The Honeymoon is Over - Now What? How to Leverage, Integrate and Combine Product Offerings Post Merger/Acquisition 

Event Summaries—Related Links: Audio | Transcript (17 pages) | Slides (23 pages)

The last decade has seen massive corporate consolidation in a number of industries. While the reasons for this trend are many, most acquirers seek to incorporate the acquired technology into the product line offerings as quickly as possible. This is easier said than done as statistics show that 83% of all mergers and acquisitions fail to achieve increased shareholder value after one year. In this audio session, Tim Bosch, chief architect in the medical division of Foliage, a technology consulting and product development company, discusses strategies for beating this statistic. Based on successful examples of how companies effectively plan their post-acquisition product integration activities, Bosch advises firms how to perform in-depth due diligence; he then describes how to define a sound business, product and technology strategy and ensure that these strategies align. Bosch also discusses how to view the R&D budget as the driver of revenue growth and profitability. As industry expansion continues to drive new cycles of innovation, the winners of the battle for market share, says Bosch, will be those who can best leverage their combined technology assets to provide differentiated value to both their customers and shareholders.
(10 pages)

Encouraging Innovation Through Accurate IP Valuation 

Presentations—A Presentation by James W. Markwith, Attorney, IP&L Microsoft Corporation

In this presentation, Intellectual Property (IP) expert James Markwith posits that without accurate IP valuation proper investment decisions are impossible.  To help meet this challenge Markwith first reviews the nature of IP valuations and explains exactly why accurate IP valuation is important.  He then discusses components for success, those factors that may determine whether or not innovations will be profitable.  In this section he examines, in particular, the issue of dependencies on third parties and also provides a checklist for IP value.  Markwith characterizes four common IP valuation techniques: cost-based, income-based, market-based and real options-based approaches, including a brief case study of the latter.  The presentation concludes with a review of the consequences of inaccurate IP valuation and a summary of the findings of the presentation.
(19 pages)

Talk to Your CFO - How to Justify New Product Investments  

Presentations—Many product developers become more broadly involved in business issues as their careers grow. This means that they need to communicate effectively with business and finance executives.  But without understanding the financial principles of investments, this is often an uphill battle. This presentation by finance and R&D expert John Farnbach, presents the principles, formulas, metrics, and tools that a financial executive uses to evaluate business investments. Using examples from product development, Farnbach presents the essential financial models for investment analysis; basic concepts such as Discounted Cash Flow and Cost of Capital; a comparison of common new product metrics; spreadsheet functions to calculate investment metrics; and ways to structure the project portfolio for higher financial return. This presentation provides the background information for CTOs, product development executives, product managers, and project leaders to learn to understand the financial executives’ point of view enabling them to build stronger business cases for new product investments.
(37 slides)

The Portfolio Sweet Spot – How Do You Use Customer Value to Set Product Priorities? Audio Session Summary 

Event Summaries, Presentations, Transcripts—Related Links: Audio | Transcript (21 pages) | Slides (42 slides)

In this presentation, Richard Tait of Product Development Consuulting, Inc. presents the three key value dimensions that determine the portfolio sweet spot and should be used for portfolio decision-making: customer value, strategic value and investment intensity. To deliver customer value, says Tait, understand what drives customers, what motivates them:  what are the obstacles that get in their way? What’s made their jobs and their lives frustrating, difficult, challenging, impossible? What gets in the way of them being successful, both as an individual and for their company? Creating customer value involves eliminating these pain points. Strategic value is the measure of how effectively an element of the portfolio supports and drives the success of the strategy of the business unit or enterprise, and enables a business unit to meet its strategic objectives. Investment intensity is the combined level and profile of the complete complement of resources (people, dollars, materials, intellectual property, etc.) to develop a product and support its commercialization in a way that meets the targeted strategic objectives of the business. In addition to the three key value dimensions, Time-to-Market and Core Competencies are critical measures for achieving strategic balance. In this audio session, Tait presents tools to qualify and quantify many aspects of each of the three key value dimensions and to display them in a consistent fashion.
(11 pages)

Seven Keys to Avoiding the Traps that Annual Planning Sets for Product Development: Audio Session 

Event Summaries, Transcripts—A presentation by Bob Becker of Product Development Advantage Group

Related Links: Audio | Transcript (24 pages) | Slides (40 pages)
In this audio session, Bob Becker posits that an over-emphasis on detailed annual planning often leads to dysfunction. In addition to strategy shifts, product development portfolio changes should be driven by customer needs, market opportunities, resource availability, and new technological capabilities, which operate on a different cadence than the fiscal year. The best product development situation is where there is a continuous flow of products moving through the pipeline with a mix appropriate to meet both the sales targets and longer-term strategy. In this session, Becker describes seven symptoms of dysfunction often associated with annual planning and offers seven approaches to reconciling fiscal years with the many benefits of continuously generating, vetting, and then driving the best product development efforts forward.
(11 pages)

A Capacity-Based Governance Method for Improving Engineering Performance: Audio Session Summary 

Event Summaries, Transcripts—Related Links:  Audio | Transcript (19 pages) | Slides (24 slides)

In this audio session, Ross Seider, a senior partner of On-Fire Associates describes a visual, spreadsheet-based model for capacity governance that looks at capacity planning from the standpoint of the complete project portfolio. This capacity management process creates a visualization that allows participants to prioritize activities, allocate resources, and evaluate shifting resources.  Eventually, the participants in this process agree on the drawing of two horizontal lines on the visual model that distinguish between high priority projects, which are likely to be fully funded, a second level of partially-funded projects, and projects that will not be given resources during the planning horizon. This process is owned by engineering and product management; it encourages participation from all other groups in the development chain and from other stakeholders; it runs periodically; it is very efficient in terms of management time since it is performed multiple times per year; it is a distributed process that expects subject matter experts to make 80 percent of the decisions and focuses senior management on the boundary conditions where there are conflicts. Finally, it is a zero-based activity – each project must re-certify its importance to the company relative to all other projects and potential projects at every iteration.
(10 pages)

Getting Started with Roadmaps – A Key to Successful Product Strategy: Transcript of Audio Session 

Presentations, Transcripts—In this audio session transcript, Ed Crowley, founder of the Photizo Group, discusses the fundamental definitions and first steps for getting started with roadmapping. Crowley emphasizes that Roadmapping is a process. It is not a software tool, nor is it an exercise that is performed only once, or on a periodic basis – it is an ongoing process that creates alignment, enables planning and enhances predictability. In this presentation, Crowley presents a general framework for developing a roadmapping process; he discusses a maturity model for roadmapping and indicates the best place to begin. He covers common pitfalls and best-in-class practices; he also provides a framework for a process audit, and gives examples, from several world-class practitioners, as to how a roadmapping process can create value. In Crowley’s view, roadmapping is an essential element for improving productivity and agility, as well as for harnessing the power of innovation. Download the presentation slides here (30 slides) and then download the summary below.
(17 pages)

Getting Started with Roadmaps – A Key to Successful Product Strategy: Summary of Audio Session 

Event Summaries, Presentations—Related Links:  Audio (mp3) | Transcript (17 pages) | Slides

In this summary of an audio session, Ed Crowley, founder of the Photizo Group, discusses the fundamental definitions and first steps for getting started with roadmapping.  Crowley emphasizes that roadmapping is a process.  It is not a software tool, nor is it an exercise that is performed only once, or on a periodic basis – it is an ongoing process that creates alignment, enables planning and enhances predictability.  In this presentation, Crowley presents a general framework for developing a roadmapping process; he discusses a maturity model for roadmapping and indicates the best place to begin.  He covers common pitfalls and best-in-class practices; he also provides a framework for a process audit, and gives examples, from several world-class practitioners, as to how a roadmapping process can create value.  In Crowley’s view, roadmapping is an essential element for improving productivity and agility, as well as for harnessing the power of innovation. 
(8 pages)

Lean Project Portfolios: Audio Session Summary  

A presentation by Eugene Kania, Principal of mc2 Solutions

Related Links: Audio | Transcript (22 pages) | Slides (66 pages)

In this audio session Eugene Kania describes how to create a Lean Project Portfolio – one that is high-value, achievable and executable. Kania demonstrates methods for mapping the risks and rewards associated with projects, for prioritizing elements in a portfolio and for understanding the tradeoffs involved. Kania describes a simple tool for resource planning which helps to diminish the work-in-process in the portfolio. He also describes how to use critical chain and buffers to help execute the projects within the portfolio. Kania and his colleagues have moved beyond theory, testing these methods with a number of companies, which have enjoyed greatly increased throughput, with a decrease in cycle time; these portfolio methods also resulted in greater productivity and an improvement in job satisfaction.
(12 pages)

WARNING: Annual Planning May Be Hazardous to Your Product Development Health 

Feature Articles—In this feature article, Bob Becker argues that an over-emphasis on detailed annual planning often leads to dysfunction.  In addition to changes in strategy, the product development portfolio should be driven by customer needs, market opportunities, resource availability, and new technological capabilities all of which do not necessarily operate on a fiscal year schedule.  According to Becker, the best product development situation is where there is a continuous flow of products moving through the pipeline with a mix appropriate to meet both sales targets and longer-term strategy.  Often, fiscal year ‘big bangs’ and continuous flow do not mix well.  Becker diagnoses seven symptoms associated with the dysfunctions inherent in annual planning proceeses and then offers seven alternatives aimed toward generating and vetting ideas in a continuous (rather than episodic) manner.
(6 pages)