Where lean product development experts and practitioners share their stories
The Importance of Structure in Innovation
In the early parts of this century, Lean, especially lean-sigma came under intense criticism: An article in the Forbes magazine (Norbert Majerus, Lean-Driven Innovation, CRC Press, 2015) documented results, mainly from 3M, which indicated that lean – or at least...
The Perfect Combination for Learning
I believe that learning, especially the learning needed to change your way of thinking, needs different approaches and that it takes time. You need to enter the learning loop well prepared, know your True North and break it down into problems to solve and small...
Do you say what you mean?
In product development it is not only crucial to really understand the problem to solve, that is, to find the root cause. It is equally important how to formulate the problem. What we say and write reflects our thinking. Conversely, our thinking is influenced by what...
Why do you add avoidable risk to your product development?
There are always nice-to-have features, new technology and breakthrough ideas in new product development. In fact, new products are usually littered with unnecessary and avoidable risk. One high profile example was an all new wide body, mostly carbon fiber, aircraft....
Why attend LPPDE?
This is a good question that we ask ourselves as we look at our busy schedules and deadlines. Can we find the time to squeeze in a few days at a conference when fires continue to rage back in the office? Let’s analyze this using the 5 Whys. Why should you attend...
The value of learning from other companies at LPPDE
I’ve been attending the Lean Product and Process Development Exchange conference for several years now. I attended the first LPPDE in Denver in 2008, and while I haven’t had “perfect attendance,” I’ve made quite a few of the exchanges, in North America and in Europe....