There are lots of moving parts in going through the product development process of a new product. It can be very complex in going from product idea through defining your product specifications, getting your product developed, manufactured and in stock. Let me share some background information on Why Project Management is Important in Product-based Businesses.

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Keep an eye on all the deliverables

There are many activities that need to be planned, checked and given follow up on when you start with the creation or development of your new product. You not only have to deal with getting the product features realised, but you also need to negotiate pricing with suppliers, define the quality targets you want to set for your product, develop a packaging, contact distributors or resellers, figure out the logistics. These are only a few of the many tasks on your plate.

Creating overview and structure is a must for product-based businesses

If you work with a team of various internal and external people, coordinating all their tasks is a big job. Having some project management skills makes your life much easier! The good news is, that you don’t need a lengthy educating to learn essential skills to manage your project with ease and confidence. If you create the following habits into your daily activities, you’ll find yourself organised and can create structure and overview in your projects.

Project Management Habits that support you

• Create a detailed project planning for your new product development. Make sure to include all the details from product idea up to launching your product to your customers. You can create a detailed project planning in Excel and share it with your team members.

• Always make meeting minutes of all your project meetings. You can use Excel for this as well. The benefit of Excel is that you can easily filter for example, your meeting topics, the status of the actions or who is responsible.

• Before you start with your project, make a detailed budget overview with all the cost estimates you’re expecting to make. It allows you to monitor your project expenditures and you can take corrective action when needed.

• Schedule your project team meetings in advance, also the ones with external parties, like suppliers, distributors, marketing agencies. This prevents you from not being able to meet with people on time because all agenda’s are fully booked. Create a meeting agenda for every meeting, so everybody can prepare well before you meet with them. This makes meeting more effictive.

With these habits you can lead your new product development with ease. I also recorded a podcast episode on this topic for you to explain Why Project Management is Important in Product-based Businesses.

Click here to tune in!

To make your project management activities more efficient and easy, I’ve created a FREE template for you to help you manage multiple projects. By using this template you can see in once glance which project is behind schedule or over budget.

Click the link below to get your free copy!

Yes! Give me the Excel template!