I wanted to share some exciting news! I have just recently completed my Scrum Product Owner certification, from the Scrum Alliance. While I'm still living off my seminar high (side note to David Hawks, you did a great job training us), I felt it would be prudent to jot down some thoughts about our industry, and what we can learn from others that are simply moving at lightning speed compared to our slow speed commuter train.
For so long, the CPG, CPG Dev, and manufacturing world has been gripped by indecision and more atypical waterfall, stage gate, and lean type project management processes that have done a tremendous job getting us to where we are with regards to acknowledging consumer needs, and providing stakeholder value. The biggest issue with these types of project management theologies is they lack a great deal of efficacy with regards to speed to market, and improved decision making in a faster world we live.
For those that know me, you can roll your eyes for the next 30 seconds and skip to the next paragraph.
I hate STAGE GATE. GATES, FUNNELS, GANTT CHARTS. I said it, and I will tell everyone, and dont care any more. Gates and funnels are dead to me. Do you know what gates and funnels do? THEY CHOKE THE LITERAL LIFE OUT OF INNOVATION. They create opportunities for the least path of resistance for a product to go to market, and they kill ideation. Do you know what comes out of stage gate? Literally the product with the least path of resistance. Sorry, but that isn't innovation. A company will spend millions on testing, developing, retesting, then launching only to see it fail and be removed from shelves within 6 months and millions down the drain. There must be a better way. Hang tight, going to take my blood pressure meds now. Just kidding, I dont do drugs.
In this digital age, it is time we adjust our thinking. Information, and changes are happening second by second, largely driven by the acceleration of development and speed to market in the tech world. Everywhere you look, from apps, software, updates, even your refrigerator has more innovation in it than most companies do in their entire CPG product portfolio.
I have long bucked the trend of seeking out certifications or verifications as I have always felt none have had a real world expectation of ever changing, ever evolving world of human interaction and our relationship that we have with CPG products. The real world is chaos, believe it or not, but its constant chaos. Accept it, but find a way to harness that chaos, and turn it into something to fuel your innovation.
Tech has long adopted the Agile Velocity and Scrum methodologies in their framework to produce scalable working product increments in a matter of hours, where it once took weeks and months.
I believe there is learning to be had there, and an ability to break down where communication issues have plagued our decision making processes, and not only teach us to become better and faster at decision making, but for us to fail, learn and adapt faster. Which is ultimately the crux of why most businesses fail. The companies that truly understand this, are those that we keep labeling as that huge buzzword we all love, "disruptor." Who wants to be a disruptor? Literally all 5 of you that are reading this, 6 now counting my wife (thanks babe). In reality, we all want to be the disruptor. Disruptor products are what we as consumer froth over. iPhone, Tesla, Justin's Peanut Butter, Kind Bar, Siete, Deep Eddy Vodka, and a whole host of others get this, and have executed well, and consumers love their products.
There is no reason we as an industry should take 7, 8, 10, 12 months, or God forbid longer to launch a product. Down to the pure core, those that are building the best brands do so off of hunch and passion. Listen to any founders story and they will almost always tell you the same thing. We didn't know if anyone wanted to buy it, but we believed in it, and made it our best, and we were always broke. Did they fail often? Absolutely. Did they learn and break down the boundaries and kept moving? Absolutely.
In this world, you no longer have to be the corporate giant with unlimited funding to win. In many cases those that are ignoring this new speed to market world are the ones that are in fact losing. All you have to have is passion for something you believe others need and deserve, the ability to align goals, the ability to execute swiftly and learn faster than the previous failures, with a lot of dedication to your consumers. You will win, and I believe Scrum is where our industry has the most opportunity to do that.
Disclaimer: these ramblings do not reflect the viewpoints, thoughts, and expressed beliefs of any business, individual, my mom, organization, extraterrestrial aliens, sloth, or anyone outside myself that I may be affiliated with for all of you internet crusaders. Also, my apologies to my English AP teacher Mr Polasek for all of the syntax errors, and every other grammatical issue I have in the above.
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