Is Quality Function Deployment still useful

Are Quality Function Deployment, Voice of Customer and Kano Models still relevant? In an upcoming podcast with  Robin Lawton I asked the question: “You talk about two failures in QFD, which is Quality Function Deployment. They’re determining who the customer is and how to define and separate customer desired outcomes from product functions and features. Read More …

Interview with Joe Pine on Infinite Possibility

Joe Pine, lead author of Infinite Possibility: Creating Customer Value on the Digital Frontier, shares his point of view on the convergence of the digital and real worlds and what businesses can do to leverage opportunities found in the Multiverse. Joe Pine had 2 new books out last summer, Infinite Possibility and The Experience Economy, Read More …

Looking and Listening first is not all that Bad of an Idea

Use CAPD instead of PDCA in Lean Design A recent tweet on a book review by Steven Parry, referencing an old but actually still relevant book, Fourth Generation Management: The New Business Consciousness brought this back to my attention. I always wondered how many people started with check. In the tweet Steven said, Brian Joiner (close Read More …

Should Capabilities drive Innovation?

Most of us agree with a statement like this: Innovating in services is the escape route from the commodity trap and a solution for growth, giving firms a significant competitive advantage. As they innovate into the future, companies must think beyond their products and move outside their own four walls to innovate. –says Henry Chesbrough’s, Read More …

Difference between Development & Design

The thought process that I try to embed in Lean Service Design can be summed up in one word: Empathy! It is a major differentiator between the traditional process methodologies of Six Sigma, and I say this tongue–in-cheek, Lean. Seldom when you search (like never) the index of books on Design for Six Sigma, Lean Read More …

Lean 3P is PDCA on Steroids

Well said by Allan R. Coletta, author of a new book The Lean 3P Advantage: A Practitioner’s Guide to the Production Preparation Process. Development of the 3P process is attributed to Chichiro Nakao, a former Toyota group manager and the founder of Shingijutsu company. The accepted meaning of 3P is Production, Preparation, Process. Allan is Read More …