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What’s Your Dream Workspace? Innovation workspaces require collaboration. No one executes a project by themselves. Project and product managers must set aside a shared office space to do the work of the project. Most work must be face-to-face in a co-located environment. Projects are successful because of collaboration among the team members. Shared and diverse…

BCG Matrix An excerpt from The Innovation ANSWER Book (Chapter 2, Question 5). Q5: How is the BCG matrix used to analyze strategy? A5:  The BCG matrix, originally developed by the Boston Consulting Group in the 1960s, is a visual representation of the products in the company’s portfolio and includes competition to evaluate the balance of…

As a kid, I truly loved Neapolitan ice cream. Three flavors in one carton – what could be better? It was amazing: chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. It was a rare and special treat for me because my mother was allergic to chocolate, so it was normally banned from our house. The beauty of Neapolitan ice…

Risk is typically viewed as a negative outcome in response to an action taken.  In business and innovation, we must take risks to increase revenues and develop new products.  However, with new product development, we try to manage risks via step-wise investment accompanied by increased technical knowledge. In innovation, risk appears in four categories:  customer,…

Regardless of the government’s official declaration of recession, most people and businesses are feeling intense, negative economic pressures.  My monthly grocery bill has soared 30% through the course of this year.  Friends and family are cutting back on travel and luxuries.  I am meeting more and more people who have been laid off or their…

Product management is a relatively new field where people gather business knowledge to direct development of new products.  These are not traditional “people managers” in the sense of direct reporting authority, yet product managers coordinate with teams of people on a regular basis.  Likewise, product managers don’t really manage the product in a technical sense…

In a recent post, we discussed who is on a new product development (NPD) team.  For example, a working NPD team must include representatives of project management, marketing, engineering, and finance.  Collectively, these functions can lay out the new product project for design, development, and commercialization. Of course, a working team cannot know the answers…

I believe that time is our most precious resource.  Once it is spent, it cannot ever be recovered or replaced.    minute of laziness and sloth-like behavior may cost 10 minutes of productivity, so time even has a multiplier effect.  Wasted time costs not only production but impacts those around us as well. Project Management Schedules…

Risk is kind of a negative word.  We usually associate risk with bad things happening.  We feel relieved if we have taken a risk and everything turns out okay.  Companies hire specialists in risk management to minimize physical hazards and financial exposures. The Project Management Institute (PMI) talks about risk more as an uncertainty.  There…