September 23, 2015 Industry Forum Blog Setting up a system to improve your New Product Introduction (NPI) process has been identified as one of the six basic success factors to improve your ability to get new products to market quicker and cheaper. What is a lesson learned? The identification of project activities that went well and not so well Subsequent analysis resulting in recommendations for improvements Implementation of recommendations to realise benefits Lessons should be sought, captured and acted upon throughout the life of the project. When do we capture lessons learned? Ideally from the beginning to the end of the project. Some organisations find it useful to set formal points as well. Typically these occur when stage end reports for gate reviews are compiled and at the close of the project. What are the benefits? These are examples of times when organisations have used their lessons log and what they have used them for. When setting up the project board – who to include When selecting the project manager – which skills are desirable When outlining the business case – how to phrase it When setting up the risk management strategy. What threats and opportunities affected previous projects to help identify risks and appropriate risk responses Setting up cross-functional teams – mix of people When creating stage plans – suitable timescales Also have a look at the role lessons learned played in the building and staging of the 2012 Olympics. Who is responsible? The project sponsor and the project manager create a new lessons learned log during the project start up phase. They also review existing logs and implement relevant actions in the new plans. Once underway, it is up to everybody involved in the project team, even stakeholders, to seek out lessons learned. The project manager is responsible for ensuring these are captured acted upon. They can delegate completion of tasks but not responsibility for ensuring they are done. The role of Lessons Learned in the 2012 Olympic games The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) for London 2012 delivered this huge public project on time and on budget with a 5 year lead time. Key objectives included: The greenest games ever Utilisation of the venues after the games to ensure certain return on investment Not only did Lord Coe and the project teams review lessons learned from previous Olympic games but part of the legacy of London 2012 was to formally share lessons learned during construction and staging. Lord Coe attended the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver to see how the city coped with hosting such a large event and experienced first hand how they recovered from unforeseen challenges such as the warm weather at Cypress Mountain. The ODA set its own green and cost effectiveness guidelines and planned how venues would be utilised after the games. Nobody wanted a repeat of the moth balled swimming pool from Beijing 2008! London 2012 is sharing the knowledge and the lessons learned through the Learning Legacy project. Although we don’t need them to plan another UK based Olympics in the near future, they can be applied to other construction, transport and sustainable event based projects. In addition many of the individual lessons can be applied to an even wider project base. If you can think of at least one improvement to the way your New Product Introduction(NPI) system runs, add it to your Lessons Learned. And if you don’t have such a system, consider setting one up.
