Multibillion-dollar semiconductor company
Facing sector decline and innovation stagnation, global semiconductor firm realigns for more effective product cycle, promoting greater efficiency, growth, and product-market fit.
85%
increase in early collaboration with ecosystem which drives alignment of product definition with customer needs
3x
est. improvement on prioritization of resources
2x
Increase in decision-making speed via centralization and reprioritization of resources and direct alignment with front-line teams
Opportunity
The rise of competition both domestically and internationally was making it harder for this large incumbent to compete and innovate. In transitioning to a data-centric model, the client faced challenges with their organizational size, structure, and management. The company had an opportunity to gain insights, particularly from an engineering perspective, from competitor growth and success.
Constraint
The sector was under financial pressure, layoffs were happening, and leadership was focused on cost-cutting which made it difficult to think about innovation and future growth opportunities. In addition, the majority of the leadership team and R&D/design team had worked at the client for 20+ years and did not have a good pulse on what was happening externally.
Response
We assessed and established a current state baseline with subject matter experts. Through this effort, we identified four areas where work matters:
- How they define each product: centralized decision-making and early collaboration with ecosystems drove alignment among leadership and implementation teams, and customers
- How they set their schedules: input from front-line managers and communication among implementation teams ensured realistic schedules
- How they adhere to their schedules: centralized and independent progress-tracking function ensured schedules were kept; backup plans for less certain features built confidence in deadlines
- How they innovate: separating innovation from product development processes enabled experimentation without delivery delays; rigorous reviews drive focused innovation
We recommended splitting two major working groups apart and aligning the centers of expertise more closely to increase the speed of learning and pertinent inputs from external sources. We suggested a plan to infuse the early influence of key stakeholder/customer/ecosystem insights into the product definition and phase 1 engineering stage.
Impact
The client implemented an end-to-end focused program to realign incentives and ensure common objectives (stability vs innovation), and developed new innovation learning milestones to enhance product maturity earlier in the build cycle. We worked hand-in-hand with management to shift the organizational mindset from one of pure cost-cutting to one of increased operational efficiency and growth reprioritization.
Let’s work together!
Our team of experienced professionals is here to provide tailored solutions to drive your organization forward. See how we can help your business reach its full potential.