Developing Innovation and Product Strategies

Client Issue: “I find there is just a general lack of agreement on innovation priorities, as well as conflicting priorities between our departments.  Overall, we lack important product strategies and road maps to guide our product development efforts.   This is leading to product ideas that aren’t sound, and consequently we are wasting valuable resources.  We need guidance and a plan that will help us chose the right projects.”

Solution: When most people hear the word ‘strategy’, they envision a 6 month-long plan that takes extensive time and research. We believe that strategy development doesn’t require this, especially in today’s dynamic and fast-moving environment.  Your existing team probably has an excellent understanding of the commercial and technical landscape of your products.  With this knowledge, Strategy 2 Market coaches your cross-functional team during a series of workshops on developing these important innovation and product strategies, including the corresponding product and technology road maps.  Your organization now has the guidance and clarity to move forward on choosing the right projects.

This is what we see when we work with organizations that have well-defined strategies: CLARITY

• Exude a sense of purpose and clarity
• Better ideas, since you know your products/categories/competitors/external forces/customers
• SPEED: Decisions are made rapidly without extensive debate and politicking, because the goals are clear for all members of the team (executive and project team)
• Alignment between business, innovation and product strategies helps to ensure that the most valuable projects are chosen
• Right projects being chosen, with optimized resource allocation

…organizations without strategies: CHAOS 

• Chaos reigns over the organization as the various functions try to cope with different agendas
• Wasted time debating which projects should be pursued
• Product managers and engineers are forced to develop their product line and category in a vacuum, trying to infer the direction of the organization
• Projects are preempted as new priorities become urgent
• Resources are not allocated to the most valuable projects, or are wasted on unnecessary or unprofitable projects

Related articles:

Whitepaper: s2m Strategic Framework

Article:  Evolution of Strategy

Article:Strategy and Uncertainty

Article: Got a Technology Strategy?

Article:Strategy: One Direction

Article: 4 Product Strategies, and Why You Should Care

Article: What is an Innovation Strategy?

Article: What an Innovation Strategy Is Not

Article: Link Strategy to P3: Pipeline, Process and Portfolio

Article: Switching to an Organic Growth Strategy

Article: Is Portfolio Management More Important Than Strategy?