I'm a brand new PM, recently "promoted" into a position our small company has never had before, and therefore doesn't really know how to manage. The project I've been handed as my first is to create AND sell a new product. The idea is to do market validation and research along the way, getting feedback on prototypes to either modify the scope or even cancel the project.
From what I've been reading, this is outside the scope of project management. The project is to create the new product - if the product doesn't meet market needs, that (in the immortal words) isn't my department.
I didn't mean 'scope' in the sense of a project scope. I guess I'm just asking if this would be considered a 'project:' take a new product through prototyping, then market the prototype to test the validity of the original idea, and based on the results of the marketing attempts, either redesign the product and go through this stage again, go into production, or scrap it.
This kind of cycle isn't dealt with in the books that I've read. I'm wondering if it is still within the realm of what project managers do. Saving Changes...
Suppose it was described differently; for example, 'develop and present a business case for new product "X".' Would that seem more like a text-book project?
As I read what you've posted, it seems that there are a fair number of 'how' activities taken for granted; building prototypes, selling prototypes and so on. I'd like to get a better handle on 1 explicit result to be achieved. For example, is it a go/no go decision on product X? If it is, then you have a project to achieve that result; but how you achieve that result is a matter of project design. What information goes into such a decision, how can it be obtained, when are such decisions made, and so on.
Am I making things better or worse? Saving Changes...
I guess the reason this isn't a classic project in my mind is that there isn't one explicit result to be achieved. The project can be summarized by "Study the feasibility of creating product X and then, if it is deemed feasible, create it and market it." A successful outcome has been defined by selling X number of these products; however, if the market tells us they don't want this product at the price at which we can build it and we scrap the project, that is also within the definition of the project and could be considered a successful outcome - i.e. we didn't waste the company's money and time creating a dud product.
But that isn't my original question, which is, aren't projects all about creating some new product, process, report, or whatever - and not about selling it? Do people create "projects" that contain the concept "and then go out and sell it to X number of customers?" IOW, within this project is the implied "...oh, and while you're creating this product, find out if this is a good idea to begin with, and if it isn't, bail." Saving Changes...
I guess there is a world of project management out there beyond "Project Management for Dummies!" I'm finding this new twist in my career extremely interesting though.
Look at it this way (tilts head to one side). Seriously, I've been in internal IT projects where the measure of success was how many people used a particular facility. I don't see sales as too terribly different. Besides, it'll be fun working with marketing people.... Saving Changes...
