Volume 6, #1, January, 2008
Are You Itching for Change?
Makeovers and Resolutions for the New Year
This is the time of year for makeovers, resolutions, and launching new projects. In personal life, we buy self-help books, start diets, and swear to banish those bad habits. In business life, we schedule performance reviews, revisit budgets, and brainstorm ideas for improving everything from work process to profits.
Any impulse to initiate change begins with the feeling that something isn't quite right. This feeling could be a small nibble of doubt in the corner of your mind or a roar that overwhelms every other thought. Either way, the dissonance between how things are and how you want them to be leads to action.
We at PDC experienced this dissonance in 2007. It led us to update our Web site and launch a new practice area. While making these changes felt good, we made them not for our satisfaction but because we want to help you more effectively when you experience that itchy feeling that something isn't quite right with your product development efforts. Maybe you're not meeting revenue or on-time goals. Maybe you're in a maturing market and need to figure out how to ignite your innovation efforts. Maybe you want to tie design decisions to bottom-line results so product designers aren't working in a vacuum unrelated to reality.
Our revamped Web site makes it easier to find information about topics such as innovation maturity modeling, integrating voice of the customer into product definition, and institutionalizing change. You'll have easier access to past Discoveries articles, plus a new interactive forum that lets you participate in conversations with your peers.
Get started right now on the first topic. Read our concept paper on Heads-Up Design, which is all about the impact of new product development on gross margins or profit.
What big changes need to happen for your company in 2008? Write and let us know.
Regards,
Sheila Mello
