Including more heads in product development meetings always create a better product. I’ve come to believe that this is not always the case, and in fact, I think that it can often have the opposite effect of what was intended. Often a larger group simply means that the product development becomes, instead of one person’s clear idea of a product, an amalgamation of a number of potentially successful products. These different capabilities are sometimes mixed in a way that don’t offer any specific customer benefits and balloon the price above the essential value of the core product.
I wonder if this could explain the ability of smaller companies to develop breakthrough products and large companies who develop impenetrable bureaucracies where no single person has the ability to say “yes” to the further development of a good product idea, while nearly anyone present seems to wield full “veto” power (which of course means that most ideas are vetoed, often at to the disappointment and frustration of the consensus opinion – and to the detriment of the potential customer).
My opinion is that this tendency can often be handled by being VERY selective about which employees are included in a product development team, and by putting together a coherent concept that the team can get behind and not try to morph into their own idea, or into one that puts their organization’s diverging views in the leadership seat. Many of these meetings are simply an exercise in ensuring that everyone’s organization gets credit for the product, or for a major component of the products’ success, instead of simply putting the company, and the customer ahead of their petty internal concerns. I firmly believe that eventually all of the good ideas will get their chance to be considered and debated at some point, however by harpooning another’s idea with unrealistic expectations from one person’s organization, does nothing but to ensure that company, the customer and ALL of the organizations lose!
I believe that the key to success in this environment is to have one or two people who have imagined the product, lead a small team of open-minded people from the most necessary organizations. In most cases there needs to be one or two primary product managers that have the ability to drive the development authoritatively – and have the others look, not for an organizational snub, but rather focus on the success of the company and the product that the customer would actually desire.
Developing a product? Hand select a few good, open minded employees from key organizations to contribute to the success of the product that you have in mind.
Know thy Customer!
Chris Hawkes
http://www.marketresearch101.com
