Accelerating new product development

There’s no quick fix for accelerating the development of a new product.  That’s because your organization has a baseline (existing, current) capability for product development that is comprised of a mix of existing solutions, people, process/methods, tools and knowledge assets.  If you haven’t been investing in your new product development (NPD) capability roadmap then there is no [...]

Tips for entrepreneurs

Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk to the Entrepreneurship class at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, my alma mater.  I split my talk between “Using Decisions Patterns to Accelerate Your Business” (which I’ve touched on often in this blog) and more personal tips based on my journey as an entrepreneur.  My thanks to Dr. Tom [...]

Decision patterns for better proposals

If you frequently generate business proposals in response to customer requests (e.g. RFPs, RFQs, RFIs), then you can benefit greatly from the use of decision patterns.  Every proposal proposes a solution to a customer’s problem (e.g. use cases, mission scenarios, requirements, needs … ).   The “essence” of this solution and the thinking behind it can [...]

Decision baselines: a dynamic plan of record

It’s always helpful for your business to have a plan of record; a baseline plan that your entire organization can see and align their efforts against.  However, if you are pushing the envelope of new technologies, new products, new markets and new business models, the plan of record quickly becomes ancient history.
Business situations with high [...]

Decision Patterns: Free Webinars

I currently see 500+ hits on this blog each week, with interest spread across as many as 100 topics each week.  Because comprehensive decision patterns such as those I deliver within Decision Driven® Strategy and Life are a new and disruptive technology (with many diverse applications), I’d like to provide my readers with the opportunity [...]

Engineering is a gnarly profession

People don’t understand what engineers do.  Say “engineer” and a layperson thinks:

Nerds
Nerds with pocket protectors (I haven’t worn mine in years!)
Nerds with pocket protectors and electrical tape holding their eyeglasses together (… decades!)

Sophisticated laypersons think “Dilbert!” while feigning their understanding of the humor.
My pastor has dropped a few hints that he thinks of engineers as [...]

Turn a Kaizen Blitz into a Decision Blitz

I launched my consulting business before the term, kaizen, became widely used as a synonym for continuous, incremental improvement.  Most of my consulting engagements have been focused on innovation, strategy, roadmapping, new products, systems engineering or platform engineering – the “greenfield” thinking that creates a new future.  My process improvement engagements have been focused on [...]

Decision Driven project management

Most project managers place their focus on a project plan comprised of a network of tasks and/or work packages.  These work packages are part of a hierarchical decomposition of the project effort known as a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).  A variety of management techniques and tools are used to define and baseline this project plan [...]

Turn your business dashboard into a cockpit

About 5 years ago I was first exposed to the buzz associated with performance management dashboards.  They seemed like a neat concept – a way to collect, summarize, display and manage by a highly-tuned set of business performance metrics across a complex enterprise.  Dashboards have been touted as giving managers near real-time insight into the heartbeat [...]

Integrated methods or a bucket of tools?

In my consulting travels, I’ve come across quite a few organizations who use a bucket of tools approach to their strategy, product development and process improvement (e.g. six sigma) efforts.  They offer their teams a dizzying array of techniques, templates, forms and software widgets to use, some training and tips on where and when to use [...]