Emerging from the crisis stronger than before
The COVID-19 pandemic caught the world completely off guard and is posing major challenges for businesses. A decline or shift in demand, liquidity and financing constraints, and the incomplete digitization of workflows and processes are among the current challenges facing many companies—especially small and medium-sized ones.
In the R&D sector as well, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on current and planned business activities are being felt. Projects are being postponed or extended; in some cases, their scope is being adjusted or they are even being suspended.
For a company to emerge from the crisis stronger than before, it must act now and draw the right conclusions regarding its R&D activities. With our approach to virtual R&D optimization, we help you do just that and take the speed, efficiency, and maturity of your R&D to a new level.
Conducting workshops entirely online accommodates collaboration among distributed teams resulting from remote work and the avoidance of business travel. With clearly defined guidelines and our experience, we know how to collaborate effectively and creatively as a team online.
This R&D Insight article describes the first three of the five necessary phases of virtual R&D optimization in more detail. For further information, please contact our optimization experts.
You will find the contact information at the end of the article.
An Approach to Virtual R&D Optimization
The 3DSE approach to virtual R&D optimization (see Fig. 1) leverages your company’s inherent knowledge, cross-industry best practices, and the Innovation Cell™ methodology. Each R&D optimization is like a modular system consisting of various methods, which is specifically tailored to the respective conditions of each project. In about six weeks, we work with you to identify concrete areas for action and bring them to a decision on implementation.
Before the project begins, an internal target agreement is drawn up. This includes the project goals, the individuals involved, and the official mandate from the sponsor (usually middle to top management) to the team members. The objectives agreement is an important tool for ensuring a high level of commitment from the core team and for making the mandate associated with the agreement visible to external stakeholders.
Calibration & Baselining
Virtual R&D optimization begins with the Calibration & Baselining phase. The goal of this phase is to understand the organization’s current situation and establish a baseline as a starting point. To this end, the following topics are addressed step by step over the course of two virtual workshop days:
- Success Factors from External and Internal Perspectives for Achieving Project Goals
- Heat map showing key areas of action based on the evaluation of good practices from the 3DSE reference model
- Critical Path, Including Risk Identification and Assessment
- Marketing Brochures
In this initial phase, the current challenges should be brought to the table and discussed openly. To this end, even in a virtual setting—where direct interaction among participants is lacking—it is essential to establish a foundation of trust and strengthen the sense of unity. To this end, the workshop will employ various methods, formats, and media (see Fig. 2) to encourage active participation, repeatedly reexamine the challenges from different perspectives (“reframing”), and bring them up for discussion.
At the start of the virtual workshop, success factors are gathered and clustered using MindManager or digital whiteboards such as “Miro” or “MURAL.” One advantage of digital whiteboards is that they help draw even reserved or introverted participants out of their shells, since all participants write down their success factors at the same time. Afterward, best practices from the 3DSE reference model are jointly analyzed and evaluated in a plenary session. An Excel tool is used for this, which enables real-time evaluation and visualization of the results (see Fig. 3).
A digital whiteboard is used to create a critical path, allowing all participants to collaborate. Alternatively, a hybrid format combining analog and digital tools is used. In this case, the critical path is drawn on a Metaplan board and recorded with a camera (see Fig. 4).
Participants are connected via a large screen with their video cameras turned on and follow the creation of the critical path live. The moderator actively engages the participants, giving them the feeling that they are part of the action. A risk analysis and assessment are then conducted along the critical path, and the results are incorporated into a tool-based risk simulation. The risk profiles derived from this analysis allow for an overall assessment of the project risk.
Analysis Phase
During the analysis phase, which lasts about one week, the insights gained in the Calibration & Baseline Workshop will be examined and analyzed in greater depth through stakeholder interviews and value stream mapping. The goal of this phase is to develop the following:
- Collection of R&D-Related Metrics
- Project Structure Analysis
- Value Stream Maps for Reference Projects
- Key R&D Areas
The stakeholder interviews are conducted as semi-structured (one-hour) one-on-one sessions, during which statements regarding the status quo as well as potential improvement measures are collected and aggregated. Using video conferencing systems such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or Skype, the interviews can be conducted virtually in a simple and straightforward manner. Care should be taken to ensure that the selected interviewees adequately represent the various levels and departments of an organization in order to obtain as representative a diagnostic picture as possible. A total of ten to 15 interviews should be conducted and scheduled so that up to four interviews take place per day, with sufficient time for a detailed follow-up on each interview.
Value stream mapping can also be easily adapted to a virtual setting. First, a template for the project schedule is created in PowerPoint or on a digital whiteboard for the two reference projects. In the first working session, the project team fills out the template and identifies challenges in project execution. The second working session is dedicated to analyzing the identified challenges in terms of their root causes and impacts (see Fig. 5).
Each working session is structured so that it does not exceed a total duration of two hours and the work phases are divided into shorter segments, with sufficient breaks in between. This helps keep all participants’ motivation and concentration levels as high as possible and supports the success of the value stream mapping.
During the two value stream mapping working sessions, the facilitator ensures that as many participants as possible take part in the discussion. To this end, it is important to make sure that video cameras are turned on. This allows the facilitator to keep an eye on all participants and to specifically address and engage individual participants who, for example, appear distracted. For the live documentation of the work results, the facilitator is also supported by another person from the facilitation team. This person is responsible for the live documentation of all work results.
Solution Shaping
During the Solution Shaping phase, various solution elements for the action areas identified in the analysis phase are developed over the course of three to four virtual workshop days, with the goal of subsequently incorporating them into an implementation roadmap. At the heart of this phase are work cells, in which the following topics are addressed (see Fig. 6):
- Solution Components
- Key Themes
- Implementation Stages
- Implementation Roadmap
In several work cells, participants develop a wide variety of solution elements for the areas of action identified during the analysis phase (see Fig. 7).
The process relies exclusively on visual methods to fully harness the participants’ creativity . This can also be implemented in a virtual setting. However, participants will need the appropriate technical infrastructure —a laptop with a stylus—and must be familiar with using it. If this is the case, solution elements can be visualized directly in PowerPoint or on a digital whiteboard.
If such technical infrastructure is not available, various templates are filled out in the work cells, and the solution elements are described primarily in text form. Optionally, sketches can be drawn on a sheet of paper, digitized using a smartphone, and integrated into the templates.
To organize and coordinate the individual work cells during the workshop, a virtual Kanban board is recommended—either in Excel or on a digital whiteboard (see Fig. 8). This allows the topics to be assigned to specific groups. Predefined color codes can be used to indicate whether a topic is currently being worked on by a group or has already been completed.
To ensure that participants can move to the work cells as quickly as possible according to the Kanban board, there are two different technical options, depending on the video conferencing system used. With Zoom and Microsoft Teams, participants can be divided directly into virtual group rooms at the end of a plenary session. If Skype is used, the group rooms must be set up in advance of the workshop as individual meetings in Outlook, and the meeting links must be sent to the participants.
A member of the moderation team is responsible for ensuring that time limits are adhered to during group work; this person, acting as the timekeeper, regularly joins the group rooms and informs participants of the remaining time. At the end of each group session, the results are sent to the moderator team via email or shared through a shared workspace, such as in Microsoft Teams.
By alternating regularly between work cells and plenary sessions, participants can strike the right balance between interaction and taking a step back. The plenary sessions are used to review results and provide feedback to one another.
An important element of Solution Shaping is the jury meeting at the end of the second day of the workshop. The jury consists of representatives from middle to top management. The project team presents the results developed up to that point.
In on-site workshops, the jury meeting is conducted as a gallery walk, with the results displayed around the room. This process can also be implemented very effectively in a virtual setting, particularly with the help of digital whiteboards, which eliminate the need to prepare the content for the jury meeting.
The challenge of conducting the jury meeting virtually is to make the jury members active participants in the problem-solving process and to secure their commitment to the solutions developed. Therefore, video cameras should be kept on to maintain eye contact with the jury, so that any confusion on their faces can be recognized and addressed. The moderator can compensate for the lack of nonverbal communication by structuring and guiding the jury meeting with leading questions. In addition, comments, questions, and arguments should be transcribed in real time so that everyone can see them. This creates a live record of the discussion and facilitates a genuine exchange among the participants.
Overall, the Solution Shaping content to be developed can also be implemented in a virtual setting using appropriate templates in PowerPoint or on a digital whiteboard, as well as Excel tools with real-time analysis. Thorough preparation is crucial for ensuring the workshop runs smoothly. The workshop流程 should be run through mentally and technically to prevent any difficulties in understanding among participants and technical issues.
Conclusion
R&D optimization can also be successfully implemented in a virtual environment with the help of video conferencing systems and the right tools. To do this, the formats and methods of R&D optimization must be adapted to the specific circumstances and assessed in advance for technical feasibility. However, conducting the process virtually presents a number of additional challenges that must be taken into account (see Fig. 9).
Perhaps the greatest challenge lies in establishing contact across geographical distances. After all, even in a virtual setting, participants need to get to know one another, develop a better understanding of each other, and gradually build trust. This should be achieved not only through in-depth discussions on specific topics during group work and plenary sessions, but also through virtual spaces for coffee breaks and lunch breaks.
The potential for distraction is also naturally higher in a virtual setting than in on-site workshops. Here, it is advisable to ensure that video cameras are turned on and to keep participant engagement as high as possible by alternating shorter work sessions with breaks, as well as by using a variety of task types and media.
In addition, before beginning the virtual R&D optimization session, it is important to assess the participants’ familiarity with virtual collaboration and their ability to use video conferencing systems as well as digital tools such as Miro or MURAL. A technical onboarding session beforehand can also help familiarize participants with the theoretical basics of the tools and their functions.
Taking into account the obstacles and challenges of virtual R&D optimization (see Fig. 9), our experience shows that even during periods of social distancing, it is possible to achieve results just as good as those from onsite R&D optimization.
[fl_builder_insert_layout id=”13888″]
