Making Time for New Product Development in the New Year
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The new year brings a new schedule — but with everything coming at your development team in 2019, how will your team handle their regular work on top of all the new product development you hope to accomplish? Here are a few ideas on keeping a schedule and making time for new development.
Set Clear, Realistic Priorities for the Year
The first, and best, way to make sure new development actually happens is to make it a priority. One reason new development often gets pushed to the wayside is that it's considered a "secondary" project that your team can work on when they get their other projects done. When they're consistently working on other projects, new product development gets pushed to the wayside.
While you certainly can't throw out all of your team's existing projects, you can set clear, realistic priorities for the new year, and include new product development as one of those top priorities. By making new development a key priority, you allow your team to put it ahead of some of their other projects, which can help move it along at a reasonable rate.
Create a Schedule, and Be Specific
If new product development is a key priority for your company this year, it's best to get ahead of it by setting a specific, detailed schedule as soon as you can. Determine what needs to happen and set regular meetings so your team knows when they need to provide updates, and can be held accountable for the progress they make.
The more specific your schedule, the better. This gives your team an opportunity to visualize how you see this new project development coming together, and while you can always adjust the schedule later, having a clear outline for an order of events gives team members a place to start.
Assign Key Tasks to The Right Development Team
Another key hold up for new project development can be how you assign tasks to your development teams. If new project development is assigned to more than one team, it is important to divide the work intuitively between teams that have both the time and the skill set to complete specific aspects of the new product. Depending on how you envision your project, assign key tasks to different teams so it doesn't feel like the bulk of the work is placed on one team.
Spend Time With Your Team
After you get new product development going, you have to make an effort to keep it moving. Spend dedicated one-on-one time with your team, in person, to facilitate continual progression. While it's easy to send out an email and wait for a response, it's more effective, and you'll often find better answers if you work with, and speak to your team directly.
Regular meetings and an open, honest dialogue can keep new product development moving along quickly. Face-to-face meetings make it easier for your team to tell you what's not working, and what new direction might be better for your project. Direct collaboration can do a lot to keep your new development project on track.
Hire A Design and Engineering Project Partner To Help Innovate New Products
If your team is struggling to carve out time to develop a new product, they won't have the time necessary to spend on true ideation. They may be able to hammer out something new, but what are the chances it'll meet top standards for innovation, creativity, and functionality?
A better, more productive solution may be to hire a design and engineering studio who can dedicate an entire team's time and resources to innovating your new product.
By partnering with another team, you'll take pressure off of your own, allowing them to focus specifically on the products you need to keep current business moving swiftly, without losing the new product development you've been pushing for in the new year.
A qualified, experienced development partner can help your company optimize new product development in the following ways:
- Increase productivity
- Introduce new, innovative ideas
- Minimize overload on existing employees
- Offer immediate, specialized expertise.
Oftentimes, a fresh, new perspective and a dedicated team of experts who can make your vision come to life without taking away from your current production efforts are exactly what your team needs.
The beginning of the year is a busy time for everyone. If you're looking for a solid and proven partner for your 2019 new product development needs, Fredricks Design can help. Whether you need help on just one product or could use a specialized team of innovators for a number of projects, we are dedicated to developing creative product solutions for clients in a variety of industries, and we'd love to help you. Let us know how we can help you facilitate new product development in the new year.
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