Technology for Product Development

Assessment

This service helps you clarify your issues and gets the ball rolling for solving them.

I spend one to three days interviewing you and members of your staff and other stakeholders in the development process. You tell me how you perceive your problems. Then I listen to people on your staff to get their views of the organization and its problems.

I compile and analyze what I hear into a succinct list of problem statements. Then I propose at least five (and often more than ten) actions we can take, together, to address the problems.

I price the initial Assessment as a fixed-price assignment so that you don’t have to be concerned about how many hours I spend doing the interviewing, evaluation or report writing. During the Assessment, you get unlimited access to me by phone for a minimum of 30 days.

Action and Coaching

You need to solve certain critical issues right away. An Assessment has produced 5 to 10 actions that I recommend we take together. You choose and prioritize the actions you believe will be most effective for you and your organization now.

We divide up the actions and get to work. I work with you and your staff to make progress on the items we’ve selected. Sometimes I take a temporary management or leadership role in your organization.

At regular intervals, you and I review the execution of these actions and how they are resolving the critical issues. I provide personalized suggestions for how you can be most effective and you give me feedback on the actions that I am pursuing.

During Action and Coaching, you receive on-demand consultation as you implement the organization and process changes we have chosen.

You will often see results as soon as you start to implement the recommended actions.

Nothing is more motivating to engineering staff – even when they are overworked – than to see the VP or leader working to solve the problems they have identified.

Reorganizing

To get higher throughput and lower risk, it may be necessary to reorganize the department or some of its key processes. One or more of the following services may be relevant to the organization:

• Interim project or program management while searching for a new or replacement manager
• Deeper assessment of existing projects, people, or organizations.
• Training in project management for first- or second-level managers.
• Working with corporate management teams to gain approval or acceptance of changes in the development organization.

Balancing

Balancing technology and project demands is your job every day; making the forces visible and measurable helps.

Project management is driven by market forces, while technology has a timeline of its own. Meeting the demands of the market while developing adequate technology is the toughest balancing act a manager has. Some of the following services may help you establish and maintain that balance:

• Review of project management tools
• Evaluation and selection of additional development tools
• Creation of reporting systems for key project information
• Review of specific technology available for incorporation into the product

Stabilizing

We can stabilize development work by establishing repeatable processes, relevant measures and feedback. Some of the following services may be helpful:

• Writing a description of how things operate now.
• Identifying timelines associated with each of the design, development, QA, and release steps.
• Facilitating brainstorming or review sessions with your staff or your stakeholder peers
• Reviewing and selecting metrics for project and technology management
• Analyzing technology or tools needed to add to your organization