PDMA's Role in Growing Product Development Knowledge

I spent last week at the PDMA International Conference in Orlando, FL.

I just have to say that Disney World is not a good place to have a business meeting where you want people to focus. All the cute kids running around with Mickey Mouse ears and the sight of the Magic Kingdom just over yonder don't contribute to a focused atmosphere. I'm not sure why that is - I've been to business meetings at beach resorts where the beach was a welcome respite rather than a distraction. But in Orlando, I'm always sitting in the meeting rooms wishing that I was riding Space Mountain instead.

Still, I always manage to meet one or two people at PDMA who make the trip worthwhile no matter what the setting or the agenda. This year, it was Mark Adkins of Kennametal. Mark has been involved with PDMA for many years, and he was a Lean Innovation champion for a nonprofit in Ohio in 2004-2006 (if I have my timing correct) before taking a VP position at Kennametal eighteen months ago. Mark and I talked about the efforts PDMA has made to learn more about lean product development.

I think it's naturally hard for some members of PDMA's leadership, especially those who have been around for a long time, to appreciate the value of lean product development. After all, they've seen a lot of trends come and go: cross-functional team, co-location, agile development, Robert Cooper's Stage Gate, etc. Some of these ideas prove their worth and get incorporated into NPD best practices, others fade away.

PDMA sees itself as the guardian of knowledge about how to develop products effectively. Its members have access to the NPD Body of Knowledge, the group publishes the Journal of Product Innovation Management for its academic members, authors "product development 101" books for new PD managers, and certifies New Product Development Practitioners. Given that lean product development has some of these "best practices" directly in its cross-hairs for elimination, it's not surprising that this group has taken awhile to get on board. Still, there have been signs of progress.

April Klimley, the editor of PDMA's Visions magazine for its members, has championed lean authors like Tricia Sutton, Gene Kania and myself. For the last four years, PDMA has had something about lean product development on the agenda for the International Conference - more some years than others, but it has been a consistent presence. Local chapters have put on presentations, or will do so in the coming year. I'm speaking at three chapters myself this year.

This year, Takashi Tanaka of Obeya fame presented as a keynote speaker, and they set aside a space for Tricia Sutton to do a demonstration of Visual Planning. I was there with a Lean Product Development Resource Center, and I gave a half day workshop on lean product development. After my talk with Mark, I would like to make sure that PDMA has a full day workshop and at least two other items on the agenda for next year's conference.

There are a lot of other people working with the lean world to raise lean product development's visibility. Personally, I've decided that I would rather work with PDMA to get these ideas to their membership, while we strengthen the Lean Product and Process Development Exchange to grow and share knowledge within the community.

I would encourage anyone who is committed to growing their ability to develop new products more effectively to check out PDMA, especially any local chapters in their area. The NPDP certification process is worthwhile, too as a way to ensure that you have studied best practices in product development - most of the stuff in the certification review is useful even for lean product development practitioners.

Next year's conference is at Disneyland. I'll just have to sacrifice my weekend to get Space Mountain out of my system BEFORE the conference this year.

Not a Brain Cell to Waste

I've been fortunate since I started my consulting practice. I've met some amazing people. I've had a lot of fun in places as diverse as Quebec, Minneapolis, Penang, Amsterdam, Orlando, San Diego and Providence, RI to name just a few. I've done well financially and I have enough people coming to me that I don't need to "sell" so much as just ask good questions of the people who come my way.

But that's not what gets me into every morning. If it were just about the fun or about the money, I wouldn't do it - there are easier ways to do both. No, the thing that gets me up every morning is my commitment to the engine of innovation, and its ability to solve problems that make peoples' lives better.

In yesterday's New York Times, Thomas Friedman wrote an article Georgia on My Mind (registration required) where he questioned the two political candidates' commitment to driving the engines of innovation. He took an American perspective on this - claiming that the United States must continue to invest in new technology development to thrive.

I take a more global perspective. I believe that we need innovation to solve many problems that don't begin or end at the borders of any particular nation: eliminating the possibility of terrorism as a tactic while addressing the root causes that foster it, finding alternative clean energy sources, solving public health issues, providing food and clean water to six billion people, bringing developing nations into the global economy, etc, etc. We are here because the engine of innovation opened up lines of communication and possibilities that we could not even imagine at the beginning of the 20th century. We have so many challenges left to solve in the 21st century.

The principles and practices of lean product development help ensure that we use the best of our knowledge to make decisions and eliminate wasted effort, reinvention, unnecessary activities, etc. so that we can solve these problems at the pace we need to solve them.

Whatever product your company makes, your shareholders, executives and customers need you to do it as well and as fast as possible. However your products contribute to the greater good (and we all do, somehow, or our products would not deliver enough value to sell), we also need your best work.

For all of us to live in peace and prosperity, we truly don't have a brain cell to waste.