Airbnb CoFounder Sharing His Story: Video

This is an amazing video from the co-founder of Airbnb which is a huge startup success story. In this video Nate talks about what was it really before they start getting the traction. If you are an entrepreneur, you will probably go through the similar stages what Nate mentions Airbnb went through in its initial phase, sure anyone would love to be Airbnb given its success. Check out the video now-

Virtual Customer Integration In New Product Development (NPD)

Involvement of customer into New Product Development is such a key, it not just allows you to engage customer from day 1 of new product development, but helps you in gaining customers when the product is launched into the market.

How & When The Customer Can Be Integrated Into The NPD

 (Please click the images for the better view)

Advantages of VCI in NPD

 When VCI has the Most Impact in NPD

Is Cross-Functional Team A Better Team?

Those who create and lead work groups should focus on creating the right conditions for them to succeed, rather than trying to manage their behavior. 

The above statement is the core of Cross Functional teams, and it seriously talks about leader's role in the team.

As I take forward this post, let me confess that this post will be slightly strange as it would be primarily the flip board kind of post. Yes...! I'm experimenting a new thing.. You know me... Sorry!

 

 

 

 

 

Strategic Alignment- Cross Functional Teams

Stage Gate Process: Idea To Launch

One of most interesting parts of my MBA is the course on Innovation Management. Even before it started, I got the opportunity to indulge in some serious readings on Idea to Launch Processes for Products. I've been exposed to Stage Gate Process from idea to launch of amazing products. With this post, I'm trying to capture a bit about the Stage Gate Process, I hope it helps.

 

A Stage-Gate process is a conceptual and operational map for moving new product projects from idea to
launch and beyond—a blueprint for managing the new product development (NPD) process to improve
effectiveness and efficiency.

Stage-Gate, in its simplest format, consists of (1) a series of stages, where the project team undertakes the work, obtains the needed information, and does the subsequent data integration and analysis, followed by (2) gates, where go/kill decisions are made to continue to invest in the project.

Key things to remember in a Stage Gate Process:

• Each stage is designed to gather information to reduce key project uncertainties and risks; the information requirements thus define the purpose of each of the stages in the process.
• Each stage costs more than the preceding one: The process is an incremental commitment one—a series of increasing bets, much like a game of Texas Hold’em. But with each stage and step increase in
  project cost, the unknowns and uncertainties are driven down so that risk is effectively managed.
• The activities within stages are undertaken in parallel and by a team of people from different functional
  areas within the firm; that is, tasks within a stage are done concurrently.
• Each stage is cross-functional, No department owns any one stage.
• Criteria against which the project is judged: These include must-meet criteria or knock-out questions
  (a checklist) designed to weed out misfit projects quickly; and should-meet criteria that are scored
  and added (a point count system), which are used to prioritize projects.
• Outputs: a decision (Go/Kill/Hold/Recycle), along with an approved action plan for the next stage
  (an agreed-to timeline and resources committed), and a list of deliverable and date for the next gate.

To make things simpler Stage-Gate Process is scalable as per the complexity of the projects, not all small projects need to follow the 5 Gate approach, below is the example:

Adaptability of Stage-Gate Process is really very important, and the aspect which makes it special is the customer feedback. It's the Agile or the Spiral approach to development where you seek customer feedback at various phases. The idea is: build-test-feedback-and-revise!!

In the end, ideas can come from anywhere, even outside the organization. So, a culture of open innovation is really important and Stage-Gate has been modified to include Open Innovation at its core.

What Content Marketing Really Is?

If you are a digital savvy, you very well know the importance of "Content", and one of the most skeptical question that everyone faces is regarding the Content Marketing. So, what really is Content Marketing?

I stumbled over a great post on Buffer blog which stated the most important extract regarding the Content Marketing from the Content Marketing Manifesto and it pretty much sums up what it really is.

So, this is it-