1. March 2016
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
PROCESS
Key Elements Overview

2.  Governance
 Project selection aligned to business strategy
 Portfolio accountability
 Decision point and escalation
 Process or work flow
 Aligned to organization structure
 Include corporate emphasis on customer delivery, i.e. “rapid delivery”, “high level of
quality”, etc.
 Supporting tools, templates
 Checklists
 Data/metric collection
 Training and reference guides
 Active users of the process
 Overview for Executive Management
 Continuous improvement
 Feedback from users
 Changes in organization structure or corporate strategies
KEY ELEMENTS

3. GOVERNANCE

4. Project governance is the management framework within which
project decisions are made.
 Address key project decision points, such as:
 Project authorization
 Hand offs:
 R&D to Product Engineering
 Product Engineering to Manufacturing
 Other defined key milestones preceding financial commitment
 Project closure
 Consider different levels of governance
 Project Steering Committee (PSC): oversee NPD, high profile, etc.
 Product Operations Committee (POC): oversee sustaining product
activities
 May require multiple POCs, i.e. by business unit, product line, etc.
GOVERNANCE

5. PROJECT SELECTION
Project
Proposal
Project
Proposal
Project
Proposal
Project
Proposal
Project
Proposal
Selected
Project
Authorized leadership
from representative
functional areas
(Marketing,
Engineering,
Operations, Finance,
Regulatory, etc.)
Governance
• Market potential
• ROI
• Facilities investment
• Strategic alignment
• Portfolio fit
• Risks
• Legal or regulatory
Selection
Criteria
Notes:
1. Process would be similar for either
NPD or sustaining
2. Governance may differ by industry,
company and project

6. Need for escalation
Resolving disagreement
Quick issue resolution
Solution methods
Defined and published organization chart
Executive sponsorship for projects
RACI matrix
ESCALATION

7. PROCESS FLOW

8. NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
OUTLINE
Definition PhaseResearch Phase Design Phase
Implementation PhaseValidation PhaseProduction Phase
A B
C
DE
Closure Phase
F
G
Project Manager assigned,
requirement analysis,
project plan (schedule,
resources, budget, etc.) ,
initial risk analysis,
resources identified,
financial and business
analysis, etc.
Feasibility, proof of concept,
market analysis begun,
initial business case
development, etc.
Design of product and
process, marketing and
sales plan, supply chain
design, etc.
Implementation of product
design, evolve marketing
and sales plan, evolve
supply chain needs,
finalizing BOM,
manufacturing procedures,
test, training, etc.
Product validation,
regulatory filings,
manufacturing process
validation, pilot run, sales
and field service training,
etc.
Ramp-up of production,
distribution center stocking,
sales plans executed
Prepare handoff for
sustaining teams, lessons
learned, project summary
to Executive Team
Notes:
1. Stage Gate approval through PSC
2. Most activities cross multiple phases
3. Activities vary by industry and company
4. Additional PSC reviews may be added or Phases combined

9. SUSTAINING PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
PROCESS OUTLINE
Definition Phase Design Phase Implementation Phase
Validation PhaseProduction Phase
A
B C
D
EClosure Phase FG
Notes:
1. Stage Gate approval through POC
2. Most activities cross multiple phases
3. Activities vary by industry and company
4. Additional POC reviews may be added or Phases combined
Full Track
Light Track
Definition Phase Implementation and Validation Phase
Production Phase
C
Closure Phase DE
B
Track selection based
on complexity of
change, risk, number
of factories, number
of resources,
duration, etc.

10.  Provide natural milestones with which to measure
progress of project against baseline schedule
 Keeps PSC engaged in the performance of the
project portfolio
 Provides forum for PSC to review project and make
key decisions at critical points
 Enable critical examination:
 Does the project as scoped continue to align with the business
rationale?
WHY STAGE GATE REVIEWS

11.  Deliverables
 What the project manager and team deliver to the decision point
 Decided at the output of the previous gate
 Based on a standard menu of deliverables for each gate
 Criteria
 Questions or metrics on which the project is judged in order to
determine a result (go/no-go/hold/rework) and make a decision.
 Outputs
 Results of the gate review; a decision (go/no-go/hold/rework)
 Approved action plan for the next gate
 List of deliverables and date for the next gate
STAGE GATE STRUCTURE

12. SUPPORTING TOOLS,
TEMPLATES

13.  Processes have a need for tools to support the
overall process
 Promote common practices and terminology
 Facilitates standardized process flow
 Dashboard view of project portfolio
 Key metric trends and analysis
SUPPORT OF THE PROCESS

14.  Enable automation where possible
 Configuration management
 Project specific documents, product drawings, etc.
 Process templates
 Resource utilization
 Man hours
 OPEX and CAPEX
 Project status
 Compared to baseline schedule, budget, etc.
 Portfolio metrics
 Composition of portfolio and investment of resources
 Project status by business unit or global enterprise
SUPPORTING TOOLS

15.  Business case
 Market analysis
 Promotion and sales plan
 Revenue estimates
 Development costs and
support estimates
 Stage Gate checklists
 Standardized list for each
Gate
 Used as agenda and to
facilitate PSC reviews
 Project plan
 Schedules
 Resources (people, OPEX
and CAPEX)
 Communication plan
 Risk register
 Quality plan
 Other collateral:
 Project and portfolio
review slide
 Meeting minute
FORMS AND TEMPLATES

16. TRAINING AND GUIDES

17.  Type
 Overview for functional and executive management
 Detailed for daily users
 When?
 “Just in time” as deployed
 Regular refresher sessions
 Part to corporate onboarding
 Content
 Process
 Templates
 Tools
TRAINING

18. Reference guides
Readily available material: online or printed
“Lunch and Learns”
Share experiences from users
Pep talks and process reminders
Process mentors
Process newsletters
ONGOING SUPPORT

19. CONTINUOUS
IMPROVEMENT

20. Over time, an unmanaged process will become obsolete, stale and
not meet the needs of the organization
 Continuous improvement and refinement from:
 Organization changes
 Business strategy
 Regulatory impact
 Feedback from users
 Lessons learned from previous projects
 Best practice adoption from professional community
 Impact on:
 Workflows
 Templates
 Tools
 Training
MANAGING THE PROCESS