You're leading a product innovation project. How can you ensure your timeline prevents missed deadlines?

Here's my approach to delivering on time: Define Clear Deadlines: Set specific deadlines for each project phase to ensure everyone understands the targets. Buffer Time: Important! Allocate extra time in your timeline to account for unexpected delays. Regular Check-Ins: Communicate with team members regularly to discuss progress and address any issues promptly. Task Dependencies: Map out task dependencies logically. Risk Management: Identify potential risks early and create contingency plans. Remember, effective communication and adaptability are key to success.

Innovative projects always entail high uncertainty, making it challenging to define clear goals and timelines. In this case, my advice would be to explicitly define the risks and the mitigating actions to prevent delays.

1. Define clear and realistic objectives and milestones 2. Prioritize critical tasks and adapt 3. Identify risks and prepare for the worst 4. Recognize and understand dependencies, plan, align and shift accordingly, don't be afraid to shift deadlines if absolutely necessary 5. Track, measure and communicate constantly and transparently

As a leader, you need to execute the following steps: _Set and simplify your team and and team members’ goals, roles, responsibilities, priorities and timelines. _Closely evaluate program progresses with weekly or biweekly meeting updates with actionable plans. _Be prepared to make necessary priority adjustments, role reassignments and gathering outside assistance to ensure that all team members have access to appropriate resources to complete their assigned tasks. _Set an example of hard-work and dedication for your team members to be inspired and follow your passion. _Celebrate and reward each incremental milestone achievement to keep the team engaged and motivated.

Defining the scope and goals of a project can be effectively achieved using the MoSCoW Method and SMART Goals. The MoSCoW Method helps prioritize tasks by categorizing them into: • Must-Have: Essential features for project success. • Should-Have: Important but not crucial. • Could-Have: Desirable but not necessary. • Won't-Have: Least priority, possibly deferred. SMART Goals ensure clarity and focus: • Specific: Clearly define what is to be achieved. • Measurable: Quantify objectives to track progress. • Achievable: Set realistic and attainable goals. • Relevant: Ensure goals align with broader business objectives. • Time-bound: Set deadlines to create urgency and accountability.

What on earth is an ‘innovation project’? Innovation shouldn’t be just switched on and off, ideas don’t come because you put a dot on a Gantt chart. Companies should be running hundreds of experiments a year just to find the 2 or 3 that might make a difference and qualify to be invested in further. If you’ve been given a set budget to uncover a good idea within a set period of time you have already lost, not that you’ll need to measure the outcome anyway because the next project is coming up…

In today’s world, where novelty, innovation, and disruption is inevitable, instead of relying on Gantt charts or waterfall way of planning, we should integrate design thinking principles. Once the Goal is set and aligned with business and strategic objectives, we should: - Prototype and get user feedback - Develop and run multiple variations using Alpha, Beta or both combinations - Measure and validate the KPIs - Reiterate

Having a repeatable process where “a loop” or round of insights that may or may not work is crucial. Innovation projects tend to look to other industries to see similar techniques and trends. It’s important to read out findings and future ideas as part of solving a puzzle. Innovation projects are like investigations around capabilities, metrics and theories to be tested. Always have some thoughts on the project concerning why or why not as well as present some interesting theories. Stakeholders appreciate when teams open up and admit what they don’t know so they may steer in the right direction and give the team some much needed advice. It’s especially good when stakeholders have contacts to help the team find new ways to solve problems.

What our team has done that has worked best is leveraged an agile approach after requirements so the teams can showcase progress along the way via demos and feedback loops.

There is a common saying in PM language which goes like 80% planning and 20% execution. Meticulous planning is very important. As a project manager or product owner, the most important part of your job is to plan ahead and to make sure the deadlines you set for a project completion are realistic and achievable.

In innovation teams, you want some overlap and but also some very different experiences. The best teams have wildly different types of skills and experiences across the industry. For example, in the travel space, the industry looks like it’s one industry, but the types of tools that come from flights, hotels, rail, hostels are all so different and have different ways to solve problems. It’s part of why travel agents are needed to create a smooth journey based on their experience. Seek the people who know the most about the industry and observe to see what may be overlooked.

Allocating resources effectively is crucial for meeting project deadlines and ensuring successful outcomes. When resources whether time, budget, or personnel are properly managed, teams can work more efficiently and stay on track. Failing to allocate adequate resources can lead to bottlenecks, increased stress, and ultimately, missed deadlines. Proactively planning and distributing resources, we can mitigate risks, maintain momentum, and deliver high quality results on time.

Effective allocation of resources is crucial for project success. Particularly where you have successor and predecessor activities. It’s important that all the resources necessary for the first stage of work is completed so the successor activities do not experience delays.

Product development and R&D do not exist as standalone functions in a company. Often, communication and collaboration with Marketing, Operations and Supply Chain are key to realise a development project. Timelines should be managed prudently but also be nimble eg. In the event of key competitor action, operational issues when scaling up, or a shift in market dynamics.

A successful project is 90% effective communication across board. All the stakeholders have to be properly aligned on scope, resources, schedule, quality and other important aspects of the project. It’s the best way to ensure there are no variances between expectations and reality. A daily check in meeting is important in agile environments to ensure alignment.

In my experience , teams that communicate in an transparent, proactive and regular fashion will be much better placed to deal with project setbacks , especially as it relates to timelines. However communication and meetings should not become the ultimate deliverable. The goal is to us regular communication to front load any potential surprises that might impact the overall health of the product delivery.

One of the reasons why Scrum model is successful is the constant communication, daily sync ups, and continued collaboration of the project teams. If you are not communicating continuously and do not promote an open communication model between the project team and the client, You cannot increase the project efficiency.

Insights are the lifeblood of an innovation project. It takes a skilled practitioner to catch the little nuances in order to create a pivot. For example, in the area of flights, we found that flights listed fares that had 1-4 seats in the backend. However, if you found a fare for two people, the lower fare was removed. The innovation was to list the fares in terms of seats left. This made it simple to get an overall better fare. This is an example where a change happened but the rest of the industry didn’t adopt so it reverted. Innovation isn’t always adopted - even if it’s better for the consumer.

In my view: Ensuring your product innovation project timeline prevents missed deadlines requires monitoring progress diligently. Break the project into manageable tasks and set clear milestones. Regularly check in on the team's progress and hold status meetings to address any delays or obstacles. Use project management tools to track deadlines and dependencies. Encourage open communication so team members can report issues early. By continuously monitoring progress and making adjustments as needed, you can keep the project on track and prevent missed deadlines.

Having a key stakeholder with regular check-ins is imperative for an innovation project. It needs to be handled very differently and with encouragement even if the first few iterations are not successful. Innovation is fueled by new and fresh ideas with excitement while also learning new things as a cross functional team. If you do not celebrate both the wins and the process of elimination, you risk losing the faith from stakeholders. Continuously remind the team that we are seeking something absolutely new and that is very different and harder to solve. This cannot be overstated enough. Many executives fail to treat an innovation project properly. Innovation is about discovery and trying new things. Stress kills creativity!

A product innovation project is never a straight line and is composed of hundreds of tasks that cannot always evolve as imagined. Change of suppliers, cost increases, cuts in resources, vacancies... the good news is that, along the journey, you can also find ways to improve what was previously planned and make it happen even better, faster, and at lower cost. This is why a constant process of monitoring, as a result of good project management, is fundamental to ensuring the success of the project.

Consistently listening to the user is most important for the growth. It keeps you aligned with initially set goals and helps in adapting to the changing trends and needs of the market. It also helps you identify what did not go well and why to efficiently reiterate. Here are key areas of monitoring. - Measure the KPIs by using analytics, CSAT and NPS - Capture and monitor new user segments data to understand user persona and behavioural changes - Triage and prioritize critical pain points of users - Collaborate with champions/focus groups who can help you gauge the high impact problems and validate - Constant touchpoint with stakeholders - Sprint review and retrospective to reflect on past performance, learn from the mistakes and adjust

En mi experiencia, involucrar profundamente al equipo en el éxito o fracaso del proyecto es crucial para cumplir los plazos. Es esencial que los equipos interdisciplinarios no sientan que están haciendo un "favor"; deben sentirse dueños de la iniciativa, con la convicción de que si el proyecto fracasa, fracasamos todos, y viceversa. Un impulso motivacional constante y hacerles ver la relevancia y trascendencia de lanzar algo innovador para la compañía también es vital. La clave está en cultivar un sentido de pertenencia y responsabilidad compartida, lo que fomenta el compromiso y la dedicación necesarios para cumplir los objetivos del cronograma

Se debe ser flexible, no solo en tiempos sino además en el proyecto como tal. Muchas veces en el desarrollo de productos, la investigación y prueba nos va cambiando el rumbo, variando nuestra hipótesis hacia lo que realmente busca el cliente final, debemos ser capaces de movernos a ese ritmo.

1. Detailed Planning: Break down the project into smaller tasks with clear milestones. Use tools like Gantt charts or project management software to visualize the timeline. 2. Set Realistic Deadlines: Make sure the deadlines are achievable. Factor in buffer time for unexpected delays or changes. 3. Prioritize Tasks: Identify critical tasks that must be completed on time to keep the project on track. Focus resources on these tasks. 4. Regular Check-ins 5. Clear Communication: Ensure all team members understand their roles, responsibilities, and deadlines. Use collaboration tools to keep everyone informed. 6. Monitor and Adjust 7. Risk Management 8. Delegate Effectively

However meticulously you plan for any project, be rest assured that some surprises are inevitable. They might be related to some unexpected events or resources as well. Thus, possibility of slipping a milestone will exist for sure. So, should we be OK with slipping milestone? NO! So what can we do about it? We should plan internal milestones and customer milestones should be after that. So internal slippages can be managed with additional resources and customers don't experience the gravity of it with any direct impact as such!

According to the kind of project you are leading, innovation processes can be relatively fast (lasting a few months) or much longer. When projects last for long, you need to think that the final result could differ substantially from what was initially planned. Very often we see in the market products that look old already at their launch because they miss features that consumers are asking for but that were not part of the original plan. Considering the speed at which society and markets are evolving, it is crucial to stay connected during the process with the audience you are targeting and the market you will compete in, and be able to update the initial plan to be attractive and competitive at the moment of the launch.

Innovation comes with its own rules and playbook. You need to factor in more buffer room for higher risks, more unexpected challenges and more complex dependencies not to mention the ambiguity involved. Keep deadlines fluid but purposes/goals clear and definitive.