StepStone: Cutting New Product Launch Time by 25%

Cutting new product launch time to market by 25%

The Challenge

Product Development, IT, and country-based sales functions did not coordinate well enough for new products to come out on time, at the quality sought, and with the appropriate sales training.

The Diagnosis

• No language of accountability. Managers and technical people did not trust that others would perform with care for them.
• Projects lacked a useful measure of their value.
• People were resigned about things changing.

What VISION did

• Introduced a new commitment-based design of operations that involved team leads making personal, cross-department commitments.
• Introduced Commitment-based Management in workshops.
• Combined Commitment-based Management with Agile development to make Agile scalable.
• Facilitated meetings among senior managers to increase listening and begin rebuilding trust.
• Conducted one-on-one coaching of team leads on making, managing, and tracking commitments.
• Introduced operational review meetings for managing promises.

The Results

• Product development processes and IT cut the cycle time of product development and launch by 25%.
• Culture changed from resignation to zeal.
• Organizational design changed from working in silos to cross-disciplinary teams functioning to fulfil the core promises.
• The reinvigorated project management processes made project managers exemplars of promise management.

“The results of this programme have far surpassed mine, and other stakeholders expectations. The product team started re-building trust with the organization.”
– Torsten Schollmayer
(Director of the Product team)