Organizing and Leading "Heavyweight" Development Teams

Keywords

product development, cross-functional integration, heavyweight teams

Abstract

Creating a distinctive advantage in the speed, efficiency, and quality of product developments is a major challenge for most firms. Achieving integration across functions lies at the heart of that challenge. While many authors recommend teams as a way to effectively manage development activities, realizing outstanding performance requires much more than simply naming members to a core team and designating a project head. A competitive advantage in product development capability requires fundamental changes in how work gets done; in the skills, capabilities, and tools team members bring to that work; in the support activities required from other groups inside and outside the organization; and in the responsibility and ownership taken by the project leader and core team for creating and executing the concept. This article lays out a framework for organizing and leading heavyweight teams and presents examples of companies that have made heavyweight teams a distinctive advantage.

Original Publication Citation

"""Organizing and Leading 'Heavyweight' Development Teams"" (1992). California Management Review, 34 (3), 9-28; also reprinted (1999) in R.C. Dorf (Ed.), The Technology Management Handbook. CRC Press. (With S.C. Wheelwright)"

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

1992

Publisher

California Management Review

Language

English

College

Marriott School of Business

Department

Marketing

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

Link to Full Text

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