Detrimental Connotations in New Product Development - Collaboration

Within a new product development (NPD) environment, collaboration is more likely to produce innovation than cooperation. In NPD, opportunities for collaboration include all of the following interactions:

• Between individual contributors
• Across functional groups
• Agents (something that acts within the system) whose contributions focus on different portions of the development effort
• Asynchronous - individuals and information

Before presenting some of my suggestions for improving NPD environments [especially those embracing Web 2.0, social computing, NPD 2.0, co-development, open innovation, or geographically dispersed (virtual) teams], here is a review of the words denotation and connotation that started this 10-part series.

Denotation: the definition of a word apart from the impressions or feelings it creates in the reader.

Connotation: the set of associations implied by a word in addition to its literal meaning.

The intent of this post is evolve the connotation of collaboration within NPD environments to maximize success during product launch.

Interactions between individuals and across functional groups

Within many NPD environments, a conversion that exemplifies cooperation may be:

Designer: I need the latest copy of the requirements document.

Subject matter expert: I think that the most recent document is on the system.

Designer: Thank you.

The organization chart for this NPD group may resemble the following diagram:

As stated in my Network the silos - An alternative to breaking down the silos post:

"The most effective NPD environments are more than a collection of coworkers juggling multiple assignments in a hierarchical organization."

To improve the potential for innovation, consider the connotation of collaboration within your organization. The Wikipedia entry for collaboration includes:

Collaboration: a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together in an intersection of common goals

A conversation that exemplifies more effective collaboration may have the following characteristics:

Designer: I was thinking about the problem you mentioned yesterday and I was reminded of a success story from my friend at at another company.

Subject matter expert: Great. So far, my 'textbook' solutions don't seem to provide the robust solution that I now believe this new product will need. Tell me more.

Designer: Correct me if I am mistaken... I want to understand before I integrate... It sounds like we might be able to modify...

Subject matter expert: What can I do to help you create and evaluate a prototype?

The diagram for this type of interaction is different.

Interactions in a neural network differ from those suggested by a hierarchical organizational chart. These interactions are more sophisticated than suggested by a matrix organization model. In a neural network model, an individual can have from one to many connections with other agents (something that acts within the system). The connections are made and broken dynamically. The 'bandwidth' of the connections between individuals can grow or shrink depending on the qualities of the tasks.

An introduction to complex adaptive systems is included in my December 2008 Visions article.

Level-of-Mastery and collaboration

To predict the effectiveness of collaboration within an NPD environment, examine the level-of-mastery of all of the individual contributors.  Not only are individuals that operate at the Ri-level of mastery more capable of inventing and blending techniques based on contextual clues, they have a greater potential for innovation because of the diversity of their knowledge.

In addition, contributors with a Ri-level of mastery are desirable collaborators because of their potential to be mentors to the Shu-level contributors.

Interactions of individuals that focus on different portions of development

To introduce this concept, consider the following riddle:

What did the Voice of the Customer (VOC) specialist say to the public relations specialist when they met for lunch?

If your answer was 'They did not have lunch. They have never met." you may have a new option for improving the potential for collaboration within your NPD environment.

Recall that the previous definition for collaboration included the word 'recursive' and the phrase 'common goals.' Both the VOC specialist and the public relations specialist have common goals. They both contribute to the development effort and they share the same endgame - a successful product launch. A successful product launch validates the development decisions and activities designed to:

• Uncover what a potential customer will value in the future
• Determine how to communicate this value
• Deliver a great product at the appropriate time

Likewise, developers may use the documented Product Requirements, but such a document is likely to be an abridged and biased prediction of what potential customers may value in the future.

Facilitating more effective, cross-disciplinary interactions for contributors that focus on different portions of the development effort, maximizes productivity, minimizes re-work, and maximizes knowledge creation.

Interactions of individuals and information

A large portion of the information required for new product development is in legacy systems. Many tools have been developed to store and find information.

The availability of capabilities associated with Web 2.0 functionality such as user generated content, wikis, the ability to add tags to existing content, and the ability to rate content can improve the flow of information within an NPD environment.

[caption id="attachment_544" align="alignnone" width="200" caption="Recent and popular uploads by an NPD contributor"][/caption]

The effectiveness of collaboration within an NPD environment can be improved beyond this currently accepted baseline to address asynchronous activities. I will address these advancements in future posts.

More than new tools and updated processes

Often, collaboration requires more than new tools and updated processes. Alistair Cockburn stated:

"If the people on the project are good enough, they can use almost any process and accomplish their assignment. If they are not good enough, no process will repair their inadequacy."

Collaboration requires more than delegating tasks to other team members and reviewing results.

When your connotation of collaboration enables you to create an NPD culture that facilitates synergistic interactions among individuals and across functional groups and promotes better insights from information throughout development, your potential for innovation will improve.

Other posts in this 10 part Detrimental Connotations series

Quick Fix, 1/10
Product Requirements, 2/10
Subject Matter Experts, 3/10
Design, 4/10
Designers and Developers, 5/10
Marketing, 6/10
Launch, 7/10
Best Practice, 8/10
I know it when I see it, 9/10