To some, the idea of a checklist for innovation is ludicrous. How can you use a checklist for something as fluid as new product development – especially when venturing into game-changing or disruptive areas.
Of course others are using a checklist already. They just call it stage-gate and then wonder why it doesn’t always deliver the improvements they were expecting.
Checklists are useful tools for both simple and complicated tasks. They serve as a way for experts to turn their knowledge into simple steps taken in a specific order – so called best practices. They also serve as an important way to ensure that important steps aren’t forgotten when the pressure is on.
In the book, Checklist Manifesto, Atul Gawande gives numerous examples where checklists have made complicated procedures more reliable. One is a checklist for a dozen or so preoperative steps that have almost completely eliminated postoperative infection in hospitals that have embraced it.
At this point, you’re probably thinking that’s fine for areas where best practices are known but what happens in more complex situations? But let’s face it – you don’t always know what you don’t know and that’s where checklists by themselves aren’t sufficient. Of course, innovation is about creating new practices, processes or products – all as solutions to unmet needs. That means the standard stage-gate and project management checklists, while possibly sufficient for incremental improvement, aren’t much help with the complex domain of innovation where creative new solutions are required.
The example of complexity that Gawande uses is building a skyscraper. By comparison, building a house, or even a typical office building is a fairly straightforward challenge where most of the alternatives and outcomes are known ahead of time. However, the enormous scope and timeframe of building a skyscraper means that the project plan can’t anticipate all of the challenges which might come up during construction. Of course, since the dimensional envelope is set by the design plan, any changes ripple out and affect all of the various trades and mechanical systems – structural, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, communications, networking, acoustics, even elevators.
Rather than added command and control, construction engineering firms handle the added complexity with a distributed problem solving approach. They still have project managers and each trade still has a project plan and checklist, but they add another checklist of sorts – frequent, cross-functional communication meetings. In these meetings, each of the different functions reports on their progress, but they also share unexpected problems and any changes that have arisen. That allows each of the other functions to consider and weigh in on the potential impact. If necessary, it also allows the group to develop alternative solutions and keep the program on track.
From a new product development perspective, this just underscores the importance of a cross-functional approach to new product development – one involving all technical functions as well as marketing, sales, manufacturing, and even procurement. You still need to evaluate the potential obstacles your project faces and create an upfront plan and checklists to get around them. But as the project plays out and problems, issues, and unexpected alternatives arise, cross-functional communication plays a critical role in helping deal with the complexity and allowing you to reach your new product goals.
