Student: Angelo Martello

Learning Launch project

Chapters:

Challenge

I’m a project manager, involved on new product development department within  a company which is a supplier of hi-tech equipment for the electronic business.  Our challenge is to develop new products hitting the roadmap established from  Top management especially for the budget, resources and technology  differentiation from competitors.  The project is limited within R&D Product  development department. In our first learning launch We will try to think out of  the box, trying to wear our customer’s shoes during the brainstorming activities.  There will be a further and parallel activities performed by sales dept. that will  collect man voice of the customers.

Selection

We already tried to use some Design thinking tools in the past but, at that time  just a part of the team was really engaged and even really conscious about the  potential of the instrument. Right now, more or less every resource within the  team has joined the Design thinking class, so the target is to adopt the tool for an  Alpha product all along the whole product development phases.

Application

On our First learning launch meeting we tried to wear the customer shoes  collecting a list of lacks that they have. It has been made thinking not only about  their supply chain, where we are currently involved, but also the current  technology gap they are facing due to the physical limits of the technology,

geopolitical scenarios. It has been done in this way in order to abandon our daily  way of thinking about the market. All the ideas had been written on a sticky note  and attached on a whiteboard. As a second step We came back in our mind  thinking which of those ideas could be fix by their supplier and ranking them  based on the value gained from customer if it could be solve in a way or another.  We choose to focus only on first 3 ideas with high position on ranking and where  their supply chain is involved. The first learning lunch session ends here after 3  hours meeting.

After one week We join the second session. We began trying to recap what’s  happened during the first one session and We start to think on which of the 3  idea We should invest resources. The analysis has been performed considering  the cost of resources, time to market, the customer’s interview collected by our  Sales dept. , the technology differentiation We could introduce in order to avoid  an easy adoption of the same idea from competitors. Based on data collected  from customers and the deep dive performed, the cost benefit analysis has been  terminated choosing only one Customer’s high value problem. We’ll invest in  order to fix only that point.

Insight

Applying the learning launch tool our team had identified the priorities of the  market thinking out of the box. The output of our analysis is essentially a forecast,  which is based on a deep analysis ran by a skilled team of engineers. We’ll  proceed with product development activities keep in mind what has been  highlighted during the first 2 sessions. The purpose is to  schedule at least another  session of brainstorming, this time with a very technical approach, and it will be  useful to address the hardware and software architecture of the new product that  will solve the problem we’ve identified. The insight I think is that moving in this  way the chance of release something that will be easily adopt from market has  been increased a lot.

Approach

Each member of the team has been fully engaged on this activity and now We’re  conscious of the potential of the tool. As I’ve previously mentioned We’ll keep

this approach during the next phases of the project. Till now We turned the  activities of learning launch as a marketing investigation but in the next phase of  the project We’ll face the technical side of the product development using Design  Thinking.


Student : Angelo Martello Learning Launch project Chapters : Challenge I ’m a project manager , involved on new product development department within a company which is a supplier of hi - tech equipment for the electronic business . Our challenge is to develop new products hitting the roadmap established from Top management especially for the budget , resources and technology differentiation from competitors . The project is limited within R&D Product development department . In our first learning launch We will try to think out of the box , trying to wear our customer ’s shoes during the brainstorming activities . There will be a further and parallel activities performed by sales dept . that will collect man voice of the customers . Selection We already tried to use some Design thinking tools in the past but , at that time just a part of the team was really engaged and even really conscious about the potential of the instrument . Right now , more or less every resource within the team has joined the Design thinking class , so the target is to adopt the tool for an Alpha product all along the whole product development phases . Application On our First learning launch meeting we tried to wear the customer shoes collecting a list of lacks that they have . It has been made thinking not only about their supply chain , where we are currently involved , but also the current technology gap they are facing due to the physical limits of the technology , geopolitical scenarios . It has been done in this way in order to abandon our daily way of thinking about the market . All the ideas had been written on a sticky note and attached on a whiteboard . As a second step We came back in our mind thinking which of those ideas could be fix by their supplier and ranking them based on the value gained from customer if it could be solve in a way or another . We choose to focus only on first 3 ideas with high position on ranking and where their supply chain is involved . The first learning lunch session ends here after 3 hours meeting . After one week We join the second session . We began trying to recap what ’s happened during the first one session and We start to think on which of the 3 idea We should invest resources . The analysis has been performed considering the cost of resources , time to market , the customer ’s interview collected by our Sales dept . , the technology differentiation We could introduce in order to avoid an easy adoption of the same idea from competitors . Based on data collected from customers and the deep dive performed , the cost benefit analysis has been terminated choosing only one Customer ’s high value problem . We ’ll invest in order to fix only that point . Insight Applying the learning launch tool our team had identified the priorities of the market thinking out of the box . The output of our analysis is essentially a forecast , which is based on a deep analysis ran by a skilled team of engineers . We ’ll proceed with product development activities keep in mind what has been highlighted during the first 2 sessions . The purpose is to schedule at least another session of brainstorming , this time with a very technical approach , and it will be useful to address the hardware and software architecture of the new product that will solve the problem we ’ve identified . The insight I think is that moving in this way the chance of release something that will be easily adopt from market has been increased a lot . Approach Each member of the team has been fully engaged on this activity and now We ’re conscious of the potential of the tool . As I ’ve previously mentioned We ’ll keep this approach during the next phases of the project . Till now We turned the activities of learning launch as a marketing investigation but in the next phase of the project We ’ll face the technical side of the product development using Design Thinking .