Investment fund prioritization: deciding where to invest

Investment fund prioritization: deciding where to invest

We've been working with a large European venture fund to determine their optimal portfolio of investment opportunities. The modeling concept is based on the work we have been doing prioritizing strategy, markets, customers, product requirements, and new product project portfolios. It is based on the idea that these decisions are influenced by objectives or decision criteria.

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Optimizing the financial performance of your product portfolio

Optimizing the financial performance of your product portfolio

At the highest level it seems there are four broad areas that impact the $ success of a company's product portfolio: Whether or not products accurately target the "right" customers and/or market segment(s), Whether or not the "right" product is being developed for and delivered to the "right" customer, Whether or not the product is being delivered to the customer at the "right" time, Whether or not the product is delivered at or under budget

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Deploying portfolio management using a 4-stage maturity metric

Deploying portfolio management using a 4-stage maturity metric

We've developed a deployment process flow for engaging management teams in effective new product portfolio prioritization using a 4-stage metric. Each stage increases in degrees of sophistication. These levels permit groups to deploy the process at their level of readiness. Typical implementations see different groups in the organization at different stages. Our clients set a target date for all groups to reach Stage 4, they progress at their own speed gaining value at each stage. The framework provides a metric to measure progress.

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80-20 Rule

80-20 Rule

20% of the projects generate 80% of the benefit. We see the Pareto Principle at play over and over again as we model NPD project portfolios with clients. Many times, 20% of the projects (i.e. the $'s) generate 80% of the benefit towards reaching an organization's objectives. This means that 80% of the projects fall on the “diminishing returns” part of the cost-benefit curve. Why still do them?

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Why Accelerate?

Why Accelerate?

It seems odd to ask this question, Why accelerate?, since it’s obvious in the technology business that you die if you don’t release new products faster than your competition. Fast teams know this reality and communicate the “need for speed” to the engineering teams. In slow environments, this critical information is insulated from the technical teams and only reserved for marketing, finance, and leadership forums.

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