Key Success Factors implementing Refresh Planning
/
Following are factors that drive successful deployment of Refresh Planning. These have been developed over the years through thousands of consulting engagements.
Read More
Key Success Factors when implementing Portfolio Management
/
We've documented a series of key success factors (KSFs) concerning the deployment of Strategy Planning and Portfolio Modeling Systems.
Read MoreDeploying a project portfolio system
/
We've developed a deployment template that follows the 4-step flow from Strategy Prioritization to Success/Failure Analysis.
Read More12 day Team Start-up
/
We've developed an even faster start-up process for getting a team quickly into the refresh planning process. We've learned though the years that it is critical to get to refresh planning quickly and use it to refine and engage the team in the planning and pull-in effort.
Read MoreVOC: Differentiate "wants" from "hows"
/
Five-steps to understanding customer wantsand quickly translating them to product definition. Based on our research work with best-practice teams we developed a 5-step voice-of-the-customer (VOC) process for aligning customer requirements (wants) with product requirements (hows) in order to determine what customers value most.
Read MoreWho influences your product direction decisions?
/
"I know what customers want. I've been in this business for a long time. We are forging a new direction and customers don't know what they want until we define it for them... " How many times have you heard declarations like the comments above. Typically, product direction is driven by two types of power; people in leadership positions and/or people who are the declared subject matter "experts." In fact, these are the two primary influences on decision-making in most organizations.
Read MoreZBB - Zero Based Budgeting
/
Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB) allows top-level strategic goals to be implemented into the budgeting process by tying them to specific functional areas of the organization.
Read MoreUsing a mission statement to provide "checks and balance"
/
The first thing we do with a team while defining a work breakdown structure is to define a mission statement.
Read MoreDeploying 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.
Read MoreAct... before-the-fact
/
This is a recommendation sent to a client concerning a project that lacked a target customer and was late. It discusses a change in behavior that is difficult to make happen; "before-the-fact action" versus "after-the-fact reaction."
Read MoreOperationalizing business strategy in your project portfolio
/
This example illustrates the process of mapping strategy and then setting program priorities. The key is to link strategy formulation with the means to realize the results (i.e. execute). It illustrates the linkage between vision-strategy-program.
Read MoreWho owns the strategy?
/
Define ownership after first defining what needs to get done... "Organize around the work, rather than force the work to conform to the organizational structure..."said GE's Jack Welch. We've applied this concept to strategy mapping.
Read MoreA system for cost reduction
/
In multiple client engagements we’ve helped clients implement a Cost Leadership Initiative (CLI) methodology that combines decision analysis (to select the right cost reduction projects), a common planning methodology (to get consistent project planning and tracking), and a reporting system (to manage the execution) so that savings are achieved on or before the target commitment dates.
Read MoreRight-time ensures financial return from new products
/
Product life-cycles are short and steep, and there's a great deal of "global" competition--especially in the technology sector.Therefore, entering the market at the Right Time is critical to a company's survival. This almost always involves being first to market, at the time when demand is just beginning to accelerate.
Read More
Continued best practice research
/
Successful companies understand the connection between strategy and execution.
Read More
Viewing project portfolios against constraints....to determine what can be accomplished with available resources. Traditional "project scoring" systems we see are a list of projects in a spreadsheet scored against some sort of measurement criteria.
Read MoreA management simulator
/
A management simulator... what to cut in order to achieve the maximum benefit from the remaining resources?
Read MoreWhat's in it for me?
/
When people listen to one another many times the listener is hearing their own radio station playing--W.I.I.FM (what’s in it for me FM radio).
Read MoreAction this day
/
”Action this day" is the sticker that Winston Churchill would attach to documents in order to strongly communicate that he wanted something done, now.