Learning Launch in New Product Development 

 Challenge : 

 I work as an R&D Project manager in a company that develops products for Food and Beverage 

 industry . In order to ensure that after the new product I develop is introduced to a market , the company   could make a revenue that initially was planned at the project kick - off and further stages . And the   difficulties could appear not because of the product itself does not meet customer ’s expectations , but   because it is wrongly positioned on the market . In order to position it properly it should be properly   tested , so the properties that specific kind of customers ( e.g. brewer or winemaker ) require could be   included into the test report . As the product was still in early development stage , our product ’s customer   was the sales team because if R&D could n’t sell the product to sales it could n’t also sell it to the   customer as the sales will be reluctant to offer customer the product which they are still not sure of . 

 Selection : 

 In order to prove that the developed product is really what the market needs , was decided to use the 

 Learning Launch tool and to conduct the launch by introducing the product under development like   selling the existing one , so that the sales team members could check if the product has all the properties   which our customers require 

 Application and insight : 

 For conducting the Learning Launch several sales team members from different business areas 

 ( selling to different product producers , beer or wine ) and different sales regions were invited . The   Learning Launch took place as a two days event when the sales team , representing different types of   customers from different regions formulated the image of the potential customer from their   region / business area , his needs , concerns , key sales drivers and limitation . 

 In the event two typical customer images , one for brewer and one for winemaker were formulated . 

 The images included what are the main customer ’s concerts , which product properties and claims are   cruicial for them , which ones are nice to have and which claims are complete no - goes for the specific   market . The most valuable outcome from the event and the first thing we learned was that we ca n’t   position the same product in different markets under the same brand as the product claims for one   market are definetly no - go for the other market . That had nothing to do with the product properties itself ,   but with how the product is being tested for the different applications . And the different application require   different scope of testing and some tests , which are valuable for the brewer are completely inappropriate   for the winemakers . 

 As the result of the two - days event we ended up with finding a show stopper - claim , which would 

 definetly ruine all the sales plans in one of the markets if the product were introduced with this claim . We   also formulated a scope of tests , which should result in a list of claims for each market segment and   identified the potential customers for the field test of out product , which should create confidence in   product for sales and end customer when they offer this new product . 

 By applying the tool I learned that although we were still developing one product , from one side , the 

 scope of tests for the product which should be carried on in order to verify the products design should be   significantly extended and alghouth it will take more time to prepare a real launch , it gave us additional   degree of confidence in our product and help to mitigate a serious risk which could have affected a big   part of our company ’s sales plans . The experience I gained during that Learning Launch event convinced   me that instead of introducing the one product to the whole F&B market we will need to launch two   different brands - each for one segment and through that insure our future sales . 

 Approach : 

 As we conducted learning launch I felt that we could have gained even more of that , than we got if I 

 ensured that instead of two sales for each market I involved at least three or four of them , especially from   various sales regions . That could have helped us to reveal region specific requirements , which could also   push sales and product development as well in the future . 

 Besides that next events for the other R&D projects should be conducted even earlier , shortly after the 

 project kick off , that could help us avoid excessive work and to concentrate on what does really matter for   our customer . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Learning Launch in New Product Development 

 Challenge : 

 I work as an R&D Project manager in a company that develops products for Food and Beverage 

 industry . In order to ensure that after the new product I develop is introduced to a market , the company   could make a revenue that initially was planned at the project kick - off and further stages . And the   difficulties could appear not because of the product itself does not meet customer ’s expectations , but   because it is wrongly positioned on the market . In order to position it properly it should be properly   tested , so the properties that specific kind of customers ( e.g. brewer or winemaker ) require could be   included into the test report . As the product was still in early development stage , our product ’s customer   was the sales team because if R&D could n’t sell the product to sales it could n’t also sell it to the   customer as the sales will be reluctant to offer customer the product which they are still not sure of . 

 Selection : 

 In order to prove that the developed product is really what the market needs , was decided to use the 

 Learning Launch tool and to conduct the launch by introducing the product under development like   selling the existing one , so that the sales team members could check if the product has all the properties   which our customers require 

 Application and insight : 

 For conducting the Learning Launch several sales team members from different business areas 

 ( selling to different product producers , beer or wine ) and different sales regions were invited . The   Learning Launch took place as a two days event when the sales team , representing different types of   customers from different regions formulated the image of the potential customer from their   region / business area , his needs , concerns , key sales drivers and limitation . 

 In the event two typical customer images , one for brewer and one for winemaker were formulated . 

 The images included what are the main customer ’s concerts , which product properties and claims are   cruicial for them , which ones are nice to have and which claims are complete no - goes for the specific   market . The most valuable outcome from the event and the first thing we learned was that we ca n’t   position the same product in different markets under the same brand as the product claims for one   market are definetly no - go for the other market . That had nothing to do with the product properties itself ,   but with how the product is being tested for the different applications . And the different application require   different scope of testing and some tests , which are valuable for the brewer are completely inappropriate   for the winemakers . 

 As the result of the two - days event we ended up with finding a show stopper - claim , which would 

 definetly ruine all the sales plans in one of the markets if the product were introduced with this claim . We   also formulated a scope of tests , which should result in a list of claims for each market segment and   identified the potential customers for the field test of out product , which should create confidence in   product for sales and end customer when they offer this new product . 

 By applying the tool I learned that although we were still developing one product , from one side , the 

 scope of tests for the product which should be carried on in order to verify the products design should be   significantly extended and alghouth it will take more time to prepare a real launch , it gave us additional   degree of confidence in our product and help to mitigate a serious risk which could have affected a big   part of our company ’s sales plans . The experience I gained during that Learning Launch event convinced   me that instead of introducing the one product to the whole F&B market we will need to launch two   different brands - each for one segment and through that insure our future sales . 

 Approach : 

 As we conducted learning launch I felt that we could have gained even more of that , than we got if I 

 ensured that instead of two sales for each market I involved at least three or four of them , especially from   various sales regions . That could have helped us to reveal region specific requirements , which could also   push sales and product development as well in the future . 

 Besides that next events for the other R&D projects should be conducted even earlier , shortly after the 

 project kick off , that could help us avoid excessive work and to concentrate on what does really matter for   our customer .
### Output: 