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The Power of Standardizing New Product Development Prioritization

Part one in a 5-blog series on how to create a framework that ensures your organization consistently delivers high-value innovation.

Published By Jeffrey Yeager
The Power of Standardizing New Product Development Prioritization

Imagine a company called Garry’s Robots Ltd, which makes robots that clean your home. Garry’s Robots wants to add a capability for soap and water cleaning. To do so, they need to source waterproof materials and develop technology capable of recognizing surfaces where water-based cleaning is appropriate. But Garry’s Robots has a prioritization problem:

Resources are divided between so many different projects that barely any time or money remains for the water-cleaning initiative.

Although many believe water-cleaning should be prioritized, there is no data to justify it and no process by which to redirect resources.

When it comes to innovations and new products, like Garry’s Robots, many companies today are pulled in all directions. They take on too many projects and fail to deliver satisfactory results on any of them, falling behind.

On the other hand, successful companies understand the importance of prioritization and are investing in technologies that support standardizing their process:

In 2024, the average manufacturer increased technology investments to 30% of their operating budget, up from 23% in 2023. They are focusing on using AI and cloud—tools to help prioritize intelligently, schedule efficiently, and maximize ROI.

In this five-part blog series, readers will learn how to strategically prioritize new products and innovations using a standardized framework. Specifically, readers will learn:

  • Why standardized prioritization is a best practice;
  • How to implement a three-part standardized prioritization framework;
  • Common mistakes that lead to chaotic product development.

This first post outlines the benefits of standardized new product development prioritization, explaining how it makes the idea-to-outcome pipeline more efficient, more collaborative, and more aligned with business strategy.

The Prioritization Contrast

The prioritization process can have a big impact on business outcomes. Without a standardized framework, too many projects get approved without justification. This leads to wasted resources and burnout from having too many irons in the fire. By contrast, when prioritization is done right, the benefits are palpable:

For example, when PepsiCo noticed demand for soda was shrinking, it began prioritizing functional beverages, such as Gatorade Fit, Driftwell, and Muscle Milk Zero. The data justified this decision, and Pepsi committed to it wholeheartedly, allocating enough resources to drive fast, targeted launch cycles.

Four Core Principles for Maximizing Value

Smart new product development prioritization boils down to four core capabilities applied across your portfolio strategy:

  1. Define the Objective of Each Portfolio: Clear goals drive consistent decision-making. Articulate an objective for each portfolio, whether it focuses on innovation, sustaining engineering, OEM work, or a mix.
Action for Garry’s Robots: Write “this portfolio is focused on functional innovation for current products.”
  1. Use Multiple Portfolios: Avoid ranking all projects in a single list. Categorize work by product line, business unit, or investment type, to prioritize the best projects in each category.
Action for Garry’s Robots: Place the water cleaning initiative in the “innovation to current products” portfolio and rank it against projects with similar goals.
  1. Apply Portfolio-Specific Criteria. Scoring tools should measure the criteria that matter most for each project type, whether it’s a major capital investment or a quick upgrade.
Action for Garry’s Robots: Score projects in the “innovation to current products” portfolio based on technical feasibility, strategic importance, and long-term value.
  1. Align with Strategy: When business goals shift, portfolio priorities should shift accordingly.
Action for Garry’s Robots: At a quarterly review, the team shows how the water-cleaning initiative is projected to increase revenue and market share.

When Personalities Drive Decisions

When the market changes suddenly, panic can drive product leaders to chase after the shiniest new project or follow the loudest voices. But blind adherence to trends or executives’ pet interests can be detrimental.

The greater the pressure to adapt, the more important it is to insist on careful decision-making.

Consider the electric vehicle market: after the unexpected plateau in demand for EV, many automakers (including Ford, GM, and Rivian) had to reevaluate their priorities. EV might still be trendy in some markets, but was it worth sacrificing luxury offerings and hybrids?

The answers to prioritization dilemmas should be driven not by emotions but by a standardized process. Requiring clear justification keeps decision-making calm and deliberate.

The Strategic Benefits of Standardization

Standardized prioritization means ideas are approved according to set criteria in a set process, which varies by project type. With this approach, new projects stay aligned with the roadmap, high-value work moves faster, and teams share resources more effectively.

If Garry’s Robots implemented standardized prioritization, they could quickly identify AI-driven surface-identification as a top priority. If this high-value project gets the resources it deserves, Garry’s Robots will deliver it faster, more efficiently, and more successfully. Combining efficient prioritization with effective strategy improves ROI for the whole business.

Your Prioritization FrameworkThe Basics

The following three-part framework illustrates how each best practice creates the layers of a rock-solid standardized prioritization process. Upcoming blogs in this series will explain in depth how to optimize each of the three parts.

Data. First, gather data into a single source of truth. Effective prioritization requires visibility into resource use, bottlenecks, challenges and opportunities across all areas of the business.

Scoring. Next, score proposed projects according to standardized criteria. By categorizing projects and comparing their relative strategic value, you can make smart, transparent decisions.

Buy-in. Finally, secure buy-in from key stakeholders. It is critical that teams work together towards the same goals.

Act Now for Smarter Prioritization

The shift to standardized prioritization doesn’t have to wait. One step that can be taken immediately is to schedule a 30-minute meeting with your key stakeholders to identify which current projects lack alignment with your portfolios. From there, you can work on categorizing and ranking projects according to their strategic value.

Learn how to get a massive edge on the competition by ensuring the quick and efficient launch of customer-centric innovations. Watch our webinar, Connecting Innovation to Execution with Planview IdeaPlace, now!

Be on the lookout for our next post in this five-part series, where we will cover the foundation of the framework, data-driven prioritization > Subscribe to our blog newsletter!

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Written by Jeffrey Yeager Content Strategist

Jeff Yeager is a Content Strategist with Planview supporting the Product Portfolio Management Solution. A storyteller at heart, he has over a decade of content marketing experience with various software companies spanning industries from publishing to healthcare to AI. With a knack for distilling highly technical topics into easily consumable narratives, he is grateful for the opportunity to help elevate the Planview platform and spread its message about the benefits of connected work.