What I Learned: Product Development and Fishing Analogy

Tag : continuously cast
What I Learned: Product Development and Fishing Analogy
July 21, 2008
What I learned this week ... is based on reflecting on fishing with m y 3 children on a camping trip this weekend. One of my childrensaid " Daddy, I don't want to go fishing, I want to catch fish ." It reminds me of the frustration I hear when executives discuss investing in product development - they wantresults . I realize this may be a tired analogy, but I am hoping to passsome bit of new perspective if I can (and feel free to add yourown.)
Process
I am not good at fishing. I have marveled out how people can tellwhere, when, and how to fish based on specific scenarios. Likewise,there is a lot of process knowledge that can be applied to productdevelopment . It is surprising how many companies don't follow some of the mostcommon best practices: Selecting the right projects in a portfolio process Balancing projects with resources Following a phase-gate or stage-gate process Investing in reducing risk and uncertainty up front (tied tostage-gate process) Cross-functional teams
Beyond those basics, there is process. Product Lifecycle Management(PLM) encompasses a set of processes that manage knowledge capture,sharing, collaboration, and other best practices that can helpdrive process. But maybe most importantly it can drive a commonprocess across an organization, so the organization can learn andcontinuously improve based on experience. In fishing, it may be little secrets passed from on fisherman tothe next, but in a corporation that word of mouth is not sufficientto develop a winning process .
Location: Go where the Fish Are?
I spoke to a friend last night at the pool and he suggested fishingat the hatchery! When he was young, his family had connections witha private fish hatchery. They would raise the fish there beforelaunching them into a commercial fishing pond. In his experience,fishing was pretty productive! Bait the hook, drop it in, pull outa fish. Talk about a simple process. And no patience required!Maybe not good sport, but productive. But it brings to mind theconcept that if you want to fish, go where the fish are . I believe it was Jesse James who, when asked why he robbed banks,said because "that's where they keep the money." A bitprofound, really.
How does that apply to product development? I can think of twoways: Engineering methodologies like Triz offer up the equivalent of an experienced fisherman. A goodfisherman knows that they cast a line in the deep pool or under theoverhanging log and came up with a big fish. Triz has captured someof those experiences in a methodology, prompting people to look forthose situations by asking questions to prompt innovation. Open innovation is based on the concept that there are lot of great solutions andinnovations out there, and you just need to tap into them for yourneeds. P&G is doing a lot in this area, with some greatresults.
Bait: What's in it for the Fish?
Bait is clearly important to luring a fish. But in productdevelopment, I wonder if we are baiting the fish or the fisherman?Rewarding someone for a great catch can help drive performance. Mykids would love to catch a fish, but I believe as much as that theywould want to have a picture taken. This to me is to remember themoment, but to them I believe would be recognition of accomplishment . The same can go a long way in product development, by offeringrecognition for new product ideas and successful projects. Challenges work well too, and setting records. I think of the John F. Kennedyputting the challenge forward to put a man on the moon. Likewise, prize money can go a long way to motivate people to fish, and likewise thisworks in product development.
Commercial Fishing: Is this Good Sport or a Profession?
My final thought as I was pondering this analogy was whether it wasuseful to compare my family fishing trip to professional productdevelopment. Commercial fisherman don't fish (at least primarily)for sport of fun. They fish for a living. Product development is aprofession, and it is about making a living. Commercial fishermanapply a lot more than intuition, they apply science and technology to change the odds to their favor . Satellites and sonar are used to track schools of fish, as anexample. In the same way, leading companies are applyingmethodology and technology to product development. When it is a profession, you need to apply the right tools to thejob . From my experience, software technology is a big part of thesolution for companies looking to improve product development.
So that are my thoughts on how to apply my inability at fishing to your success at productdevelopment . I hope you found it interesting. I apologize for an old analogy,if you have a better one please let us all know about it.

Posted by Jim Brown on July 21, 2008 | Comments (0)