Case Study

Organizational Roadblocks

The Situation

Company: Large, multinational company organized across US and Europe by functional leads

Issue: As the company grew, product development became less efficient: functional organization led to reduced product focus/alignment and slowed down decision-making

Project: Technical and management support in assessment of impediments within each functional team and recommendation of pathways to remove roadblocks/create efficiency for development of a new auto-injector.

Challenges Expressed:

  • Many functional team leads had bandwidth challenges supporting multiple projects
  • Lack of communication system or cross-functional understanding of each other’s roles and how functions intersect
  • Commercial and Product Development teams thought they would be more supported

Impact:

  • “Less than” attention to detail and timelines for this project
  • Longer-than-necessary decision-making timelines
  • Negative implications on other initiatives

Discovery:

  • Client thought they were more aligned than they were
  • Client was unaware that their technical/scientific model created barriers
  • Many subject matter experts on their functional teams were stretched too thin
  • Cross-functional and combination product education could solve some silo problems

Solutions Implemented:

  • Identification of functional knowledge areas for across-function education/sharing that would allow lower-level functional questions to be answered without the involvement of subject matter experts

  • Build and teaching of interactive training module on combination product development process, including cross-functional alignment needs and timings
  • Leveled up resourcing in certain functional areas related to combination product development through embedding of Suttons Creek subject matter experts