Patrick Tickle, Chief Product Officer at Planview, wrote an interesting article (Three Ways Manufacturers Can Accelerate Their Product Strategy.) that discusses product innovation and the role of project management saying, ““Organizations that are edging past their competitors are using solutions for strategic planning, portfolio and resource management, product innovation, capability and technology management, and collaborative work management to radically change how they manage their work and people”. Mr. Tickle highlighted 3 points:
- Prioritize projects and products that are aligned with strategy
- Plan capacity continuously
- Gain visibility to both structured and unstructured work
This is excellent advice but I would also like to add a fourth highlight – synergy. Synergy is where one plus one equal to two plus – possibly three or four. This also can be achieved using the portfolio management framework in the realm of program management. Product managers should group highly related products and projects and seek ways to maximize the economy of size and scale. But more importantly, find overlapping areas in which the implementation of one projects pave way for the execution of another. Now that’s synergy.
Overall and in a nutshell, Portfolio Management is a tangible way to operationalize strategy. A few years ago PMI had a Thought Leadership Series Report titled, “Delivering on Strategy” The Power of Project Portfolio Management” that I would encourage those interested to take a glance at. I also recall a PMI Conference Paper, “Linking Portfolio, Program, and Projects to Business Strategy” (Anyosa Soca, Victor) that still holds solid insight and merits exploring for a deeper dive. – Prof. Dr. Te Wu, the founder Project Management training firm PMO Advisory is among the few people in the world certified in Project (PMP), Program (PgMP), Portfolio (PfMP), and Risk Management (PMI-RMP).