The purpose of this article is to prepare you with a workshop approach, including the method and tools you can use to increase product innovation in your workshops — to speed up product development based on structuring the voice of your customer. If you have suggestions about how we can improve this or other Best Practices, please reply or contact us at (630) 954-5880, or by email at info@mgrushfacilitation.com.

PRODUCT INNOVATION RESULTS

Below you’ll find the guiding principles, structure, theory, and practical advice for leading product innovation results in your organization. We hope you beg, borrow, steal, and modify heavily from our benchmark method called Product Concept Management (Catalyst). Catalyst is our method for clarifying the “fuzzy front-end” in product development. The “fuzzy front-end” represents the time and space between a thought (problem or solution) and the transformation into action by first converting the thought into a tangible concept.

What is a new product “idea”?

We are defining a thought as only a fragment of an idea. To have a complete idea to develop a new product with the Catalyst technique requires five elements. We’ll cover them in greater detail in our next article (part 2 of 3). For now, the five fragments include:

1. Statement of the problem, pain, want, or improvement that needs to be solved
2. Description of the solution that creates value including some of the technical descriptions and functional specifications
3. Explanation of the customer’s options, choices, and competitive alternatives
4. An estimation of how large the solution or opportunity is measured by currency over time
5. Narrative description of the value proposition created by the new product idea — both economic and emotional benefits

Prerequisites

The prerequisites for developing and applying product innovation within your organization are few but important:

• Desire to improve the quality and quantity of new product ideas emerging from your organizational network
• Desire to improve the new product lifecycle by increasing the quality and reducing costs by structuring valuable new product ideas
• Hunger to reduce the waste from lost and abandoned new product ideas
• Desire to increase the enthusiasm, productivity, and creativity of your new product “ideators”
• Desire to “win” in the market, win with your employees and colleagues, and win by increasing the wealth of your company.

PRODUCT INNOVATION WORKSHOPS

We recommend the use of facilitated workshops that bring stakeholders, thought leaders, and implementors together with key designers and planners, under the guidance of professional facilitators. The network of individuals required in the analysis, design, and implementation of new products can be overwhelming. The guidance of a trained professional facilitator in Catalyst, new product development, and voice-of-the-customer assures the highest integrity with this proven method that should be adapted to your organization when seeking to support your mission and objectives.

The Catalyst product innovation approach provides substantial benefits (when compared to traditional interviewing and internal team analysis and design):

• Early leadership involvement
• Early customer (user and owner) involvement in the evolution of the design
• Business analysis that reflects a broad understanding of the market as well as the intricacies of each segment, technology, and economic climate as appropriate
• Sharing and socialization of intent about strategic direction, product development capabilities, and supply and demand chain structure and value, thus creating stronger group and individual ownership
• Common commitment to persisting in the design of the process through to completion

Within MG Rush, workshops are more than just a generic term. Each workshop aims to achieve specific results and to further the design and implementation method through a structured sequence. This article guides you when planning, conducting, facilitating, and managing the design and implementation of product innovation results by applying a flexible structure.

WHEN SHOULD INNOVATION RESULTS WORKSHOPS BE USED?

We recommend that workshops be used in situations guided primarily by

1. The number of participants,
2. The complexity of the market and product information,
3. Disparity (or diversity) of participant backgrounds and knowledge, and
4. The visibility desired for the design process.

The basic structure for the sequence of product innovation workshops is:

1. Orientation & Planning
   1. Business Purpose
   2. Design Process
   3. Catalyst NPD (New Product Development) Introduction
   4. Team Building and Optimization
   5. Design and Workshop Protocols
   6. Process Schedule
   7. Workshop Approach & Structure
2. Internal Situation
   1. Focusing
   2. Visioning
   3. Business Requirements
   4. Organization Structure
   5. Product Inventory
   6. Product Commercialization Process
   7. NPI (New Product Ideas) and NPD Experiences and Lessons Learned
   8. Organizational Best Practices
3. External Situation
   1. Market Strategy(ies)
   2. Customer Segmentation
   3. Sales and Service Channel Structure & Performance
   4. Competitor Behavior
4. Process Design
5. Implementation Design
6. Measurement, Monitoring, and Control

WHEN SHOULD WORKSHOPS NOT BE USED?

Workshops should not be used when:

1. There is only one business user;
2. The available participants do not understand the business, typically due to inexperience overall, inexperience in their function, or inexperience within the Organization;
3. Participants are not able to garnish resources to support the function of self-organizing teams;
4. Commitment to the design outcome is not clear from necessary senior management, including the lack or availability of resources to implement;
5. Lack of availability of participants’ time, facilities, or the inability to complete tasks and assignments;

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

Here are the factors critical to the success of your workshops and to the completion of product innovation results:

1. Appropriate facilities
2. Belief in the relevance of the organization’s mission and initiatives
3. Experienced and prepared facilitator or facilitation team
4. Focus on design (initially) and less on implementation
5. Management commitment
6. Participants with knowledge, availability, interest, and availability
7. Time and resources for preparation, task and assignment completion, session attendance, and follow-up

(WHEN) SHOULD PRODUCT INNOVATION WORKSHOPS BE USED INSTEAD OF WORK SESSIONS?

The Catalyst design typically requires a multi-functional, stratified team and is thus most often best served by workshops. However, work sessions are an acceptable substitute when:

1. Are less formal, but no less disciplined in analysis, information exchange, and documentation.
2. The work session involves a few participants
3. The work session involves participants from a particular discipline
4. The workgroup is focused on a narrow issue(s) and is working in support of the broader design-team objectives
5. There are logistical (such as geographic distance) issues that are best served by discrete teams working apart from the general group
6. Work product, including deliberations, notes, and input information, can be reasonably summarized and disseminated to the broader NPD design team – and reported on during workshop sessions

PRODUCT INNOVATION RESULTS TECHNIQUES

For each workshop during product innovation design, and for each step in the workshop agenda, decide on the particular technique to support the appropriate introduction, discussion, and completion of the agenda item. Workshop tools supporting product innovation include:

• Action Item registers
• Agenda building and validation
• Brain teasers
• Decomposition
• Diagramming
• Displayed thinking
• Fishboning
• Force field identification (T-charts)
• Guardian of Change activity
• Issues management
• Large-group activities
• Lateral thinking
• Open issues list
• Small-group activities
• Team building
• TO-WS (threat, opportunity, weakness, and strength) analysis
• Videoconferences
• Visioning
• Workshop rules

SESSION LEADER RESPONSIBILITIES

A successful product innovation method depends on the effectiveness of the person assigned as the facilitator – for team management, workshop management, and content delivery. The assignee is more than a facilitator; they are also the quality control officer for the NPD design process. Successful workshops require special support and a special temperament from the facilitator. Participants must feel comfortable, valued, safe, respected, and motivated if they are to contribute fully to the overall Catalyst design during each workshop session. Their motivation will continue over to the assigned tasks when they feel that their efforts will be valued when returning back to the team in subsequent workshops. The facilitator’s role requires the following responsibilities to gain participants’ respect, following, trust, and cooperation:

• Be flexible to meet clients’ schedules
• Behave without ego, and be non-defensive
• Demonstrate respect for each individual, be fair in dealing with each participant, and in the interplay between participants
• Facilitate group consensus, while seeking the best overall output
• Monitor session agenda and time constraints
• Provide an environment for each participant to have an opportunity to contribute
• Provide for document exchange of the inputs, in-workshop work product, and post-work product follow-up, including workshop notes, assignments, and agenda
• Remain open and self-disclosing
• Seek and work with the sponsor(s) to provide continuous commitment
• Stick to the agreed-upon plan regarding deliverables, scope, timing, and MG Rush Facilitation stipulated leadership responsibilities (in and out of the workshops)

FACILITATOR TECHNIQUES SUPPORTING PRODUCT INNOVATION

Conducting successful product innovation workshops requires a combination of skills, techniques, and content knowledge. A successful facilitator requires high, sustained energy, intense concentration, and a good disposition. A sense of humor is useful, too. A facilitator is non-defensive, absorbs barbs of all descriptions, and stays focused on the challenge of delivering on the objectives of the workshop and goals of the product overall. There are many skills and tools used by skilled, successful facilitators. A few are mentioned below but are not intended to be a comprehensive inventory. Other techniques may evolve outside of the view of our Best Practices for Catalyst and product innovation and may also be useful for you.

FACILITATOR SKILLS

• Ask and give clarification
• Avoid ambiguity
• Be alert to differences in information as provided and information as received
• Document, clarify, and expand the information exchanged in the workshop
• Explain the structure behind the flow
• Identify, communicate, and demonstrate decision-making methods
• Legitimize participants’ comments and contributions
• Practice active listening
• Provide “structural flex” and adapt the task, workshop, and overall process as needed
• Provide traceability – Adopt a retrospective perspective, that is, construct plans and documentation so that they are understood in the present and in hindsight
• Recognize opportunities to intervene – Be prepared to prevent or change an activity or event to improve the quality or productivity of the workshop procedures.
• Use guiding questions; provide sample answers from a metaphor or analogy

Examples of Preventions to Secure Innovation Results

• Confirm agreement on purpose, scope, deliverables, and agenda
• Follow-up workshops with accurate and comprehensive documentation
• Involve and utilize client workshop experts (such as trained facilitators, Product Owners, and Master Black Belts)
• Pre-determine work groups and breakout teams
• Prepare materials in advance
• Provide advance information to inform, educate, and normalize participants’ knowledge
• Respect client protocols, practices, and workshop traditions
• Utilize subject matter experts to leverage outside (of the workshop) knowledge to the benefit of the workshop participants

Examples of Interventions to Secure Innovation Results

• Observe and reverse retreats or aggression by participants. Most people have a “primary style” of discussion, debate, and persuasion, however, when a person’s primary style is ineffective (that is, they feel challenged, frustrated, or embarrassed), that person will often retreat into a secondary style that is either aggressive or sullen.
• Prevent attacks on an individual or organizations, including those not participating in the workshop. Work to inhibit attacks and, in particular, abuse during the workshop on any participant or group. As necessary: physically move between speaker and target of any “attack”; or, interrupt attacks by calling for a break, or attention back to the agenda, or summarize a key point; or, turn the situation with appropriate humor.
• Some comments or questions are unclear to all but the speaker. Restate comments or questions that you perceive as unclear by one or more of the participants. If appropriate, ask the speaker to clarify their comment or question without embarrassing the speaker or recipients.
• Watch for impatience with progress during the agenda. Periodically, highlight the progress made during the workshop by physically indicating the current agenda item and upcoming items. Remind participants of the important progress made during the day and workshop, especially during transitions.

PART 2 OF 3

In our next article, we’ll provide the product innovation workshop design support tools and work products for the Catalyst method (or other NPD phases), such as:

• Facilitating Internal Environment Assessment
• Facilitating External Environment Assessment
• Converting Ideas Into Product Concepts
• Consensual and Co-Owned Implementation

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