Project Front Loading
Here we provide a comprehensive guide on front-loading the innovation process for a project. It outlines the steps and methodologies to be followed to ensure a successful project kickoff and execution, ensuring that all critical aspects of the innovation process are addressed and executed effectively.
Front-Loading
WHY?
Front loading helps us clarify expectations and help to find and define the purpose, success criteria & deliverables of the project.
WHAT?
Project front loading is both a workshop and the work that needs to be done before the project kick off. The first workshop should be held immediately after passing GW0 (or earlier), and the work must be concluded before the project kick offs at GW1.
HOW?
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Review the project idea and description
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Identify the key influencers (internal and external) and prioritise them on the matrix
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Define actions of how to involve the most important influencers
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Analyse competitors and map the innovation opportunities
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Capture existing knowledge about market, segment, competitors, technology etc.
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Review your knowledge gaps and conclude a plan on how to close them
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Review key questions
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Create a milestone plan for the next 2-4 weeks
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Wrap-up: conclude on actions and process/structure for status meetings
Market Influencer Analysis
WHY?
We need insight into our customers for the project to be a success. To map out our internal and external stakeholders helps to create understanding of why our project is important to them, what they like and dislike and how we can satisfy them.
WHAT?
Stakeholder analysis is a structured way to find out which ‘deep dive interviews’ to conduct, both internal and external as well as capturing and documenting them.
HOW?
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Prepare Board
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Put up the matrix on the project board
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Define the main stakeholders
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List, per stakeholder
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What we believe is desirable
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What we believe discussable, and
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What we believe is unthinkable about the product or service
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Create a plan on how to challenge these assumptions
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Who to interview
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Where and what to observe
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Market Influencer Analysis
Brand Experience
WHY?
Brand experience is used to identify all possible touchpoints a customer may have with the company.
WHAT?
Brand experience is a brand’s action as perceived by a person. Every interaction between an individual and a tangible or intangible brand artefact can be seen as a brand experience. Such interaction might be using the product, the visit of a website or shop, as well as seeing advertises on a billboard in the public space. Those places of interaction are called touchpoints. Hence a brand experience can include one or more of a recipient’s five senses and cause any kind of response.
HOW?
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Prepare Board
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We add a column to the influencer matrix, labelled “Touchpoints”
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Brainstorm what the touchpoints may be, per influencer
User interviews and observations
WHY?
In-context interviews develop a deep and rich view into the behaviours, thoughts and lives of users and are the best way of uncovering functional, emotional and social needs. While observations capture the need they can’t articulate, as well as future needs. The aim is to generate a foundation of new insights, which is necessary.
WHAT?
To interview and observe users is a good way to gain in-depth understanding and empathy for future users. Interviews should be conducted in the everyday context of the users to make the understanding more real. User observations are a method for uncovering both articulated and latent needs of the users. By studying the world of the users, the observer can analyse and uncover new insights that can fuel the innovation process.
HOW?
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Identify and select users to be interviewed or observed using the stakeholder analysis workshop.
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Prepare interview guide by brainstorming themes and key questions for the user.
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Preferably, interview in pairs and take notes during the interview. The interview should be like a conversation allowing for improvisation
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Observe users in their everyday context
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Pay close attention to surprising behaviours, extremes, frustrations, workarounds etc.
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Record your findings in different formats that support your observations, e.g. pictures, quotes and video
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Fill in the template for user interviews & observation knowledge capture (1 template per user)
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Share key conclusions and insights with the team
Opportunity mapping
WHY?
We need to focus on delivering great solutions that fulfil unique user needs and solve user pains. Opportunity mapping helps zoom in on the problems that the users want to solve and to identify the white spaces where competition is still limited.
WHAT?
Through opportunity mapping, a product idea is systematically analysed and transformed into a number of distinct, actionable and exciting innovation opportunities that set the direction for ideation and concept development.
HOW?
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List the customer needs, in priority order, from top to bottom.
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Per competitor solution evaluate the user satisfaction on a scale from 1 (low) to 10 (high)
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Identify distinct opportunities and gaps in the marketplace based on the most important and unsatisfied user needs
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Conclude by describing each distinct opportunity (e.g. 3-4 opportunities) in the opportunity statement template
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Catch the essence of the opportunity in an actionable, user-oriented and compelling problem statement that excites the team
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Use the opportunity map to identify actions
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In this area the solution is great, but customers don’t think it’s important. Opportunity to simplify, or to VA/VE
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In this area the solution is not great, but customers think it’s important. Big opportunity to innovate.
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Target area, where the solution and importance are well balanced
Critical Success Factors
WHY?
Critical Success Factors (CSF) Trees are diagram-based tools that help you develop and deliver high quality products and services. You use them to translate broad customer needs into specific, actionable, measurable performance requirements.
WHAT?
A tool that helps to understand what drives quality in the eyes of your customers, so that you can deliver a product or service that they are genuinely pleased with.
HOW?
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You create a CSF breakdown by first identifying the critical needs of your customers. This is what your product or service must deliver for customers to be happy.
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Then, for each need, you identify its main drivers. These are the factors that customers will use to evaluate the quality of your product.
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Finally, you identify measurable performance requirements that each driver must satisfy if you're to actually provide a high quality product to your customers. Without these requirements, you have no way to actually measure the performance and quality of your solution.
Milestone Plan
WHY?
Visual planning enhances commitment and collaboration around the plan. It helps break down large deliverables in manageable milestones and facilitates frequent joint follow-up.
WHAT?
Visual planning is a visually oriented planning method which is carried out by all the project participants by placing personal milestones (written on post-its) in the right sequence on a board. It is an operational plan which covers the next 2-4 weeks.
HOW?
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Build the plan
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Each team member (or function) have a horizontal track on the board
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Individually, team members write down milestones in a logical sequential flow on post-its and place them on the board
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One milestone per week at the minimum, but not so many that you lose the overview
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Together, the team goes through the entire plan from the top and checks all dependencies and adds milestones which may be missing
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Each “track owner” presents his/her track
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If reaching key deliverables on time is a problem, the team discusses possible ways of accelerating the plan
Build the Product Canvas
When you executed the milestone plan, and have a result it may be time to build the Product Canvas. Here's a step-by-step guide.
HOW?
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Envision the next product release
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Who are the main users??
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Which problems will the product solve for these users? Particularly, which new solutions will we offer with the next release?
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Why is our solution unique? How are we solving the problem differently? Why is it better for our users?
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Identify success factors
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What is key for the product in order to solve these problems/deliver on these USPs?
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What could make or break it?
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What do we need to get absolutely right in order to succeed?
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Identify key marketing messages and drivers
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If you got the product right, which messages will drive awareness in the market?
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What should we emphasize in our content and messaging?
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Which trends/changes/forces in the users’ environment will drive adoption of the new solutions
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