How We Get Results

• Place value - customer value and business value - at the center of the work we do with our clients, and our own consulting process.
• Synthesize proven best practices in new product development with the value-centered practices from Lean Product Development and the Toyota Product Development System into a customized strategy for improving new product development performance.
• Support the transition with on-going coaching, just-in-time knowledge transfer and guidance for managing organizational change.

Value-Centered Product Development

The mission of any product development organization is to make money for the company by delivering value to customers. We begin by helping you define what product development must do to help the organization make more money - is it faster time-to-market, lower cost, more products or some combination of these? We also take time to understand how well you know your customers and what value looks like to them. Everything we do follows from the answers to those two questions, so that we can help you maximize business and customer value in a reasonable timeframe.

We live this in our own consulting process. We don't rush to put out a proposal. We take time with our clients to define crisp objectives that have clear ties to the business needs of the organization. We, and you will know what success looks like for every project. The tools, practices, methods, etc. for any particular project flow from the value that you expect us to deliver.

The Practices that Create Value

We don't limit ourselves to one toolbox. Katherine Radeka has deep experience as a product developer for two world-class technology companies, and expertise in a wide range of industries through her consulting practice. This gives her a broad base of knowledge to draw upon when partnering with a client to develop a new product development transformation strategy.

Lean Product Development is a major influence, especially the research about the Toyota Product Development System. Lean Product Development reminds us to put value at the center of the enterprise, and provides some unique practices to maximize value. While no company could replicate Toyota's system entirely, we believe that targeted use of Toyota's practices can lead to breakthroughs in product development performance.

However, we don't confine ourselves to Lean Product Development projects. Some of our clients are too small and too entrepreneurial to require such a systematic, process-driven approach. They need a toolset that leverages their inherent agility while avoiding the problems of a free-for-all product development process. Other clients need some injection of basic NPD best practices before they are ready to attempt any work with Lean Product Development's advanced toolkit. We recommend the practices that have proven their ability to deliver the results that the client needs.

Support to Deliver Sustainable Value

We partner with clients to create sustainable change - any other result is a waste of our time and your money. Sustainable change begins with clear objectives linked to business results, and strong project sponsorship. The transformation strategy flows from the objectives and a realistic assessment of the development organization's current state, and explicitly includes the activities required to manage organizational change. Then we support the implementation with coaching, mentoring, just-in-time knowledge transfer and reflection. This helps both parties spot implementation problems before they derail the transformation effort, and greatly increases the likelihood that the expected results will be achieved.