Transferring learning about Speed-to-Market between product development teams across the organization is a critical component of realizing the benefits of improving Speed-to-MarketTransferring learning between product development teams takes place primarily though person-to-person interaction as there is a lot of tacit information involved.Some of this interaction will take place when people move between product [...]

Effective, timely decision-making is essential.Effective and timely decision-making by both the leadership of the business and the product development project team is essential for managing time-to-market and product development speed.The decision-making process must include both the leadership of the business and the product development project team.Leadership Team Decision-MakingThe leadership team makes decisions for [...]

Methods of Accelerating Innovation and Product Development Matrix Some general methods for improving Speed-to-Market are shown in the Methods of Accelerating Innovation and Product Development MatrixSimplify – Clarify objectives and remove distractions from both the process and the product.Eliminate Delays – Many sources of delay can be anticipated through review of learnings from [...]

Enablers Are Pre-conditions for managing time-to-market and achieving Speed-to-Market They are independent of any specific method, tool or technique.It’s essential to have the enablers of managing Speed-to-Market in place. Critically important is to measure time-to-market and the value of improving Speed-to-Market so you can see the impacts of changes you make.  Focus on [...]

DO: Take account of the familiarity of the project team with the type of product and the intended market when setting a time to marketThe ability of the project team to do the following are the rate limiting processes in Speed-to-Market :acquire the information they need – customer feedback, for example,assimilate it and [...]

DO: Keep the project team stableProduct development teams become better at learning cycles of “acquire – assimilate – apply” with experience. acquire the information they need,assimilate it and combine it with their existing knowledge; and,apply the knowledge they have generated to developing the new productConsequently, time to market will decrease for similar new products [...]

Focus on your overall product development capability rather than narrowly on Speed-to-Market.Enablers of Speed-to-Market Performance that are strong or significant contributors to product development speed are strongly associated with overall proficiency in new product development.Faster development speed leads to improved product success in the market depending upon a variety of industry and competitive [...]

At a high level of generality Speed-to-Market is associated with new product success.  However, this picture becomes more complicated when considering individual businesses and products: there are businesses and products for which increasing Speed-to-Market is likely to increase product success, there are others for which it may not. One performance trade-off is made [...]

Measuring Speed-to-Market  is a pre-requisite for managing Speed-to-Market.You must have clear definitions for the critical time points of a projectThese include, but are not limited to, project start and project endEnsure they are applied consistently. There are many ways to define the critical time points of a project, so it is important to select [...]

First-mover and fast-follower or follower are important time-to-market based strategies.  The relationship between these strategies and new product success is complex, with many factors influencing the relationship between order of entry to a market and performance.  There are many examples of both the advantages and dis-advantages of each strategy. Advantages of being a first-mover [...]