Mr. Muhamed Muneer

Companies that achieve super success do so because of their ability to launch new or differentiated products at great prices. New-product managers at big companies universally cite end-user research as a critical new product success factor, very few even among them follow their own advice when developing internal new product management training programmes. This is all the more critical for small businesses who tend to have much less budgets for training programmes.

As a result, most new product training programmes miss the mark and fail to reap their desired end results of faster cycle times and increased new product effectiveness. When developing training programmes for internal new product participants, companies should use a "Customer-driven" approach to identify training needs and
use this input to craft tailored new product seminars. Research should answer the following questions:

* What are the internally perceived strengths and weaknesses of the current new product    process, approach and organisation?

* What internal barriers affect new product success and effectiveness?

* Who, if anyone, would benefit from training?

* What perceived and real training needs exist?

* How can new products training best bridge the differences, if any, between perceived    and real training needs?

* What format is most appropriate for new product training (for example, on or off site,    number of days, level and type of interaction)?

To collect this information, you can conduct individual interviews (focus groups if yours is a big business group), attend new product team and/or board meetings, and review relevant internal information including team meeting notes and new product process/performance documents.

In addition to securing customer perceptions of training requirements, test-marketing the resulting programme with a pilot group of new product participants can help gauge effectiveness and fine-tune the programme
before full scale roll-out.

It is normally believed that only team leaders need training. This is absolutely incorrect. New product development barriers cannot be overcome with team leader training alone. Broadly, there are three areas of barriers:

1. Team leader barriers:- Sub-optimal communications, unrealistic expectations, and new    people with little   training/experience.

2. Team barriers:- Inconsistent understanding of the new product development process,    inconsistency among   projects - no two projects conducted the same way, inadequate    team motivation, and unclear expectations.

3. Interdepartmental barriers:- Insufficient resources, low new-products visibility, and    interdepartmental   conflicts.

Within teams and across departments, communications and expectations need fortifying. One way to do this would be to train team leaders on project management and motivation skills. Another way is to help jump-start a team  with a two-day kick-off meeting with every "new" new product development team.

The objectives must be decided upon from the very beginning. It could be developing a team mission and team success criteria; establishing a common language among team members along with team norms, values and "ground rules"; building "teamness"; increasing each team member's (along with the team  leader's) ability to manage and motivate team members; clarifying the roles and responsibilities of each team member; and providing actionable and practical guidelines for managing new product development.

To identify workshop expectations and gain a better understanding of each participant's frame of reference, all participants must be surveyed before the session to learn their experience in new product development. You should ask them what they believe their roles are for the team and what they want to accomplish in the team workshop. Then use this input to fine-tune the workshop materials, but more importantly, to build ownership. Post-session reviews must be done to further refine additional-day sessions.

Such training sessions help new product development team members solidify their sense of commitment and belonging to the team instead of their respective departments. From the management's perspective, team identity and cohesiveness are expected to reduce cycle time by pre-empting interdepartmental barriers and conflicts - the original goal of such training.

As obvious as it sounds, few new product managers follow a "customer-driven" process for developing and conducting internal training sessions. Yet, giving participants what they want is a great starting point for ensuring your new product training investments bear fruit.

There are several good books available on new product development, but very few titles on new product development training. Readers may write to me directly for list of titles available on new product development processes. I have recently gone through two titles on training which I can only mention in passing here: The Performance Consulting Tool Book by Carolyn Nilson (McGraw Hill publishers- Rs1800) and The Big Book of Customer Service Training Games by Peggy Carlaw and Vasudha Kathleen Deming (McGraw Hill publishers- Rs 825).

There is also one more book on new product development process. This one is on new products for the services sector. Titled, "Product Development for the Service Sector" this book is written by Robert Cooper and Scott Edgett. The authors are known for their Stage Gate process of developing new products. Incidentally, 60 per cent of Fortune 500 companies have adopted their model for increasing new product success ratio. I am associated with Prof Cooper for this part of the world in applying this patented tool for companies who may require it. This book is available at all Fountainhead outlets and is priced at Rs 1150.
(Publishers: Perseus Books).

(By arrangement with Innovative Media)

Feedback and queries may be e-mailed to him directly at muneermuhamed@hotmail.com