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To achieve consistent innovation success and stay ahead of the competition, companies should focus on enterprise growth planning by digitizing their innovation plans, portfolios, and processes.
New product development (NPD) has changed dramatically in the past decade. Rapid digitalization and agile competitors bring products to market faster than ever, forcing innovation leaders to re-evaluate strategic growth plans, innovation priorities, and new product development initiatives.
Companies should focus on enterprise growth planning and innovation strategy realization by digitizing innovation plans, portfolios, and processes to achieve consistent innovation success, bring new products to market, and stay ahead of the competition.
By implementing the following steps, organizations can become smarter, nimbler, and more connected. The cost of inefficiency – misplaced “big bets,” products that waste time and money, and slow-to-market initiatives that miss critical targets – is too great to ignore.
Increase speed and agility
The consumer desire for the newest and best offerings is insatiable in today’s business environment. The organizations that streamline NPD processes and reduce time to market will be more likely to win. As a result, enterprises are transforming themselves from the inside out to boost agile capabilities in order to meet consumer demands, often resulting in organizational changes to operating models, programs, and portfolios. Innovation and NPD process governance bring additional clarity to trade-offs and outcomes that enable quick, ongoing responses to changes in the market. Real-time, digitized prioritization to innovation and product development ensures organizations can respond faster to changing demands.
Embrace digital transformation
The days of spreadsheets serving as a single source of truth are woefully outdated. Manual NPD processes create inefficiencies and inaccuracies that prevent leaders from making the right decisions around portfolios, inhibiting products from reaching their innovative potential and drastically impeding time-to-market. The problem is exacerbated when considering the myriad stakeholders working across multiple teams and departments.
Forward-thinking companies are implementing effective digital innovation strategies that allow them to:
- Openly share knowledge and information
- Reuse work within and across innovation programs
- Compare ideas and initiatives side-by-side (apples to apples)
- Evaluate risk and resource allocation
- Test initiatives before and during the development process to make smarter decisions
- Deliver more timely product innovations
Access timely data insights
It’s no secret that data is considered the new oil for enterprises. Organizations are creating vast amounts of data each day. Those who can take advantage of data-driven tools to generate greater visibility and accountability throughout the innovation process will most likely succeed. A visible, interconnected framework where the work of cross-functional innovation teams fuels scorecards, dashboards, idea portals, and other tools aid informed portfolio management and decision-making.
Work toward company collaboration across methodologies
Different workgroups demand different innovation strategies and processes. Break down barriers by allowing teams to use the methodology that works best for them. One such methodology is a zero-based gated process that empowers teams to alter processes based on tasks that are appropriate or critical to their team and the type of innovation they are working on. Use this methodology to determine what is core and what is extra and establish the necessary guardrails to enable teams to work at speed. Once the appropriate methodology and governance are defined, digitize those processes. Greater agility and flexibility empower all teams to work the way they want to work while still working together to achieve innovation and NPD goals.
The right enterprise innovation management technology can empower teams with what they need to meet expectations while having complete visibility of the innovation lifecycle—from ideation to end of life. Tap into the true potential of innovation and NPD by taking advantage of digital tools like Sopheon’s Accolade that support agility, speed, and flexibility.
Our new e-book, “Four ways executives can accelerate innovation and new product development,” offers insight on how you can promote more profitable NPD, accelerate enterprise growth and achieve long-term success. Download it now.
