Summary
Product development and product manufacturing are profoundly different and failure to appreciate the differences between the two has resulted to several fallacies that undermine planning, execution, and product-development projects six of which are discussed below:
First is the thought that high utilization of resources will improve the performance. The managers underestimate the negative effects of high utilization for example the fact that it creates queues and this effect lower product-development processes.
Secondly is the idea that processing work in large batches improves the economies of the development process. The reality is that small batches slash work in process, accelerate feedback, improve quality, cycle times and efficiency of products.
Some companies also believe that their development plan is great; all they need is to just stick to it. Customer preferences shift as competitors introduce new offerings and this creates new trends in product-development.
Fourth, is the thought that the sooner the project is started, the sooner it will be finished. As a result companies tend to start projects during breaks of other projects and this only depletes the resources, as most of thus projects remain unfinished
The fifth fallacy is the idea that the more the features we put into a product, the more customers will like it. The addition of features may make the product complicated for use by customers. Defining the problem and determining what to hide or omit in a product becomes a major challenge in making a company believe that less features can mean better standards of a product.
Finally, companies believe that if they get something right the first time, they would be successful. The teams if allowed to make mistakes at the first time, these first experiments can be used as control experiments and give information to the innovator did not see.
The above fallacies cause delays, undermine quality and raise costs of products.
Reference:
Thomke, S., & Reinertsen D. (May 2012). Six Myths of Product development. The Fallacies that cause delays, undermine quality, and raise costs, 85-94.
