their roles on the project and agree to represent their associated members on the extended
team.
Step 3: The project manager reviews this wheel with the management team to ensure they agree
with the structure and are ready to support the project with the people and functions you need.
Create a Team Wheel for each project team
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14. Function Phase Matrix
Who’s Doing What, When
• What is the tool?
– The Function Phase Matrix is a table organized by key functions (rows) and
project phases (columns), indicating the activities that require completion
during that phase.
• Which Business Problems Does the Tool Solve?
– Clarifies roles & responsibilities – within your team & your partner’s team
– Identifies gaps/overlap
– Eliminates avoidable setbacks & increases the effectiveness of a project
team
• Benefits
– Ensures that you have cross-functional alignment at the phase/milestone
level
– Ensures you have all key deliverables assigned to individuals
– Is a scalable tool you can apply to large or small teams, simple or
complex projects, and local or globally dispersed teams
– Helps you align your team with product and delivery expectations when
you use it in management reviews
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15. Function Phase Matrix
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16. Function Phase Matrix
How to Apply the Tool:
• Step 1: Rows represent key functions. Columns represent project phases
• Step 2: Identify roles and responsibilities of team members.
• Step 3: Identify and assign expected deliverables.
• Step 4: Identify potential gaps and overlaps.
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17. Partner Performance Radar Chart
Evaluating Partner Strengths & Weaknesses
What is the tool?
– A radar chart used for partner selection and management
– Evaluates partner technologies, quality, responsiveness, delivery, cost &
environment
– Scoring identifies partner’s strengths and weaknesses
– Multiple partners can be assessed for comparison purposes
Which Business Problems Does the Tool Solve?
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Provides a consolidated view of partner capabilities
Provides a consistent evaluation across multiple partners
A vehicle for making trade-off decisions
Logically dividing the roles and responsibilities in partner management
Benefits
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Provides a common language across multiple organizations/companies
Quantifies partner/supplier performance
De-emotionalizes partner/supplier reviews
Partners/suppliers know what improvement is requireD.
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18. Partner Performance Radar Chart
Technology
Quality
Preferred
Environment
Responsiveness
Acceptable
Cost
Delivery
Unacceptable
How to Apply the Tool
• Assign a person or team to each axis (one team my have multiple axes)
• Agree on scoring criteria (e.g. 0 = no concept; 3= average practitioner; 5= recognized
leader)
• Connect the dots & evaluate most critical areas.
• Create an action plan to manage partner
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19. Break Out 1: Clarifying Project Teams Alignment
Project Team Wheel
Function Phase Matrix
Partner Performance Radar Chart
Break out Session Objective:
• Identify misalignments with your development partners functions or phases
• Identify 2-3 areas for immediate attention to resolve
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20. Pinch Point Diagram
Driving Critical Decisions
What is the tool?
• A process flow diagram that identifies where decisions are
required.
• Identifies ownership for process elements and decisions.
Which Business Problems Does the Tool Solve?
• Provides clarity of key steps within a process
• Provides an early warning for key decision points.
• Identifies unclear roles & responsibilities that impede
decision making.
Benefits
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Identifies unique escalation paths for tough cases
Speeds decision making
Improves the process flow
Faster and more efficient product development
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21. Pinch Points – Using the Tool
Example:
Resource planning for a co-development project
• Gather the key team members for a working
session
• Map a simplified process
• Add responsible person or team to each subprocess
1. Team Formed
Requirements
Scoped
Concept Team:
Lead by Program
Manager
2. Define overall
Scope & Skillsets
Needed
3. Identify Leads
4. Define
internal and
External
Resources
Required
5. Resource Plan
Finalized
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22. Pinch Points – Resource Allocation Decisions
• Discuss problem cases
• Abstract as “Pinch Point”
Bubbles
• Decide with team what the
“should be” process is in
each case
• Decide on Escalation Paths*
• Redraw the “Should Be”
process
• Get approval for the new
process and communicate it
1. Team Formed
Requirements
Scoped
2. Define overall
Scope & Skillsets
Needed
3. Identify Leads
Escalation
Path?
4. Define
internal and
External
Resources
Required
Concept Team:
Lead by Program
Manager
Resources
Thrust on
Team
Resource
UnderEstimation
Partner
Resource Underestimation
5. Resource Plan
Finalized
Unplanned
Features
*Best practice: Try for a single Escalation Path
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23. Keeping the Project On Track
What is the Tool?
 A set of boundaries that are critical for project success
Chart consists of lines representing the boundaries of acceptability.
 Core Project Team can execute without management intervention
unless a boundary is broken.
 If the trajectory violates a boundary, the Project Manager calls and Out-Of-Bounds meeting.
Which Business Problems Does the Tool Solve?
 Helps define the project expectations.
 Eliminates any delay in rectifying a project that is not meeting its goals.
Benefits
 Accelerates Innovation by ensuring alignment and focus on the critical elements of the
project
 Provides a clear distinction of “must have” elements
 Allows more autonomy for the team by creating a contract with management
 Helps make trade-off decisions at the beginning
 Provides a framework in which to quickly re-align the project if needed
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EXECUTION: MANAGING YOUR TEAM AND MEETINGS
Project Boundary Conditions
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24. Product Cost
$45 max BOM
Project Cost
$3.5M max
Quality
4 yr. MTBF
Features
200mW power
Works with Android, iOS
Schedule
Launch Oct 1, 2014
How to Apply the Tool:
• Number of key boundary areas determine the shape of the diagram.
• Identify 3-5 key elements of your project.
• Assign each element to a side of the diagram.
• For each element, state the specific boundary thresholds.
• Place specific details to define the conditions in boxes next to each boundary.
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EXECUTION: MANAGING YOUR TEAM AND MEETINGS
Sample Project Boundary Conditions
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25. EXAMPLE OF BOUNDARY BREAK TRAJECTORY
BOM cost improving
Product Cost
$45 max BOM
Project Cost
$3.5M max
Quality approaching
minimum
acceptable, but looks to be
OK
Features
200mW power
Works with Android, iOS
Quality
4 yr. MTBF
Schedule
Launch Oct 1, 2014
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Approaching Boundary Break
Team lost key engineer
3 week delay to replace
Call OOB Meeting!
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26. Out of Bounds Process
What is the tool?
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The flow diagram can be used to realign teams when a project has gone out of scope.
The tool provides a mechanism to quickly conduct a root cause analysis, evaluate alternatives, and
recommend remedies.
If a team has crossed boundary conditions, the tool can help course correct and realign to a new
plan.
Which Business Problems Does the Tool Solve?
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Is an effective recovery vehicle when projects run into trouble.
Creates a common language and mechanism to quickly align project and management teams when
a project changes significantly.
Eliminates wasted time trying to create an exception-handling process each time a deviation
occurs.
Benefits
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Helps you realign projects within hours/days, not days/weeks
Empowers the team to move forward with minimal guidance once management establishes
boundary conditions
Minimizes team confusion by establishing a single agreed-upon communication vehicle
Engages the team because of the greater trust that management places in them project manager.
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27. Get the team back on track – Quickly!
No
Potential
OOB
Situation
Identified
PM
Agree?
No
OOB
Assemble
Team to
Review
Yes
OOB
Meet with
Management
Propose
Alternatives
ID Root Cause
& Develop
Alternatives
Mgmt.
Agree?
Yes
OOB
Team
Agree?
Yes
No
OOB
Continue and
monitor
Boundaries
Commence
Alternative
Boundaries
How to Apply the Tool:
 Identify the root cause of the broken boundary.
 Make recommendations for resolving the issue
 Only 1 of 3 outcomes should come from Management Meeting:
1. Reset the boundary
2. Add resources or time to be able to make the boundary
3. Cancel the project
 “Just do your best” is not acceptable
This process should be completed in hour or days – not weeks
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28. Project Check-Ins
What Is the Tool?
• Replace formal Project Checkpoints with
informal “Check-ins”
• Just check adherence to Boundary
Conditions
Which Business Problems Does the
Tool Solve?
• Saves time spent in preparing review slides
• Frees resources for innovation
PROJECT CHECK-IN TOOL
Benefits
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Encourages innovation by empowering the team
Increases motivation due to the trust placed in the team
Facilitates speed since the team is empowered to make decisions
Keeps the team focused on the core value propositions
Is a repeatable lightweight process
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29. Project Check-Ins
How to Apply the Tool
• Set the Boundary Conditions – team and management agree
• Team empowered to make decisions within the boundaries
• Periodic, informal “Check-In” meetings defined – minimal management, no formal
slides. Low number of Check-Ins.
• Out-of-Bounds conditions held in a different meeting
PROJECT CHECK-IN TOOL
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30. Attitude Influence Diagram
Eliminating Political Roadblocks
What is the tool?
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A tool to identify your projects key supports and detractors
A scatter plot diagram that shows the relative influence and attitudes of the key staff
members who will be involved
A subjective assessment, but very powerful tool to quickly identify those who might
block your project
Applied early in the process, this tool will provide you with the opportunity to
proactively manage detractors to ensure their concerns are addressed – and
sometimes converted to supporters
Which Business Problems Does the Tool Solve?
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Resistance and politics can slow teams down
This graphical technique pinpoints people and their position so that you can use your
time wisely
Benefits
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Provides a new methodology for accelerating decisions
Identifies supporters and detractors that will impact your probability of success
Helps you avoid mistakes in the implementation process
Creates a framework for managing proactive discussions and positive influence
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31. Attitude Influence Diagram
How to Apply the Tool:
Step 1: Generate a list of those who might impact your program.
Step 2: Identify the most positive and most negative and plot them against the two axes.
Step 3: Then as you populate the chart, you can gauge comparisons against the two
extremes. Note: the size of the bubble indicates the difficulty of influencing their position.
Step 4: Look at the quadrant of high influence and negative attitude to focus your efforts
and work on those individuals who are most likely to threaten your success.
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32. Attitude Influence Diagram
Eliminating Political Roadblocks
Focus efforts here to
move detractors to
supporters
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33. Break Out 2: Attitude Influence Diagram
Break out Session Objective:
• Identify a project you’re working on that it at political risk
• Apply the AI tools to identify key detractors
• Develop 2-3 actions to move detractors to supporters
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34. Extended Teams & Innovation
• Innovation - Extending a development team
• Crowd Sourcing + Gamification
• Social Innovation Best Practices
1. Time-Bound Innovation
2. Dedicated Innovation Teams
3. Understanding Customer’s Environment of Use
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35. Crowdsourcing: finding the right team
Crowdsourcing is the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by
soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online
community, rather than from traditional employees or suppliers.
*Wikipedia
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“We is smarter that Me”
Crowd, not Riot
Not everyone has a qualified voice!
Vibrancy and focus will make or break it
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36. Gamification: engaging the team
Gamification: the use of game thinking & game mechanics in non-game
contexts to engage user in solving problems*
*Wikipedia
Gamification & Product Development: provides a mechanism for disperse
teams to collaborate and prioritize product features and technical solutions
• Innovation Tournaments
• Innovation Challenges
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37. Social Innovation
• There is an increasing trend to apply social technology platforms to address the
complexity and challenge of product development.
• Joined by Santa Clara University Professors who shared our interest and passion, we
performed a multi-client benchmark study, and simultaneously launched research on
this emerging topic.
• Who is leading the charge and what have they learned?
• Identified 10 best practices of applying these emerging technologies
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38. Social Innovation Best Practices
1. Innovation can be time-bound.
2. Targeted application of social media methodologies can result in faster time to
market and lower cost by reducing product definition expense.
3. The quantity of data from customer/community is not a substitute for quality
input.
4. There is no need for investment in home-grown social media tools.
5. Two types of resources: dedicated resources to help accelerate; part time resources
that have social media experience.
6. Bridging generations: younger members of the workforce typically have greater
social media competencies; older workers tend to be the decision makers.
7. Executive sponsorship is not required to deploy social media for product
development, but you can get a lot more done with it.
8. The most effective communities have: small number of closed and managed
communities, are time bounded, and contain user generated content.
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39. Time Bounded Innovation Community
IBM Jams
Action
Report
Project
Initiation
Jam preparation: marketing,
training/recruitment, site preparation
Live Event
Post-Jam Analysis
and Implementation
The IBM Jam accelerates innovation & consensus by combining an optimized process for innovation with
technology to help with communication, filtering, and idea enhancement
Practice
• The live Jam duration is typically one week but can be as short as 72 hours
• Real time data analysis tools scan forum comments to identify hot topics and emerging themes
• Lack of anonymity ensures that feedback remains constructive, even if critical
Quickly increase the front end of the innovation process by reaching out to relevant community voices
Goal
• Transcend culture, generation, language, and geographic challenges to harness collective brainpower
for a given problem or challenge
• Use online, virtual collaboration to drive increased real world collaboration across the enterprise
Quickly harnessed innovation on new problems with large, distributed organizations
• Within seventy two hours hundreds of ideas can be generated
• Technology provided the ability to draw upon experts repeatedly because the responses are traceable
• The Jam process yielded prioritized and manageable solutions with a direct line of sight from idea to
execution
Result
Social Media isn’t limited to ongoing communities - well defined sessions & qualified
participants can be leveraged effectively as a time bounded, high impact initiative.
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40. Rapid Idea Generation & Dedicated Team
Use out-of-box platforms to quickly harness innovation on new problems within large, distributed
organizations
Practice
• Leading platform allowed this study participant to quickly construct campaigns and helped
them to gather ideas from employees
• The platform also has mechanisms of voting and collaboration, so participants can put concepts
out there and employees can contribute to them, and then re-vote on the enhanced ideas
There is an urgent need for larger companies to innovate, but their size often makes it more
difficult. This study participant formed a small group to serve as an innovation
management team. They work with all the various software and solutions business units on
their specific innovation plans and objectives.
Goal
• This team is a central group that helps put tools in place, create templates, and guide the
teams.
• An implementation strategy that allows the flexibility to customize the platform and to
share data across business units was instrumental to the success of this organization.
The dedicated innovation team was widely tapped to help accelerate operating businesses
achieve their innovation goals.
Results
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•
•
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Campaigns ramped up and were running in less than a week
In one case, a campaign generated 200-400 ideas in 2 weeks.
Response tracking within the platform gave teams the ability to draw upon experts repeatedly.
This platform is being used by divisions with upwards of several thousand people.
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41. Understanding the Customer’s Environment of Use
In designing a new cosmetic line, the company asked their target market (busy moms) to
photograph and share their empty purses to help design the ideal “mobile” cosmetic solution
Practice
• This company used a closed community, where they shared photographs and provided input on
their biggest challenges with using the product
• The design team used these photographs to understand the environment of use
• Photographic input is much richer than a survey, and is much more accurate because it does not
rely on memory
• By sharing the photographs the moms can share experiences and provide a more meaningful
context for probing and further exploration
Increase number of products delivered and significantly accelerate time-to-market
Goal
• This organization had a desire to increase revenue from new products
• This technique was also able to reduce the cost of product definition since customer
visitation was done via the internet, not in person
Set new standard for production delivery - 12 new products in six months
Results
• Inclusion of the photographs from the focused target market enhanced contextual product
definition and allowed the company to realize that many cosmetic product could be included in
one package
• The process ‘virtualizes’ customer visitation, a best practice for product definition
Capturing specific environments of use allows your customers to make the highest value contributions
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42. Break out #3: Time for Action
• Break out session Objective:
– Avoid “offsite amnesia” – applying what you learned.
– Identify 2-3 tools that you can start applying with your
teams/partners.
– For each tool, identify the next action
• What, with whom, by when
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