Lora DiCarlo is a startup designing micro-robots for the health and wellness industry. Success during a pandemic is getting innovative products to market as quickly as possible to generate sustaining revenue and company growth.
What does it take to get 10 products to market in 12 months?
- Process
- Partnership
- Empowered Team
These three are key to getting products to market quickly and to spec, while having a ton of fun doing it.
Process
Cross-functional strategic processes clear the path for efficient and decisive product decisions. A simple product development process shared and owned by executives to individual contributors drives milestones to completion. A product roadmap that moves concepts to design briefs to product specifications quickly all while being driven by consumer insights shortens the entire process. A process for all product documentation, using templates for specifications, allows all team members to quickly define and own products delivered to manufacturing. The process for document control and mapping to business objectives and finance is crucial for effective revenue generation. Simple processes, owned by the entire company get products to market fast.
Partnership
Without partnership, getting products to market efficiently can be tough. Partnerships need to start within the company. Partners as team leaders that manage up to executives. Leaders with authentic and transparent communication across all aspects of the business – starting with company goals and objectives and driving these down to their teams. Partnerships with outside parties, particularly suppliers that believe in the company’s mission. Working as manufacturing partners to meet product specifications drives products to market.
Empowered Team
The most important thing needed to expedite products to market is an empowered team, trusted to excel in their positions. Building team trust is underrated in a lot of current company cultures. Mutual trust is imperative in creating team members that succeed while having fun. Creating these teams is a leader’s responsibility. This includes anyone that has input into product development. Siloing of departments leads to inefficiencies. Team members that are micromanaged leads to ineffective employees. Empowering all team members to achieve a common goal – like getting a product to market – creates success.