Part of gaining and keeping competitive advantage is determining the opportunities to improve and innovate upon existing organizational operations. An operations manager uses their skill in innovation to bring a new product to market. They must be nimble to quickly evaluate the advantages of a product, scan the external environment, and design a development process with the right resources at the right time for a viable innovation.
Identify the obstacles your organization might face in attempting to adopt an innovative product or process.
Explain how to mitigate the risks and leverage the advantages you identify.
Identify people who will make good project champions. Explain how project champions help ensure that you’ll achieve the benefits of championing and minimize the risks.
Consider whether to use mostly sequential or parallel processes.
Address the influence using stage-gate processes would have on development cycle time and development costs.
Analyze the benefits and costs of involving customers and suppliers in the development process. Consider how to test the viability of your product or process with your customers and suppliers in your analysis.
Conclude whether you should continue with the development of your innovation based on the evaluation you performed.
