Page 29 - Technology and Innovation Journal - 19-1

ADAPTING STAGE-GATE TO MTM CURRICULUM 367

company growth and the different needs in each tion of customer needs (techniques and meth-
growth phase, which create different work envi- ods), VOC in the Stage-Gate process, and the
ronments and career opportunities, were discussed. anatomy of a concept.
Additional topics included product life cycles • Navigating the Complex Product Development
and the creation of short-, mid-, and long-term Process: The Stage-Gate Paradigm: Creel’s sec-
product portfolios. ond lecture covered organizational consid-
erations, investment decisions, the Stage-Gate
• Individual Student Mentor Sessions: Domschke’s process, the “front end” of innovation, and
one-on-one student mentor sessions were held evolved Stage-Gate.
each month throughout the program to help
students explore their own talents and true inter- ii) Integration of the Stage Gate process into the
ests. In these sessions, students defined their curriculum schedule: The Stage-Gate process itself
preferred work environments and company fits was integrated into the curriculum schedule with
so that they might take charge of their own the objective of fostering a deeper understanding
career choices and plan the next steps toward the from a business or company perspective, offering
realization of their goals. Homework was hands-on working knowledge of the actual product
assigned during each session, including the cre- development process, and providing ample training
ation of a career canvas that adopted the prin- in industry-relevant multidisciplinary communi-
ciples of the career help book What Color Is cation skills. An effective integration of stages and
Your Parachute by Richard Boles (9). The canvas gates into the curriculum was achieved by having
categories included a mission statement, favorite Stages 1 to 3 coincide with the three semesters of
knowledge, transferable skills, working condi- the program, with each semester ending with a gate
tions, responsibilities, people, and geography. meeting (Figure 2).
• Getting to Market: It Takes People, Process, • Creation of a Fictional Company: As an educa-
and the Promise of Profits: Two lectures were tional paradigm, a fictional company was created
given by Kip Creel on the Stage-Gate process. as part of the Stage-Gate integration. The
Creel is the founder and president of Stand capstone engineering project served as core tech-
Point, an Atlanta-based agency specializing in nology for the fictional company. The capstone
VOC studies that trains top-200 companies project itself was conceived in close collabora-
in the development of a successful Stage-Gate tion with biomedical sponsors. In the case of the
process. The “Getting to Market” lecture cov- first cohort, students were to develop a techni-
ered cognitive styles, innovation team interac- cally advanced device to measure joint move-
tions, sources of ideas, identification and valida- ment. The fictional company for the first cohort

INTEGRATED STAGE-GATE PROCESS
SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2 SEMESTER 3

STAGE 1 STAGE 2 STAGE 3
Gate Gate Gate
2 3 4
Scoping Feasibility & Development
Business Case

Figure 2. Schematic showing the integration of the Stage-Gate process into the curriculum schedule.