The Next Generation Idea-to-Launch Process:  Getting the Right Products to Market Fast

Emerging in the late 1990s, Agile is a set of software development methodologies based on iterative and incremental processes in which requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams. At that time, existing traditional development processes were not suited to the shrinking timelines for the software industry. This industry needed a new approach to product development and to deal with rapidly changing markets and customer needs.

Agile was developed to deal with these issues through adaptive planning, evolutionary delivery, a time-boxed iterative approach and a flexible response to change. It allowed companies to deliver working software in weeks rather than months.

And now the concepts of Agile are coming to the manufacturing world. A few leading-edge manufactures have combined Agile methods with their traditional gating processes to create an Agile-Stage-Gate® model – and initial results with these few manufacturers have been truly dramatic.

Many consider the addition of Agile to be the most important change to product development in the last 30 years.

In this course, you’ll learn how and why leading firms are moving beyond their traditional Stage-Gate® process, and how to build Agile project management into your idea-to-launch gating system. Through a series of interactive lectures, discussion and Q&A, numerous case studies and practical examples, you’ll be introduced to proven Agile tools, templates and techniques that can be immediately put into practice.

Who Should Attend

This seminar is designed for business to business executives and senior managers responsible for maximizing the returns on their innovation efforts in the fields of Innovation, Business Development, R&D, New Products, Marketing and Operations Management in both manufacturing and services industries.

Why Attend

By attending this seminar you will:

• Understand why and how leading firms are moving beyond their traditional Stage-Gate® systems making their processes more adaptive and flexible, more agile and responsive to customers, leaner and more productive, also accelerated, faster to market. And they are getting superb performance results.
• Build Agile project management into your idea-to-launch gating system. Classic project management is fine for stable, predictable environments. But innovation projects often face quite uncertain and unstable environments. Learn how Agile project management methods meet the requirements of ever moving project targets and needed strategic pivots.
• Get the project right by building in experimentation and iterations (scrums and time-boxed sprints). Sometimes no amount of pre-development work, such as technical assessment or voice-of customer efforts, can get all the answers before Development begins. Agile-Stage-Gate® helps the product and project evolve and gain definition as Development proceeds. And constant customer feedback via iterations ensures the product is right.
• Integrate Agile project management with Stage-Gate® for physical or manufactured new products. Some principles of Agile and Stage-Gate® may seem to conflict (for example, pre-planning versus planning-on-the-fly), thus an integrated Agile-Stage-Gate® hybrid system is needed. Learn how to modify both models to yield an effective system, and also about changes needed to handle physical products.
• See how to pick the best development projects for maximum productivity and focus. Learn about newer techniques – profiling, success criteria and expected commercial value – that work better for more innovative and ambiguous projects than do traditional financial tools for project selection. Learn about effective buAccelerate your projects to market, without giving up integrity of work. Lean down your process by using value stream analysis. Practice concurrency – when it’s OK to overlap tasks and even stages. Resource your projects properly. And use IT to improve project productivity.
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Dr. Robert G. Cooper

“World’s Top Innovation Management Scholar,” Founder and President of the Product Development Institute; ISBM Distinguished Research Fellow

Dr. Robert G. Cooper is the creator of the world-famous Stage-Gate® process, and was named the “World’s Top Innovation Management Scholar” by the prestigious Journal of Product Innovation Management. He has combined practical consulting with ground-breaking research for many years. Besides his best-selling books “Winning at New Products” and “Portfolio Management for New Products”, he has published more than 120 articles on new products, R&D and innovation management.

Dr Cooper is an ISBM Distinguished Research Fellow at Pennsylvania State University, and Professor Emeritus at the DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University in Canada. He is also the founder and President of Product Development Institute offering innovation know-how and support around the world. Many companies in North America, Europe and Asia have introduced his methods,including 3M, ABB, Alfa Laval, Arkema, Atlas Copco, BASF, Bosche-Cardinal Health, Caterpillar, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Exxon Chemicals, HP, ITT Industries, Kennametal, LEGO, Siemens, Volvo Construction Equipment, and others.

For open enrollment seminars:
Up to 30 days prior: No fee
Between 15 – 30 days: $100 fee
14 days or less: Full seminar fee
All substitutions within 14 days prior: subject to a $50 administrative fee.