After publishing a recent post that you can read here. I received feedback regarding the content, where one of the readers pointed out that the post was a bit academic. And not providing practical and actionable suggestions to increase integration and reduce the inter-functional conflict between marketing and R&D.
I’ve decided to revisit the topic and provide some implementable tools to promote integration and reduce the risk of functional or dysfunctional conflicts.
Highlighted below are some of the detailed points.
1. Alignment
Any formal and informal opportunity should be used to make sure that the cross-functional team agrees on the fact that a successful product depends equally on the customer’s needs satisfaction, as on technological capabilities.
2. Team building
Team building activities are available in a vast range to address specific limits within the 2 organizations. Team building activities become particularly important in diverse or physically separated teams. The less common ground there is between the members of marketing and R&D or the less face-to-face time they have, the more the company should invest in targeted activities that bring the 2 teams together. I’ve found this article as a useful source of ideas.
3. Understand the other’s job
Understanding the job of the counterpart will ease communication. R&D staff should visit customers to see first-hand sales rep jobs and understand the challenges of product use.
Marketers should understand the process of developing a new product, alongside the technical and regulatory challenges involved. And marketers should participate in the preparation of the technical file.
4. Field work
A special chapter should be dedicated to the VOC (voice of the customer) collection. Although the VOC is under marketing responsibility, it is beneficial to the process of new product development that engineers meet and interact with customers.
Interviewing and observing the customer together could be very powerful in developing alignment and common understanding on key requirements and product features.
5. Common objectives
The management should achieve “buy-in” from both marketing and R&D regarding the objectives of the new product development. And it must be clear for both organizations how to measure success/failure.
Ideally, the objectives should be set in concert with team members, else there is a risk of setting unrealistic or conflicting goals. A common reward system is useful to motivate team members toward the common goals and give everyone a sense of ownership and purpose.
6. Problem solving
The management should help marketing and R&D team members to solve problems. Frequently, when members of a cross-functional team encounter a problem, if they are not able to solve it, they escalate the problem to the functional management or to the senior management.
However, a problem-solving approach is to give everyone on the team the tools and trust they need to find resources within the team to solve a problem. This can be done through several tactics – sharing the same development principles, involving team members in planning, developing relationships, improving communication, etc.
7. Make collaboration a priority
The management should clearly establish the collaboration between marketing and R&D as priority. Likewise, the functional managers and HR should encourage a sense of “innovation community” across the marketing and R&D organization.
This can be done through both formal and informal recognition initiatives. Empowerment is another effective tactic; give team members the opportunity to be creative and suggest methods to foster collaboration.
Conclusion
Conflicts between marketing and R&D teams add time, resources and costs to the product development process.
Organizations where marketing and R&D teams are able to work with a high level of integration will find solutions to problems and will develop better products in less time.
I’m sure that there is no “right” way to approach these conflicts, since every organization is different. However, always strive to use the best practices for integration, then adopt specific activities to address shortcomings.
Do you have other ideas to promote integration between marketing and R&D? Share your thoughts in the section below and if you like the content of this blog don’t forget to subscribe.