Don Reinertsen, TweetConsultant and Author of "The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development"

Biography: Don Reinertsen

Don is the President of Reinertsen & Associates, a consulting firm specialized in the management of product development. He has worked with leading product development organizations for over 3o years, and taught executive courses at Caltech for 14 years. He is the author/co-author of three best-selling books on product development, and is considered one of the leading thinkers in the emerging field of lean product development. His latest awarding winning book, The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development, has been praised as, “… quite simply the most advanced product development book you can buy.”

Twitter: @DReinersten

Presentation: TweetKeynote: Beyond Robustness - Thriving on Uncertainty

Time: Tuesday 09:30 - 10:30 / Location: Gold Coast Room

We spend a lot of time in product development trying to minimize uncertainty and its consequences. We push people to do careful estimates; we adopt Six Sigma programs to reduce variability; we cleverly hide uncertainty by padding estimates and using buffers. We strive to protect our carefully designed plans from the hostile assaults of a random and uncaring universe. We treasure robust solutions that remain impeturbable in the face of variability. But, this comes at a cost: it often makes our projects slower, less efficient, and less successful. What would happen if our goal was to thrive in the presence of uncertainty, instead of just trying to survive it? What would happen if we designed and operated development processes to give the best outcomes precisely when the uncertainty was highest? In this keynote, Don Reinertsen will present some new ideas on development process design.

Workshop: The Science of Lean Product Development Tweet

Time: Thursday 09:00 - 16:00 / Location: Training 5

Initial attempts to apply lean methods in product development simply copied behaviors that worked in manufacturing. This doesn’t work — development is a profoundly different domain. Eliminating all variability works in manufacturing; in product development it eliminates all innovation. Second Generation Lean Product Development takes a different, science-based, approach. It relies on understanding mechanisms of action and quantifying tradeoffs. It uses economics, statistics, queueing theory, and concepts from telecommunication network design. This tutorial provides an overview of the key ideas in the bestselling book “The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development.” If you want to obtain quick impact from lean methods you must understand these ideas.