Outline of product R & D Manual

I. Product R & D is the main battlefield for modern enterprise competition

The innovation of a new business model and solution can subvert the operating rules of the existing industry and bring a lower cost and more diverse function experience to customers. Wrong products and business operations can also cause a devastating blow to the company. The characteristics of many modern enterprises indicate that new product R & D is the lifeline of enterprises.

We have gone through the transition from a planned economy to a market economy. In the process of transformation, we realized the market, the competition, and the importance of marketing. We must seize the market opportunity, develop or introduce some products, and make great strides through hard market development and sales.

However, we have already begun to lack development stamina. In the past few years, we have not been able to continue, and even experienced a decline in performance and some problems. There are many reasons for this situation, but one of the main reasons that cannot be ignored is that product R & D cannot keep up.

There is one sentence: past successes are the root cause of today's failures. This sentence is not only applicable to large state-owned enterprises, but also a true portrayal of many private enterprises. In the past, people managed to win by understanding, marketing ahead of others, or marketing better than others, and thought that advertising, channel building, and marketing team expansion would certainly work, it will certainly benefit from the unbeaten position for a long time, making investment in tens of millions of advertisements and celebrity endorsements. However, product R & D is not as important as marketing, and is not willing to invest, this is evident from the fact that the R & D investment of most Chinese enterprises is far lower than that of their foreign counterparts. As everyone knows, products are the basis and premise of marketing. "brands are wings, products are motivation, and wings can fly high only when the power is strong ." Without a good product, no good marketing means can only be a waste of water and resources, and can only achieve short-term results.

The key to winning market competition through product R & D lies in the ability of enterprises to meet market demands through product innovation. This should be the main line of enterprises' core competitiveness, especially high-tech enterprises. For product R & D, people often pray for future market forecasts and technological trends. Of course, if you can gain insight into the development trend of the industry, it is undoubtedly a magic weapon to gain market opportunities and lead competitors. Unfortunately, the development trend of the market is always unpredictable. Therefore, if we want to achieve continuous success in product R & D, it is impossible to pray for foresight. Occasionally, it is only temporary to rely on the concept of flash. More importantly, enterprises should establish a strong R & D team, a profound technical platform, and a scientific and efficient R & D system. With these three elements, enterprises can truly gain insight into market needs, quickly develop products, and launch leading products before competitors. Even if the competitors are currently ahead in technology or products, they can quickly catch up with or even surpass them. If product R & D is a powerful tool for enterprises to win the competition, the R & D team, technical platform, and R & D management system are the three pillars of this weapon.

2. Systematic solutions for product R & D

1. A systematic product R & D Management Architecture Based on strategy and process

The complex problems arising from the organizational systems created by humans cannot be solved in simple emergency methods. The only method is to develop a set of real comprehensive measures and a set of overall planning for managing modern organizations. The overall plan should consist of five parts: culture, management skills, team building, strategic structure and compensation system. If only one or several of these measures are implemented, any effort to improve performance and boost morale will be ineffective, and any short-term benefits will disappear. Only by implementing all five measures on the basis of continuous efforts can we achieve lasting success.

The R & D management system can be divided into five elements: R & D philosophy, R & D strategy, R & D process/system, R & D organization structure, and R & D human resources. When optimizing the R & D Management System, these five elements must be systematically and comprehensively considered and integrated to avoid implementing isolated and one-sided solutions.

2. Establish a market-oriented and cross-department R & D Management Philosophy

First, we must establish a systematic and advanced R & D philosophy. These concepts include R & D can be managed; market-oriented product R & D concepts; R & D requires collaboration across the company; good R & D management requires structured system support; the value of the R & D team should be fully realized.

We need to establish a market-oriented product R & D view. Some product development is not technically advanced, but as long as it is required by the market, it can bring benefits to the company. Product R & D cannot, like some research institutes in the era of the planned economy, first evaluate the technical level, write some papers after R & D, report some awards, and comment on titles, I am not very concerned about whether this technology is required in the market.

Product R & D is an investment behavior that requires investment analysis, investment decision making, and ROI selection among multiple projects.

Product R & D is the subject of the company's business operations. All departments must participate in this process and assume their respective responsibilities. This requires us to break down departmental barriers, clarify the responsibilities of each department in product R & D, and establish a cross-department coordination mechanism to improve communication and collaboration efficiency.

Product development requires a structured process definition. Although different types of product R & D follow different processes, in terms of similar product R & D, it is always possible to extract a general development process suitable for this type of product, reduce product R & D investment through existing structured methods, compress the development cycle, and achieve rapid product marketing.

The most important resource of an enterprise is not equipment, plant, but human. In an enterprise R & D organization, R & D personnel and R & D management personnel are the executors and practitioners of all innovations. Whether the customer needs can be implemented as specific products or functions, and creative guidance of customer needs, development of products and functions that meet the customer's current and future needs will depend on the innovation and practice of the R & D team, this is the value of the R & D team. On the basis of recognizing the value of the R & D team, enterprises should formulate good policies and systems to effectively manage and motivate the R & D team and create greater value for the company.

3. Use R & D strategic management to attract enterprises' product R & D

R & D Strategy refers to where the company's technical route and product route will go. Product Innovation and Technology Strategy are an integral part of the R & D strategy, including the following:

①              The goal of the company's overall product R & D activities, the direction of product R & D, the development of core technologies, targeted market segments.

②              The role of product R & D is how new products are aligned with the company's overall goal.

③              Key strategic fields, including market segments, technologies, product categories, and priority.

④              Configuration, that is, the cost is allocated in different fields (technical pre-research, technical development, product pre-research, product R & D, and product maintenance.

⑤              How to break into every market segment.

4. Use a structured R & D process to manage R & D

An efficient R & D system requires an efficient R & D process. Product R & D is a process. The starting point is the new product development task book planned based on the product roadmap. The result is products that can be obtained in large quantities from the customer's perspective. It focuses on the customer's needs and needs, integrates these needs with the company's technology and skills, and then converts opportunities into products. Generally, the development process of all products is similar. Although the products are different, the composition, project management, decision-making, planning, and implementation methods of many specific steps of the project team are consistent. In fact, the product R & D process of different companies is quite similar. This similarity allows the product development process to be standardized, defined, and managed. Like other business processes, you can design a high-end process so that each project team does not need to develop their own processes. Then, you can benefit all the projects of the same type.

5. Build an interactive R & D Organizational Structure

To achieve efficient R & D, you must have an efficient R & D organizational structure. The efficient R & D organizational structure has the following features:

①              Fully supports product strategy, market management, product planning, technical platform planning, product R & D, product platform development, technology development, and product lifecycle management;

②              Share common project objectives;

③              Highly Efficient Investment Decision-making reviews;

④              Effective and flexible communication between groups;

⑤              Facilitate parallel development and operation of multiple tasks;

⑥              Both the product line and the resource line are under construction, the product line is responsible for business delivery, and the resource line is responsible for capacity building.

Cross-department teams are the general organizational model of the efficient R & D system. common cross-department teams include:

①  Decision-making team responsible for product R & D decisions;

②  Team responsible for combining market management and product planning;

③  Responsible for product R & D teams;

④  Technical Management Team for sub-technical platform planning;

⑤  Technical development team responsible for product platform and technology development;

⑥  A pre-research team responsible for product or technical pre-research;

7.  Responsible for the product lifecycle management team;

The product R & D project team is a key factor in the R & D organizational structure. The composition of the project team is the primary issue to be addressed during the product R & D process, an efficient project team can greatly improve communication, coordination, and decision-making.

6. R & D human resources system with dual-channel and complete Performance Management Model

People are the most valuable resources and wealth of an enterprise. The basic requirement for human resource management is to make rational use of human resources, give full play to the advantages and potential of people, and form a joint force for efficient operation. The management of R & D human resources should be implemented based on the specific needs of R & D personnel.

An efficient R & D system must have a dynamic and high-quality R & D team and an excellent team of professional talents, an effective incentive mechanism is required to fully motivate R & D personnel. R & D human resources system construction includes:

①  Establish a multi-channel job system and establish multiple career promotion channels for R & D personnel;

②  Establish a performance evaluation mechanism for R & D personnel to fully reflect the performance of R & D personnel and establish incentive mechanisms;

③  Establish reasonable performance orientation and guide R & D personnel to strengthen market awareness, Cost Awareness, comprehensive process awareness, and cooperation awareness;

Compared with performance management in other fields, R & D performance management has some special characteristics. It is not as easy to quantify as in the sales and production fields, and R & D activities have certain uncertainty.

New Product Development plays an irreplaceable role in the growth of the company's product advantages, the development of new markets, and the birth of new profit growth points. To strengthen the management of the company's new product R & D, improve the standardized operation of product R & D, and ensure the R & D quality of new products, we will expand and scientifically decompose the content described in this article, prepare feasible R & D manuals for the company.