In the Goals, Readiness and Constraints: The Three Dimensions of Product Launch article in the current issue of the Pragmatic Marketer, David Daniels presents an analysis of launch constraints of a hypothetical $100,000 Version 3 product that was six months late. In addition, a product feature that the sales group had been promoting was not going to be included in the proposed release.
Internally, the new product development environment at this fictional company is characterized by handoffs. When 'the development team' thinks that the product is 'ready,' it is released to marketing and sales representatives.
Representatives from the different groups do not have the same perspectives. The groups have different criteria for success. Software developers may have a prominent goal of 'shippable product.' The sales group may have the prominent goal of 'meet quota.'
In the development group, such goals may promote a myopic attitude. As long as requirements (which may be known as BDUF - big design up front] are met and the existing quality assurance tests (finding and fixing software bugs) are met, the product is released to manufacturing for distribution to customers. A separate group of marketing and sales representatives is assigned the responsibility of finding ways to 'sell the product they have.'
There are many insights in the Daniels' article. One strategy may be to find solutions within the marketing and sales groups. Another strategy is to nourish an integrated new product development environment with more cooperation and collaboration.
I found that the most pivotal sentence in this original post was:
"Clearly, the launch goal is limited by the number of available salespeople."
This statement frames the situation as if the only two actions would be to change the launch goal or to requisition more sales people.
If this situation is representative of most of the company's new product development efforts, then there are company culture issues to resolve. Efforts to patch the current Widget 3.0 launch situation will be a distraction.
The Widget 3.0 development efforts are seen by Sales/Marketing as over budget and six months late. Development dropped a reporting feature that the sale team has been promoting.
The sales Team (7 people) has lost confidence in Widget 3.0 and plan to sell other products to make their quota. I predict that more sales people will not be hired, trained, and contributing within the 9 month quota period. If more sales people were hired, this would not resolve problems that will still exist when Widget 4.0 is available.
The larger opportunities require changes of the company culture.
- One problem can be characterized as too many silos. The lack of collaboration between development and sales/marketing is costing the company millions of dollars a month. Improving collaboration should be a top objective for the CEO.
- Development needs to hire some design and programming expertise. Being six months late and dropping a reporting feature indicate problems that should be revolved with training and co-development with other specialists.
- Rebecca in Marketing Communications (who in limbo because of the Widget 3.0 delays) has some unique options. Since there are only 7 sales people and a handful of sales per month, communication can be supplemented with video conferences and online collaboration tools. The extended team (sales, marketing, product marketing,...) should be able to work as a dispersed team to evolve the required assets.
- Since the Widget 3.0 project is already six months overdue and there is contention about the importance of a report feature, a high level team should finalize a plan (within one week) to resolve the situation with integrity. The current 1.0 and 2.0 customers must be satisfied with the promised deliverables. I suspect that a workable solution can be achieved by hiring the expertise and that an acceptable product can be ready within three months.
- Bob, the VP of Sales should explore other options to make the overall sales quota and modify the CEO's expectations. He should reconsider building a new Widget 3.0 pipeline because the previous prospects became “lost opportunities because of the current product features.
The strategy that prevails will depend on the convictions of the leadership and the strength of the analysis. However, I predict that the company will be more profitable when they increase the collaboration of all the contributors that develop and launch new products.
