Project Champions

In several of these letters I have mentioned Project or Product Champions. In this issue I’ll talk about their essential role in new products.

What Champions do…

The job of the Champion is to take ownership of the process that assures that the project is real, the team can win, and the results are worthwhile. They do this with an intense personal commitment. That commitment is strongest if they self-selected rather than being appointed.

They establish and prove the real-win-worth by working with customers, the development team, and the business leaders in the company. They have insight into human behavior to hear between the words of what is said to them. They can judge the strength of conviction and the foundation of knowledge that the person they are talking with brings to the information and opinions provided.

Determine Project Reality…

The Champion leads the initial definition of the project, bringing it down to a concept that can be clearly and impactively communicated. With many potential customers you need to be able to make your case in 10 minutes. 

The reality must include an assessment of the size of the project’s target market and if the dynamics of that market can absorb a new product. If a new product must develop a new market, the efforts and potential rewards are far different that those for a product entering a market against established competition.

Sales and distribution are two of the most difficult reality checks. The time and cost to build an effective sales channel is often larger than the product development cost. For many new technologies the manufacturing build-out and process design are the biggest challenges. Champions must not be so excited about the product that they shortchange manufacturing and selling.

Insure it's a Winner...

Traditional emphasis is on the competitiveness of the product with its intended feature set. This is a must. Early in the project a key roll of the Product Champion is to insure that customers want to buy the product, will buy the product, and are capable of buying the product, all without selling them the product. Here the champion has to be a super salesperson, but stop short of committing the sale. Kind of like going skiing but just riding the lift all day. The ultimate test of a product is customers writing purchase orders; the Champion has to be sure they will.

The harder question is the competitiveness of the company that will take the product forward. Would you buy a $1000 computer from a cart on a downtown street? The image and strategy of the company being consistent with the product being sold is important for the first product, but the company also needs to have the sales channel, product support, and all of the facilities to get the product to the customer and take care of the customer after the sale. They need to insure that they can get the resources to maintain the product’s competitive advantage over the long term. Any weaknesses here may allow a short term win, but as competitors move in and customer expectations rise, the company may not be able to remain competitive.

Make it Worthwhile...

Judging the worth of a new product is difficult. While all of the cash flows, return on investments, return on assets and breakeven analyses are certainly things to reckon with, I believe that favorable outcomes on those standard financial parameters are necessary but not sufficient to justify investment in a new product. It is too easy to adjust the numbers to make the outcomes look good, too easy to make the numbers give the answer that the financial gatekeepers want to see. The best example on a grand scale may be from today’s headlines… Enron.

Once the basic financial gates are passed, the Product Champion must take a hard look at how this product will be a platform for other products, services, customer relationships, and future company growth. The quest for strategic advantage should demand that every product is a platform, a stepping stone, to other products or services that will enrich the company. If the product doesn’t meet those criteria, then the Product Champion should look elsewhere for a better investment.

We’ll talk more about personal characteristics of Product Champions in a future newsletter.

Real-Win-Worth Analysis in depth… Wes Hutchinson, a Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, presents a detailed analytical look at real-win-worth analysis.

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