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Innovation Management Process
guidebook summary
Firm: ConvaTec Inc.Industry: Health Care Products
Headquarters: Skillman, New Jersey, United States
Geographic Footprint: Global
Ownership: Nordic Capital and Avista Capital Partners
Revenue (2010): $339 million USD
Innovation Management Process
Best Practice Guidebook
Problem:
ConvaTec’s unstructured, ad hoc new product development process leads to highly variable profitability and launch success rates.
Solution:
ConvaTec builds a product development process around specific stage gates that advance, terminate, or hold a project depending on its demonstrated commercial potential. This process:
Designates authority to a formalized governing body that oversees •
the entire innovation pipeline
Requires project checkpoints for every product in the pipeline •
Standardizes development guidelines and evaluation criteria for all •
project managers Business Results:
20% increase in the value of projects in the product pipeline •
30% improvement in the commercialization success rate of products •
in the pipeline
Resources Required:
Dedicated cross-functional team to baseline the current product •
development process and design and roll out the new one
Six months total for process assessment, development, and roll-out •
Senior-level, cross-functional team to meet for monthly •
project reviews
Cross-functional project management teams to oversee the •
development of specific products
Applicability of Best Practice to Executive Functions:
Purpose
Assess innovation projects at each stage of development based on their potential value, risk, and strategic fit.
Purpose
Prepare project managers to design projects that will meet specific development milestones and targets. Purpose
Establish a framework for evaluating all projects against a shared set of criteria. Purpose
Develop a standardized process to move projects through a stage-gate development pipeline.
Phase Review Project Management
Project Contract Development Process Redesign
New Product Development Process: Key Components and Overview
Product Development and Launch Process
Output
A product development process that considers multiple perspectives and criteria throughout each phase of the process
Output
Criteria, checkpoints, and guidelines that compare projects fairly and balance portfolio value with resource allocation
Output
A review process that creates a common, flexible work flow for each project type and stresses cross-functional collaboration Actions
Baseline the current product •
development process Identify performance gaps or •
weaknesses
Redesign the process based •
on findings from the baseline assessment
Roll out the new process •
Refine the new process •
Actions
Develop a project contract for each phase of the development process that:
Establishes go/no-go/hold decision •
guidelines
Identifies targets for the next phase •
of development
Measures the variance between •
targets and actual performance
Actions
Establish inputs and outputs for each •
stage of product development Communicate all status updates to •
the overseeing governance body Negotiate specific resource needs •
and coordinate Extended Team activities
Actions
Approve or reject projects in the •
innovation pipeline
Advance approved projects to the •
next development phase Reallocate resources based on •
business priorities
Output
Consistent, objective assessment of projects’ projected value and risk that optimizes resource allocation and accelerates the time to launch
2
process design team
Team Members: Operations • Supply Chain • Marketing • Clinical • Medical • Regulatory • Quality Management • Responsibilities:Baseline current product development process to •
identify strengths, gaps, and weaknesses Identify interdependencies between functions •
responsible for product development
Design and implement new product development •
process
Schedule: Meets once a week for four hours throughout the six-month development period
key takeaway:
Solicit a cross-functional perspective for the development process redesign
Functions directly involved in product development take ownership of the redesign effort
Product Development Process Redesign
The Process Design Team redesigns the development process to include:
cross-functional ownership •
standardized criteria •
formal agreements on expectations •
Design
The Process Design Team rolls out the new process through:
companywide communication strategies • formal training • on-the-job coaching • Rollout
Following the rollout, the Process Design Team collects feedback from stakeholders and continues to refine the process.
Monitor
The Process Design Team conducts a gap analysis to determine what causes projects to stall in development or fail in the market. Assess
Month 1
Month 6
3
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