Exploratory Product Development: Executive Version: Adaptable Product Development in a Changing World (Product Development Process)
About this ebook
When companies try to maintain a traditional phased-and-gated process in a changing environment, the product development team is unable to manage the scope, timeline, and budget approved at the outset. The result usually includes changing product requirements, unexpected problems, rework, schedule delays, breaking the budget and commercial failure.
The product development team needs an approach that allows them to adapt to change in customer needs, markets, competition, technology and more. ExPD helps project teams identify, evaluate, and prioritize uncertainties and risks throughout a project. It then helps the team determine how and when to resolve the uncertainty or when it is appropriate to kill a project.
Out of this process, the authors developed the Business Fit Framework® (BFF) software tool that helps project teams to identify, evaluate and prioritize the most impactful product uncertainties and risks. As well as, tracking and resolving these risks. The authors received an NSF STEM, I-Corp Grant through the University of Chicago for the BFF. This grant enabled the authors to conduct further research on the topic of uncertainty and risk in product development, and how mid to large-cap companies currently cope with it.
Within this ExPD executive version, we look at the lessons of the Manhattan Project, a highly successful historical project. We discuss the three major components of the ExPD process: 1. Strategy, 2. Ideas & Selection, 3. Explore & Create. We then provide a case study to illustrate the ExPD process in practice.
About the author
Mary’s new product development expertise is in process, strategy, business model development, lean product development, risk management, organizational development, and team dynamics.
Mary began her career at Ford Motor Company and progressed through various marketing and development positions. She joined AT&T Bell Laboratories, concentrating in the areas of strategy, the voice of the customer, and scenario planning.
Mary co-founded the product development firm Strategy 2 Market® (s2m) in 2002. s2m specializes in helping large and mid-sized enterprises improve their product development system. Mary & Kathy went on a mission to improve the traditional phased-and-gated product development process that most enterprises use today. They developed an alternative adaptable process called Exploratory PD® (ExPD) that ultimately drives down and manages the most critical product development uncertainties and risks. Out of this process, they developed the Product Risk Framework® tool.
They received a grant in 2018 from the NSF STEM I-Corp program sponsored by the University of Chicago Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The grant was for the Product Risk Framework (PRF), which supports the ExPD process.
She is a member of the Society of Women Engineers and has an MBA from The University of Chicago, Booth School of Business.
Kathy co-founded the product development firm Strategy 2 Market® (s2m) in 2002. s2m specializes in helping large and mid-sized enterprises improve their product development processes.
Kathy has over 30 years of experience with Fortune 100 companies specializing in market and customer research, strategy, business processes, and models. Kathy's new product development expertise is in developing innovation, product, technology, market strategies, and product and technology roadmaps.
Kathy was instrumental in developing the Product Risk Framework. It is a tool that product development teams use to identify, assess and determine a product's most critical uncertainties, following the Exploratory PD® (ExPD) that ultimately drives down and manages the most critical product development uncertainties and risks.
She has an MS in Statistics from Carnegie-Mellon University and completed the core doctoral courses. She also has an MBA from The University of Chicago, Booth School of Business.
