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  • 1.  Knowledge Management systems from Product Development

    Posted 09-28-2019 13:04
    As a product development expert, how is knowledge management from different product is handled in your industry/company to support not repeating the same mistakes and to build knowledge and awareness in the organization ?

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    Seif Abdelghany
    Local Category Manager
    Electrolux Major Appliance
    10th of Ramadan
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  • 2.  RE: Knowledge Management systems from Product Development

    Posted 10-25-2019 19:27
    Seif,

    This is always a challenge.  I've worked in both large organizations (100,000+ employees) and startups.  The need is the same but the scale of the organization matters.  Obviously, in the startup world, there's typically so few people that everyone can integrate and interface directly so knowledge sharing is fast and efficient and by definition, startups tend to only engage highly skilled individuals at their beginning so retention and application are also high.  

    As you move up the scale of organizational size, it is important to not let the product and innovation functions lag behind the growth of other areas.  This is where I find problems arise most quickly.  For example, if you scale your customer support and sales functions but leave one person in charge of all innovation and product management, that person will become overwhelmed, stop communicating proactively and eventually stop tracking things altogether and move to an entirely reactionary mode.

    The good news is that regardless of the size of an organization, we all tend to use a similar process to innovate and manage products - the differences come from how much time and effort we apply to the different steps.  A best practice I instill in each of the groups I work with is, regardless of size, scale and scope of your offering, document your processes for product management and innovation.  Then, identify the ones that are currently explicit and intentional vs those that are more intuitive and/or informal.  As you grow, periodically check your process and refine it for changes in the process itself but also to re-evaluate the need for moving steps from intuitive to intentional.

    As for the "how you do this" part of the equation - you can use productivity tools like G-Suite, Lucidchart and others to start, progressing to tools like Monday and Aha and eventually graduating to tools like Planview.

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    Ernie Harris
    Founder
    Interesting Blazer
    Saint Petersburg FL
    727-306-1880
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