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Implementation Tip #3 - Enrolling Existing Projects into your New Process
By Mike Wiebe, Principal Consultant
Your Stage-Gate Implementation Plan should highlight the official date in which all new
ideas must enter the new process. This is fairly straight forward. However, most
companies introducing Stage-Gate have a pipeline of existing projects underway – some
good, some bad and some downright ugly projects. How, when and should these projects enter
Stage-Gate?
The two ‘bookend’ alternatives that seem to be the simplest often turn out to be the riskiest,
most difficult and most disappointing in the end.
- ‘Grandfather’ all Existing Projects’. In this approach, every
existing project is granted ‘permission’ to continue on its merry way outside
of the new process; only new ideas are required to enter the new process. If you
select this path, all existing projects escape the discipline, structure and benefits of
the new process and it will be a longer time before you see any benefit from your new innovation
system. Additionally, the majority of your people will not begin to internalize the
change or adjust their behavior to the new expectations. You will never achieve the
momentum you need to be truly successful introducing this ‘new way of working’.
- ‘Enroll all Existing Projects’. On the other hand, if you bring all existing
projects into your new process immediately – regardless how far along the development
path they are - the required new skills, activities and behaviors will likely overwhelm your
people. If the implications are not well understood (before you enroll everything) the
milestones and timelines associated with these projects will be jeopardized.
The correct answer lies somewhere in between. To achieve the best implementation result,
I strongly recommend you consider the following:
- Develop an Implementation Plan. After you customize the design of your Stage-Gate
process but before you start ‘using’ it, take the time to think about
how to ‘introduce’ it to your organization. There are numerous factors
to consider including; the priority of the mandate, how different the new process is
compared with the ‘way the organization works today’, performance goals,
timing, stakeholder expectations, readiness for change, availability of enabling resources,
barriers, skills gaps, and so on. The point here– the implementation of
Stage-Gate is a project in of itself!
- Evaluate all Existing Projects. After you customize the design of your Stage-Gate
process and develop an implementation plan, take the time to consider the impact the
new process will have on each existing project and decide whether to enroll or grandfather
each project. As I mentioned above, the correct answer lies somewhere in between. Many
organizations call this exercise the ‘pre-implementation assessment’. The
members of the team responsible for designing/customizing the new Stage-Gate process
meet with each project leader to discover ‘where’ the project is relative
to the new process. The assessment captures information like: whether the project
is a 5 or 3 stage project, what stage of work has been completed, whether the project
leader wants to volunteer to enroll their project immediately, whether a cross functional
team exists, the skill gap, the ‘health’ of the project and so on. The
point here – get a real-life assessment of how the new process could potentially
impact each project.
- Decide Which Projects to Enroll. With ‘Assessment’ information
in-hand, it will be much easier to decide which projects to enroll versus grandfather. There
are numerous factors to consider here but I strongly recommend you stay focused on
accelerating a positive business result. Projects ideal to ‘enroll’ include:
high profile projects that if accelerated could bring revenue into the company sooner,
suspect ‘pet’ projects or dogs that if killed could free up scarce resources
for more meritorious projects, projects with leaders or team members who are strong
champions of change as they will serve as good role models, and projects early in the
process who can still benefit from the discipline and rigor of the upfront homework. The
point here – make objective decisions.
- Use Welcome Gates. All projects you decide to ‘enroll’ should be ‘welcomed’ into
the new process via a ‘Welcome Gate’. The spirit of the welcome gate
is positive in nature. In essence it is used to ‘correct’ the team
going forward. The Gatekeepers accept the work done thus far and focus more
so on guiding the team going forward. The most common situation we observe at
Welcome Gates is that the team is much further along with their technical activities
than any upfront homework (VOC, market assessment, business case). Typical decisions
and guidance delivered during Welcome Gates include: Targeted Recycle – do some
specific activities at the request of the Gatekeepers, or Conditional Go – proceed
with the project but with some provisions (i.e. catch up with market assessment work). Avoid
killing projects at Welcome Gates unless the team puts forth the recommendation. The
Welcome Gate is designed to enable change and transformation – the Gatekeepers ‘role
model’ their expectations so teams can be better prepared for their next ‘real’ Gate. Rarely
do existing projects arrive at a Welcome Gate with sufficient information to make
a good solid business decision.
Gaining momentum by showing value quickly is important when introducing any new initiative
within an organization. However, don’t interpret the desire to achieve ‘quick
hits’ as a need to implement Stage-Gate in one fell swoop. Control the outcome
of your Stage-Gate implementation by taking the time to develop a high quality implementation
plan suited to leverage your organization’s strengths and minimize weaknesses. Ensure,
at minimum, it contains the few tips I offered you in this article.
You can reach Mike Wiebe at mike.wiebe@stage-gate.com.
More resources on this topic:
- Making Stage-Gate Stick on
July 16-17 in Washington, D.C. Join Stage-Gate expert and sought-after implementation
consultant, Mike Wiebe, for this 2-day, hands-on public seminar dedicated to helping innovation
professionals master the tough challenges of implementing Stage-Gate. Don’t
waste time and don’t jeopardize business results trying to figure this out on your
own. Benefit from the learning experiences of thousands of companies who have successfully
implemented Stage-Gate or struggled through several attempts. Register
Now.
- Winning at New Products, 3rd Edition authored by Dr. Robert G. Cooper. Product
innovation is one of the riskiest, yet most important, endeavors of the modern corporation. In
this best-selling book, Dr. Cooper reveals the 15 critical success factors in product innovation
and outlines the industry’s most widely implemented roadmap to take new ideas from
inception to launch, Stage-Gate® Cooper, the creator of the highly acclaimed
system, offers a vivid, detailed illustration of the powerful system, including richly
annotated case examples and implementation advice. Soft Cover. 398 Pages. Published
by Perseus. Order Now.
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