How Do You Know if You've Picked a Winner?

At this time of year every four years, Americans of all political stripes fixate on selecting their party's presidential candidates. The media coverage is suffocating and we're all glad when the formal selection process ends.  Then it's on to November to see which party and candidate wins. While the timing may be uniquely American, the process transcends national boundaries.
 
If a series of political planks creates a party platform, that is a metaphor for how products form a product portfolio.  Logically the person to lead the process is the New Product Development (NPD) Manager.  This invites one big question.
 
How do you select your candidate?
 
After all, your candidate will have to work with the campaign team (the rest of your organization) to win the election (create sales of new products). If you exclude the primaries (customer surveys), the political season has a time of reckoning - typically the first Tuesday in November every four years.  That's where the political and business parallels end because the NPD Manager's evaluation occurs at least quarterly, and theoretically during every sales call.  So, what do you need to do to recruit a winning candidate?
 
Yes, there's a culling process involved when hiring NPD talent. Now is a good time to formalize and validate the elements that create a good candidate.  To state the obvious, there is no "one-size-fits-all" approach when it comes to selecting winning NPD managers.  That said, there are a number of basics to consider.

• Understand your needs clearly and create a valid job description. It's important to validate or modify assumptions about what you need. If your new product development need is attention to detail make sure you communicate this need. Nothing is worse than getting key skills mixed up. 
• Consider the elements that are most important in your market and your company's culture. Typically these involve finding someone who is:
  • A strong talent who interviews well and scores well on established psychological tests.
  • Able to demonstrate a track record of success.
  • A strategic thinker about business in general and new product development in particular.  Especially good at articulating value to customers.
  • Reasonably good with tactical execution of new product development or can train others working with her or him to execute the basic tactical tasks.
  • Experienced in working directly with customers, either as a sales representative or technical service representative.
  • Very knowledgeable about your market or has experience and skills that readily transfer to it.
  • Effective dealings internally with staff and externally with customers.
• Have an interview game plan. The cost of a bad hire can be expensive in many ways. The best way to minimize or avoid this risk is to educate others who are part of the selection process to commit to be conscientious in evaluating candidates.
• Have a way to grow the selected candidate within the job and within your company.
• Be aware of related companies where there was a bad hire. The value comes not from a standpoint of schadenfreude - taking pleasure in the misfortune of others - but from being alert to others' experience creating a case study to guide your own hiring choices.
• Create a validation plan of your needs and skills you need. What new product concepts do they know? What have they read about new product? Are they NPDP or PMP certified? What did they like and not like about their new product development experiences?

How Do You Know if You Picked a Winner?
 
In the short run, your candidate will demonstrate an ability to rally others in the company around new products to create successful launches and products that customers want and demand.  This ability then shifts from team building to creating the ca-ching factor. Think of the sound that a ringing cash register makes when it's generating sales. If you hear that sound often - or see it consistently on P&L statements - then you'll know you hired a winner.
 
In the long run, you'll ideally be able to retain this person for a long period of time. If he or she leaves to pursue another opportunity, hopefully this person will have recruited a strong team that has the same work ethic and commitment to success.
 
So, in the words of the old-time carpenter, measure twice and cut once. Think long and hard so what you build will endure the test of many campaigns.

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