Structured Review is the Key to Ensure NPD Project stays on Track

Most NPD Projects start with great enthusiasm. But as things progress, not all projects are able to stay on track. Often there are delays in completing tasks, higher costs against target costs and poor quality of products.

You may have the best plan but unless you review things on regular basis, it is difficult to ascertain that project will meet timelines, budget, and quality.

Lot of companies have Weekly Review Meetings to track various ongoing Projects. But still it is observed that things don’t go as per plan. The reason for this is, most Weekly Reviews are Status Update Meetings where common response from team is – “it will be done by end of next week”.

Status Updates are good for awareness but if things don’t move, there should be different approaches to ensure tasks are done as per plan.

Here are few guidelines for in depth review of projects:

Prior Intimation:

During reviews, mostly you will get response that things are in progress and updates will be available during the week. This could be the most dangerous thing and potential reason for not having clarity review after review.

Once the team of key stakeholders is formed, give them prior intimation of Review Meeting, and share the agenda. The best way is to identify status updates to be provided by each person. Create a list of items which will be reviewed and mark them against the name of each person.

That will give absolute clarity to people before the review session and there cannot be an escape.

Review Template:

It is always better to have a template for review session to avoid taking discussions outside the agenda.

You can start with Project Review wherein you should review – whether project is on track against schedule, cost estimates against the plan, actions on risk items identified so far, execution of contracts and procurement actions.

Next can be Product Review wherein you should review – progress of technical issues, updates about various compliance tests, prototype development if applicable, updates on product documentation etc.

Depending on the size of the project, you can have two different reviews – one for Project and other for Product. Because you may have a different audience for each review.

5 Why:

On the surface, mostly you will hear that certain things are taking more time. Here we can take reference of classic problem-solving approach of 5 Why Analysis. In most cases you will hear why things are not moving. Your role is to go beyond it and ensure that things get going as per the plan.

If you take things on their face value, everything will seem difficult to achieve and review will end up being chance to highlight only difficulties. After review, if the situation is like – “let’s see how things go in future”, then it is the failure of the review process.

Solution Approach not Blame Game:

5 Why approach should bring lot of things to surface. But the approach should be to solve the problems and to see how things can progress. Instead of getting into blame game, the approach should be to come up with solutions.

At this point, you may think of involving Subject Matter Experts for consultation. Instead of leaving things to chance and assumptions, you should involve experts to suggest the best feasible solutions. Blaming team is not going to help in completing project deliverables.

Make it Visual:

Everything which is visual becomes easy to consume and understand. Showcase the project progress in the form of graphics so that the audience can appreciate things. At the beginning of the review, you can visually showcase the progress from the last review and thank members for the support.

If things are falling behind plan, showcase their impact on business in a graphical form. It could be a penalty in terms of money from a customer due to contract terms, lost business, lost market reputation etc. Make the adverse impact also visual.

Minute the Points of Discussions and Actions:

Lastly, minute all the discussion points along with respective actions and most importantly, with name of responsible person. Be specific while writing minutes and avoid vague terms. Wherever specific result is expected, mention the exact date instead of using terms like ‘till end of next week’, ‘by mid of next month’, ‘till first week of next month’.

I am sure that this framework of Reviews will help you keep NPD Project on track.

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