Product failures and successes are inevitable in product R&D, but how you learn from them can make a difference in your future projects. In this article, you will discover some practical tips on how to apply lessons from product failures and successes to future projects.
The first step is to analyze the root causes of your product failures and successes. What were the assumptions, hypotheses, goals, metrics, and feedback that guided your product decisions? How did they match or differ from the actual outcomes and user behaviors? What were the internal and external factors that influenced your product performance? By identifying the root causes, you can avoid repeating the same mistakes and replicate the best practices.
GE has a process, FFR to CTQ, field failures from similar products are studied and convert those requirements to New project CTQs.
Deming provided the framework for continuous improvement with Plan Do Check Adjust. Once we have short feedback loops from our customers using the product *and* take the time to actually listen, we will be able to change. Short feedback cycles and continuous learning and improvement is key.
Feedback loops and a culture of open communication should be established, enabling teams to assess and apply insights. Additionally, risk assessments, innovation, and mentoring play essential roles. Flexibility, adaptability, and continuous monitoring help ensure that past experiences positively influence future project planning and execution, enhancing outcomes and reducing risks.
I'd add on to that, ask the team if they would officially like to charter and discuss together what they would like the team to be. What roles do they play? How do they work together? How will they measure success? Then, ask if in three months if they would like to revisit that agreement and see what they would change
I would like to see it from a different view, first of all how we are able to reduce our failures and then how we can use these experiences further ? in my opinion, we can reduce these failures by considering three main factors: 1-Experience- its better to have the right level of experience in that market when we choose a product. 2-Share of the market- it's better we look for products that we have a proportion of the market. 3-Cash flow- Finally, having adequate cash flow these are the main ingredient, and without one of them, we face risks we can solve in many ways for example by finding an expert partner in that field. But to use this experience of our failures, the important thing is acceptance, without that, there is nothing to learn
The second step is to document the learnings from your product failures and successes. You can use various tools and methods, such as post-mortems, retrospectives, case studies, reports, or presentations, to capture and communicate the key insights and recommendations. You should also include the evidence, data, and feedback that support your learnings. Documenting the learnings will help you share them with your team, stakeholders, and customers, and create a culture of learning and improvement.
We talk about "lessons identified" and "lessons learned". What I can only recommend is to create "lessons usable", too. You may want to tag your data to create a searchable database. The transformation of mistakes made and problems solved onto different, but similar challenges becomes possible.
The third step is to implement the actions based on your learnings from product failures and successes. You should prioritize the most impactful and feasible actions that will help you achieve your product vision and objectives. You should also define the expected outcomes, metrics, and timelines for your actions. Implementing the actions will help you test your learnings, validate your assumptions, and deliver value to your users.
The fourth step is to monitor the results of your actions based on your learnings from product failures and successes. You should track and measure the key indicators that reflect your product performance and user satisfaction. You should also collect and analyze the feedback from your users, team, stakeholders, and customers. Monitoring the results will help you evaluate your progress, identify gaps, and adjust your actions as needed.
Collecting results isn't a one time task or for just for the bean counters. Metrics should run as automatically as possible and be as public as possible. An organization that has static metrics or manually collected metrics that are run once a quarter will always be slow to react to changing environments. If those metrics are not public and part of everyday decision making, it is easy for teams to trust their gut instead of making decisions based on sound data.
The fifth step is to celebrate the wins from your actions based on your learnings from product failures and successes. You should acknowledge and appreciate the efforts, contributions, and achievements of your team, stakeholders, and customers. You should also share and showcase the positive outcomes, impacts, and stories of your product. Celebrating the wins will help you boost morale, motivation, and engagement.
The sixth step is to keep learning from your product failures and successes. You should always seek new opportunities, challenges, and feedback that will help you improve your product and skills. You should also stay curious, open-minded, and humble, and embrace failure as a part of learning. Keeping learning will help you grow as a product R&D professional and deliver better products.
As part of continued learning, your team needs to occasionally re-evaluate metrics and lessons learned. Many times landmark cases and organizational mantras become legends passed on through the organization without question far after the market has moved on. If your customer base has changed, your early conclusions may no longer true. In the past, X percent of customers may have chosen Y because of Z but with a new customer base or new features, users are now choosing W. If your organization hasn't noticed or reacted to make use of this information you are working hard toward the wrong goal.
The first step of product development is to make sure that your product is relevant in the market and it helps to solve customers' problems. Customers must need your product or service. If your product doesn't solve a problem, then all of your efforts will be useless. I have far too often seen scientist and engineers develop things that they personally think are "cool" but they fail to realize that the rest of the world has no interest in them!
Para cada proyecto ejecutado se deben tener en cuenta las lecciones aprendidas desde todos los frentes ( materiales, insumos, equipos, tiempos, RH etc). De esta manera toda esta información adquirida durante este proceso de aprendizaje ( proyecto ) se convierte en entradas, las cuales mediante una buena planificación del riesgo, pueden ser minimizadas y/o maximizadas según sea el caso.