Consulting project
“The fast and reactive development of new products”
Logic and processes to overcome competitors in the creation of products

The summary of the intervention
Creating a new product or service is a delicate process that requires speed but also reflection, strategic capabilities but also operational skills, imagination and even structuring. The intervention transmits the skills and creates the structures, processes and procedures to create successful products, operating with professionalism, but with adequate commercial aggressiveness. The necessary mentality and competence are a combination of innovative spirit, great observation skills and project skills. In fact, the product must be something that meets the needs of the market, but it is also a project that must comply with technical constraints, cost budgets and execution times. All this is respected only if the project becomes a group work, where many participants make their contribution.

The symptoms of his need
There is a perception that product development activities take place in an unstructured and sometimes improvised way. There is no upstream strategy that involves what to do and how much investment to allocate. The birth of new products often takes place as a result of requests from customers, without then becoming effective commercial opportunities. Other times it is seen the rapid and successful release by competitors of products on the market, to which is urgently required to reply. It also happens that appropriate products are created, but in too long times, losing market opportunities. Even the total costs of development are not known, or there is no comparison between a given quote and an actual one. Moreover, the evaluation of the results of new products is often missing and therefore it is not know what to improve in the process, replicating inefficiencies, delays and waste.

The course of the intervention
The intervention takes place in various phases.
Firstly the management strategies are understood. The process of development of new products is made up of many aspects that need to be balanced, such as structuring, innovation, quantity of completed projects and other variables: together with the management, the scenario to be set will be outlined.
The second phase is the creation of the process and its structure.
Structuring and reactivity requirements must be ensured. Structuring means that the process must take place within specific procedures that ensure productivity and achievement of objectives. Reactivity means that this structure must not limit the flexibility of the process, which must remain very close to the market, able to listen to it and to adapt quickly to its variations. The process must therefore be efficient, that is to generate products at an adequate cost, but effective, that is, to create products that the market requires.
The structuring is achieved by managing everything from the perspective of project management and therefore each project will have objectives in terms of technical requirements, cost constraints and time compliance. Reactivity is achieved by stimulating people’s creativity and leading them to work in groups so that the idea of ​​one stimulates the inventiveness of the other, triggering a virtuous circle of ideas and solutions. The training of people aimed at instilling project and innovation mentality is part of this phase.
The last phase is putting the entire system into service, where the procedures and the mentality are tested on the first projects, evaluating the results and making any calibrations.

The human resources involved
The intervention involves the management in the understanding of his needs and strategies and for the final verification. The management is kept constantly informed about the progress of the project.
Project managers, product managers and developers will be involved in the management aspects of the product development project. For the data supply and their reporting will be involved operators of the IT area, administration and management control. For the commercial analysis, the operators in the marketing and sales area. The participants in the product development teams will be involved in the stimulus phases to creativity.
As in any Farnetani Consulting project, we will tend to limit the impact on the company’s ordinary activities, alternating the people involved, limiting their use, and optimizing the interaction with the consultant based on the work requirements of the individual operators.

Timing
The intervention can last from fifteen to twenty days of work of a consultant, depending on the size and complexity of the company.
In any case, the duration of the intervention is agreed on the basis of a specific quote.
The days are scheduled according to the operational needs of the company.

The advantages achieved
The company acquires a process of development of new products that significantly increases its competitiveness. New products and new ideas are born with a constant flow. This flow does not originate from contingent situations, but is the result of a precise strategy. Therefore, the new products are born exactly in the sectors and in the market segments where the company intends to develop. The control of development costs makes possible to measure investments in the various projects, while time control ensures timely entry into the market. The participation of many operators in the project groups creates motivation and a sense of belonging both to the product project and to the company itself, increasing the level of creativity and innovation.
The subsequent check on the results obtained allows to progressively optimize the development of the products, correcting the errors committed. The company enters a virtuous circle of human resources motivation and competitiveness towards competitors.

Future developments
The system can be developed and refined, in the following phases, in many ways.
Control and monitoring of projects can be increased, by placing it more in the company’s IT environment.
A further increase in project management skills in all human resources will bring significant improvements.
The monitoring of new products will be absolutely important: analyzing the results will improve the process and find out what can be improved.
The continuous improvement of the skills of creativity and innovation in the birth of the products represents, finally, a development that must be constantly pursued by the company.