Informing Innovation through Product Line Strategizing and Roadmapping
Innovation can drive business growth. It’s a key to every organization’s well-being. But many companies carry out innovation haphazardly. They’re more likely to count on serendipity, not strategic thinking, to drive gains from innovation. Unfortunately, management teams have little clarity on why, how, or when to advance product offerings. No wonder Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen […]
Good Portfolio Management Includes Front-end Work
If you’re interested in NPD and R&D portfolio management, here is an important insight: Most Portfolio Management presentations discuss only development projects. They do not show, analyze, or rationalize front-end work. Anyone new to product development might assume Portfolio Management should only be about products under development. But if that’s all, then portfolio management misses its greatest opportunity for […]
The Misdirected Guidance of “Portfolio Balance”
I have a simple message for everyone involved in product development. This message is especially important for PMOs. These are the manager’s responsible for analyzing project portfolios. They calculate resources and priorities to determine who should work on which projects. “Portfolio Balance” is misguided. The problem is no one knows what the “balance” should be. […]
Think Big! Think Strategy to Innovate Product Lines
Look over a few articles on innovation. Ask yourself if they’re about innovating one product at a time or do they suggest innovating multiple products? Do they propose innovating whole product lines? This is important because innovating product lines is far more powerful than a single product. It’s time to think much bigger. It’s time […]
Product Portfolio Management – Picking Flowers in the Dark
Project prioritization is difficult. As a result, senior managers who govern portfolios often make things up as they go. Why not? Somebody must figure what’s more important and what’s not. It might as well be whoever is looking at the bubble charts. There are two big challenges with figuring out project prioritization. First, product lines […]
