Your Course of Study
Through dynamic faculty lectures, classroom discussions, real-world case studies, and small group activities, Leading Product Innovation explores new ways of thinking about the product development process. As you become familiar with a carefully designed set of methodologies and tools, you will tailor a coherent and consistent approach for innovating your development processes, products, and services. You will return better prepared to manage innovation-driven development, achieve strategic goals, and gain corporate advantage.
The comprehensive curriculum for this leadership development program is built around five integrated sections:
Leading Product Innovation
- Improving the product development process
- Creating projects to explore and build new technical capabilities
- Transferring learning across projects and managing knowledge flows
Linking Strategy to Product Innovation
- Aligning product innovation plans with business strategy
- Designing a portfolio of projects to ensure long-term success
- Reevaluating project portfolios as financial and market conditions evolve
- Building skills for R&D and execution, and balancing the two to meet current and future needs
- Creating and developing heavyweight cross-functional teams
Leveraging and Managing Disruptive Technologies
- Understanding how disruptive technologies affect product development strategy and execution
- Building the capability to anticipate and respond to emerging technical trends
- Managing the tension between radical and incremental innovation
- Designing organizations that can exploit disruptive change
Designing an Effective Product Development Process
- Identifying customer requirements and generating alternative solutions
- Implementing concurrent engineering and rapid problem-solving techniques
- Unlocking the potential of new experimentation technologies
- Designing flexibility into the product innovation process
Managing Risk and Uncertainty
- Ensuring that innovation continues in times of shrinking budgets and resources
- Building project teams that can learn and adapt to new information
- Establishing early warning systems to identify environmental changes that may impact product development projects
- Leveraging networks and ecosystems to share risks and increase reach
- Utilizing academic research and corporate venturing to tap into external knowledge sources