Functional Strategy Development

A federal government agency was facing rapidly growing vulnerability of the underlying technologies used in its products and needed to release updated products that incorporated new, robust technologies.

Based on the technology needs agreed to by agency leadership, there was a 10x shortfall in concepts entering the technology development pipeline. Furthermore, there were no technologies that were close to being ready for transfer into product development.

The agency did not have an established innovation management system and the technology development function was being managed as a product development function, which had the effect of inhibiting innovation.

We developed a model that defined the optimal pipeline of technology development projects based on the technology needs identified by agency leadership. We then completed a gap analysis between desired state and current state.

Once the extent of the technology development gap was identified, we developed a multi-tiered approach that enabled the agency to quickly begin filling the gap in ideas being evaluated for entry into the technology development process.

We identified key technology management processes that needed to be established and began working with client team members to define and implement those processes.

We provided agency leadership with a set of recommendations for ongoing management of the technology development function. These recommendations included realigning the organizational structure, bringing in experienced technology development managers,  restructuring the R&D budgeting process and aligning staff performance metrics to encourage innovation.

We worked with the most senior leadership within the agency as well as leadership with key stakeholder organizations to socialize and secure buy-in for the strategy.

With our help, the agency began taking strategic and tactical steps to address their significant gap in technology development.

For the first time, the agency and its key stakeholder organizations had a clear and unified strategy for establishing an effective technology development function.