In today’s hyper-competitive world, it’s not enough to design a cool gadget or flashy piece of technology. Companies launching new products must meet the very specific needs and price points of fickle consumers. They also have to come to market with innovations that outshine those of their competitors. It comes down to a strategy of properly leveraging market intelligence in an organization’s project management process.
Consider Barnes & Noble’s development team, which drew upon tablet computer capabilities, such as color touch screens and Flash-capable web browsers, to develop the Nook Color. The device supplanted Amazon’s Kindle as the leading global e-reader. And Apple’s iPhone, which redefined the smartphone market with its appcentric design, has since proved no match for Google’s Android operating system.
To stay ahead of competitors, organizations should constantly monitor their rivals, the marketplace and customer demands. They also have to be flexible enough to factor new information into a project plan, says John Reh, management guide for the information site About.com in Seattle, Washington, USA. “Keeping an eye on the competition is vital to the survival of your business and the success of your products,” he says.
When market data is compiled and effectively funneled into the project decision-making process, it helps a project team differentiate its product by creating a solution customers want— before its competitors do.
“The impact of competitive intelligence on project management is that it can influence the tradeoffs of cost, schedule and scope,” Mr. Reh says. “It can help you decide whether to stretch a sprint to include a new feature, add more resources to a project or push an idea back.”
But most project managers don’t factor in market data throughout an initiative’s life cycle, Mr. Reh says. “They look at it in the beginning, when they are defining scope, and then not again until the project is done,” he says.
That effectively puts blinders on project team members, causing them to miss potentially game-changing developments that might otherwise alter their plan.
VISIONARY R&D
At financial services company Wells Fargo, reviewing market research, customer reactions and other competitive intelligence is part of the ongoing project management process, says Sri Muthu, development area manager and vice president in the Internet services technology group for Wells Fargo in San Francisco, California, USA. He runs the research and development (R&D) and “incubator lab,” where teams develop tests and track market reports, customer usage rates, survey responses, user interviews, industry analysis and other data that might indicate shifts in the market.
THE RISKS AND REWARDS OF SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDBACK
“These days, because of social media, we get immediate access to customer feedback, and the instant we get that information we can start considering whether we need to fix or modify a project,” says Alison Gardner, Dell, Austin, Texas, USA. “it’s very empowering.”
Social media data alone, though, are not enough to build a project business case, she adds. “Social media has had an incredible impact on our ability to collect feedback, but we have to back it up with formal research.”
Dell uses market analysis, third-party surveys and other formal research data to judge the merit of the big ideas that come from social media outlets.
“It ensures we are not making decisions based on one or two people,” Ms. Gardner says.
“However, competitive intelligence on its own has little value,” Mr. Muthu says.
Only when you have formal processes to synthesize and share that data with project teams across the organization does it add worth to the process. Project professionals and their sponsors can then ensure they are delivering projects that align with business strategy.
“You have to be able to incorporate ideas into the product development process, and make decisions based on your understanding of the data and why it’s relevant to the project,” Mr. Muthu says.
Wells Fargo product and technical development teams review market data and customer feedback at every milestone to ensure their choices continue to align with the company’s core strategy to create customer satisfaction by delivering solutions that solve their problems.
Keeping an eye on market data also helps minimize risks, Mr. Muthu says. When his project teams begin product development, they release prototypes to gauge customer and market response. This feedback helps them shape the project.
To address customer need and feedback for real-time data on credit card use, the lab rolled out a pilot project in March 2010. A mobile alert tool sent a text message to users as soon as a card was used or passed a certain monetary threshold.
Customer feedback and media buzz around the pilot was positive, which led the company to speed up rollout of the project. It went nationwide eight months later.
TIP
Extend timelines if necessary. “You have to build time into the schedule to look at what the competition and customers are doing, and determine how that will affect your project,” says John Reh, About.com, Seattle, Washington, USA. “It heightens your chances of success.”
“We start small,” Mr. Muthu says, “and if the market responds well, we know it makes sense to expand.”
By tracking customer feedback, organizations can also unearth unmet needs. Those insights can translate into game-changing products, says Francesco Bellifemine, PMP, IT service delivery manager in the oil and gas sector for Exprivia, an IT company in Milan, Italy. The organization has a division called the Experience Factory, where R&D teams track customer trends and market data. They generate ideas that then get channeled to project development teams.
“It gives us a process to evolve great ideas into market innovations,” Mr. Bellifemine says.
You have to be able to incorporate ideas into the product development process, and make decisions based on your understanding of the data and why it’s relevant to the project.
—Sri Muthu, Wells Fargo, San Francisco, California, USA
At Dell, cross-functional teams led by project managers incorporate data from focus groups, social media and product reviews into current and future projects.
Recently, one of the company’s clients shared frustration over its inability being able to manage certain workflows remotely. The Experience Factory generated several ideas for solving this problem, which led to a project to develop custom mobile apps that allow teams to log into their web systems and manage workflow remotely. The solution will improve productivity, and it inspired the customer to come up with more ideas for mobile application development, Mr. Bellifemine says.
“We use the power of knowledge to know what trends are emerging and how we can react,” he adds.
IN-HOUSE INNOVATION EXPERTS
By including marketing and sales departments in the planning process, project leaders can quickly glean valuable data they might otherwise not have access to, says Alison Gardner, marketing director of product group messaging at the IT corporation Dell in Austin, Texas, USA. Her group gathers reams of data from focus groups, social media, product reviews and comments on the company’s IdeaStorm online forum. That data is synthesized by her team and shared across the organization. Ms. Gardner regularly works with cross-functional teams led by project managers to incorporate this data into current and future projects.
“The role of the product marketing folks is to understand customers, the competition and industry trends,” Ms. Gardner says. “The project manager’s role is to inspire spirited discussions about how the core team can use this data to address customers’ problems.”
Project professionals and sponsors can also help decide which ideas make good business sense for a project and which ones might be unrealistic.
A change to a project can be as simple as adding a larger hard drive or more memory to a laptop before it’s released, or as complex as completely reworking a new product line based on market response.
If a project manager decides a major change is warranted, Dell has a stakeholder review process in which the team leader presents the idea, makes the business case and quickly gets a go/ no-go decision.
“There are no cushions in our timelines, so it’s very important that we empower our core teams to move forward by making these decisions efficiently,” Ms. Gardner says.
LESSONS LEARNED IN THE STRANGEST PLACES
The next big idea often comes from an unexpected source. Don’t just watch your own customers and direct competitors, advises Daniel Gray, PMP, portfolio manager of the project management office at Texas Health Resources, a not-for-profit healthcare organization in Arlington, Texas, USA. “Watching other industries is very important.”
His team regularly looks to the energy, telecom and financial services sectors to see how they are leveraging technology and how those innovations might be reengineered to meet a healthcare community’s needs.
“You wouldn’t think a hospital has a lot in common with the energy industry, but many of the technologies they use for remote monitoring and management of complex systems are relevant to healthcare,” Mr. Gray says. “And we are light years behind the oil and gas industry with these kinds of innovations.”
Partnering with other industries is a great way to brainstorm innovations in a non-competitive atmosphere, Mr. Muthu adds.
Wells Fargo regularly meets with executives from other highly regulated industries, including healthcare, to share solutions around big issues, such as information security and privacy demands.
“They understand the challenges we face, and because we don’t compete, it’s easier to be open,” he says.
Mr. Gray recently took a cue from the energy industry’s remote monitoring technology and adapted it to a project for Texas Health to track patients in labor.
In the past, when a pregnant woman experienced contractions, the doctor had to go to the hospital to assess the situation. Many times, the patient would get sent home due to false alarms or because the birth wasn’t going to happen for several hours.
The project team worked with a vendor, using an existing technology to create an application that can track and submit neonatal readings instantly to a doctor’s mobile device—allowing him or her to determine a woman’s status before making the trip to the hospital.
Research revealed that no other hospital in the area offered the same solution, which was key for the project business case, Mr. Gray says. The physicians working at Texas Health hospitals also practice at competing healthcare facilities, and it’s not uncommon for them to guide their patients where to go for treatment.
The new app provided Texas Health an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage and increase revenue.
When the organization rolled out the pilot at a few hospitals for a three-month trial, “feedback was overwhelmingly positive,” he says. “We thought there was going to be a mutiny when we took the technology away at the end of the pilot.”
The project team recognized opportunities to leverage the technology for other departments, including cardiology to track heart rate monitors. “Obstetrics and cardiology are two very important groups to a hospital’s bottom line,” Mr. Gray says, so creating innovations for these doctors had clear financial ROI.
The success of the trial helped secure funding for a network-wide rollout of the app. At the end of 2010, Texas Health expanded the technology to all of its obstetricians, and this year, it launched a version for cardiologists.
“That project wasn’t on our road-map, but it was approved because the data was so compelling,” Mr. Gray says. “Our ability to build a beachhead product that can’t be copied by the competition was a big selling point to the check writers.”
Competitive intelligence, when used effectively, can help organizations choose the right projects and adapt them as the market changes.
“When you incorporate knowledge into the project management process, you can be much more effective and better able to react to market changes,” Ms. Gardner says. “Looking at how fast everything moves today, you have to have a constant link between your company, your brand and the marketplace if you are going to remain successful.” PM
The Texas Health Resources PMO regularly looks to the energy, telecom and financial services sectors to see how they are leveraging technology and how those innovations might be reengineered to meet a healthcare community’s needs.