Six Myths of Product Development
Six Myths of Product Development
This topic details 6 common misconceptions of most product development managers: 1. High utilization of resources will improve performance. 2. Processing work in large batches improves the economics of the development process. 3. Our development plan is great; we just need to stick to it. 4. The sooner the project is started, the sooner it will be finished. 5. The more features we put into a product, the more customers will like it. 6. We will be more successful if we get it right the first time.
The above belief may sound superior to the business as it promotes lean operations for fallacies 1, 2 and 6, business focus and time-bound action plans for item 3 and 4 and being a customer centric for misconception number 5. Unfortunately, all of these were exposed by Stefan Thomke and Donald Reinertsen as disadvantages rather than gains.
Based on the article, it was observed that companies treat product development similar to manufacturing. Instituting lean operations during product development activities might be thought at hand by the managers to ensure that investment cost will be kept within budget. For the companies at regular operations, whether services or manufacturing, this indeed create positive impact to the shareholders’ value. Just like in our company, Accenture, high utilization of resources and doing right the first time attitude are strictly observed. But the current process flow in our company is that tasks are repetitive, activities are reasonably predictable, and the items being created can be in only one place at a time.
This is not the case for product development as it requires constant changes, the result is unpredictable, tasks are unique and work-in-process inventory are predominantly invisible mainly because it consist of mostly information design documentation, test procedures and results, and instructions for building prototypes among others. Another thing is, flexibility
This topic details 6 common misconceptions of most product development managers: 1. High utilization of resources will improve performance. 2. Processing work in large batches improves the economics of the development process. 3. Our development plan is great; we just need to stick to it. 4. The sooner the project is started, the sooner it will be finished. 5. The more features we put into a product, the more customers will like it. 6. We will be more successful if we get it right the first time.
The above belief may sound superior to the business as it promotes lean operations for fallacies 1, 2 and 6, business focus and time-bound action plans for item 3 and 4 and being a customer centric for misconception number 5. Unfortunately, all of these were exposed by Stefan Thomke and Donald Reinertsen as disadvantages rather than gains.
Based on the article, it was observed that companies treat product development similar to manufacturing. Instituting lean operations during product development activities might be thought at hand by the managers to ensure that investment cost will be kept within budget. For the companies at regular operations, whether services or manufacturing, this indeed create positive impact to the shareholders’ value. Just like in our company, Accenture, high utilization of resources and doing right the first time attitude are strictly observed. But the current process flow in our company is that tasks are repetitive, activities are reasonably predictable, and the items being created can be in only one place at a time.
This is not the case for product development as it requires constant changes, the result is unpredictable, tasks are unique and work-in-process inventory are predominantly invisible mainly because it consist of mostly information design documentation, test procedures and results, and instructions for building prototypes among others. Another thing is, flexibility