By: Keir Hart
19 August 2019
How do you know you have the right team for the job? Do you need more people? Less people? Do they have the right skillset to get to the finish line without giving you grey hair? If these questions keep you up at night, you’re not alone. Having the right folks stationed at the helm can steer any size ship in the right direction. Below are a few tips from FPD that will help to flesh out your team and get you on the right track.
Use a broad mix of highly skilled people
Thank goodness we are not all the same. How boring would that be? Not to mention that we would all have the same ideas! Product Development teams need to be diverse for this reason. We’re not just talking about physical diversity, age, and inclusion. You need a mix of interests, hobbies, and personalities too. The more ideas you can generate, the more chances you have of developing a solution. Obvious, right? However, what these kinds of teams also buy you is a bit more subtle. First, highly trained individuals can simply do more than those with less training. They are farther along the learning curve and can get things done faster. Second, Product Development is mostly about managing variability. Variability isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, the companies that can best take charge of this variability can have a significant competitive advantage. A diverse, well-trained team can see these opportunities before others, make the required adjustments quickly, and capitalize on the advantage well before the competition.
Encourage depth
Highly skilled specialists make a team difficult to beat. If your Electrical Engineer knows their field incredibly well, they can eliminate larger numbers of solutions because they have already tried and failed. No need to redesign the wheel. Furthermore, they can likely pick and choose components or designs that others have never heard of before, or simply reduce time because they are faster than a someone with less training. Too many companies hire unseasoned engineers straight out of school, looking to the savings in salary. However, we think this is incredibly short-sighted and negates the overall project cost savings by being able to move faster to market. A single experienced engineer can often do the work of two or three new engineers. Now who’s saving money? Open-mindedness and work ethic are great, and an essential part of any great team; one or two new engineers on your team can provide a huge benefit. Though, if you had to drive across the United States would you rather be doing it in a Porsche 911 going 80 MPH, or a Chevy CMV?
Work to overlap skills
Having a well-trained commando team is well and good, but what happens if your injection molding expert or your test engineer suddenly develops a case of swine flu? And just in time for that big client demonstration! Team members need to know a little bit about a lot of things. Cross-training on skills should be done for this reason. This type of redundancy can greatly reduce project risk. Utilize team members that have similar skills, and with some additional training, they can fill in the holes in their knowledge to take the reins should disaster strike. In the event the worst-case scenario occurs, and you can’t get that person back, at least you can limp the project along until you can bring a replacement up to speed.
Keep teams together
Have you ever been on a team or in a relationship where you could finish each other’s sentences? Or changed your behavior because you “knew” what the other person was going to do? Our guess is that this didn’t happen overnight. It takes time to forge bonds like that, but those bonds can be a gigantic asset to your product development. Rather than spending hours upon hours in planning meetings or assembling the entire team for a discussion, long-term teams can bypass these timewasters. They already know how their fellow team members are going to react. It’s like they’ve read each other’s minds. Creepy.
Provide intent
Don’t forget, teams aren’t just the folks “actually doing” the work. Managers of all types have a critical roll to play too. Roll up your sleeves and get dirty. Please don’t dictate from your throne. It’s unbecoming. Instead, see yourself for what you really are; a functioning member of the team. It is your job to see the forest from the trees. Provide the intent behind your decisions and listen, rather than just dictating an uncompromising plan. Then, and most importantly, get out of the way. If your team understands the “why” behind what they are doing, more often then not they will be more motivated. Most importantly, they will be armed with the means to make better decisions.
Give your team the authority to make decisions
It’s scary, I know, but your team can make better decisions than you. After all, they out number you and have real-time information. If you helped them understand the intent behind your initial choices, why shouldn’t they make the decisions? So, let them. You can provide the framework, but let your team figure out the day to day stuff. In other words, you tell them that they need to go to Australia and why. Then, let them figure out how to get there. Plane or boat? It’s up to them. Maybe they will make a few mistakes along the way, but the overall time you save in the end will more than pay for it. If you are really concerned about managing cost, set some limits. If the mechanical engineer has to come to you every time they need a screw, your project is going to take a very long time indeed. However, if you give your team the authority to spend $500 to save two weeks of project time, you will be a hero.
Pulling it all altogether
At last, you have assembled your dream team. A small, but highly trained team, capable of stepping into each other’s shoes at a moment’s notice. They have the tools (budget) they need. They have been working together for years and have developed an eerie mind-reading capability. You explain the User Need for the new product they are to make, why it has to be done by May, and turn them loose. You’re not worried. They’ve done this before and are more than capable. In fact, you might even go take a nap.