Gaining and maintaining a competitive advantage requires careful evaluation of innovation and operational improvement opportunities. As a manager, you must develop your ability to critically evaluate innovations to determine opportunities to improve and innovate upon existing organizational operations. These skills are critical for making strategic decisions in the innovation process.
For this assessment, the executive team has asked for an evaluation of the advantages of a new product, scanning the external environment, and designing an effective development process to allocate the right resources at the right time. Your evaluation will guide the executive team and project management office in determining whether to continue developing the product or redirect efforts elsewhere.
Assessment Deliverable
Write an 825- to 1,050-word report of your evaluation of the product or process you selected. In your report:
- Identify the obstacles your innovation faces in development.
- Explain how project champion(s) can help ensure the benefits of championing and minimize the associated risks with your project.
- Evaluate whether to use mostly sequential or parallel processes for product development. Justify your recommendation for product development. Provide examples or evidence to support your analysis.
- Address the influence of using stage-gate processes on development cycle time and costs.
- Analyze the benefits and costs of involving customers and suppliers in the development process. Provide examples or evidence to support your analysis.
- Evaluate how customer and supplier input could influence the product's success.
- Explain how you would test your products or processes’ viability with customers and suppliers. Provide examples or evidence to support your testing approach and explain how this testing would inform your recommendation.
- Recommend whether the company should continue developing the product or redirect resources elsewhere. Support your decision with evidence from your evaluation.
Cite references to support your assessment.
Format references according to APA guidelines.