The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development

5.11. Wearing Two Hats

NPD organizations are often never able to assign just one role to most personnel. The great value of a more formal NPD process lies in addressing the confusion that naturally surrounds the multiple roles that many personnel are expected to play. Roles can be played tacitly or explicitly. "I wear two hats" is the common explanation of many operational controversies; if the hats have names, the heated discussion can turn to dialogue between process roles and co-owners, and the process moves forward.

Some best practices suggest that where roles are not clear, the process is not clear. And where the process is not clear, organizations have been unable to take full advantage of other best practices. Developing better new products, faster, and with fewer resources comes only to those who are willing to invest up front in a clearer NPD process.

Some dual roles include the following: the process sponsor can be the process champion. In the flatter management hierarchies of smaller organizations, this is a natural way to initiate the change to process-centered new product development. On the other hand, combining the roles of process manager and process sponsor has typically delayed—sometimes thwarted—the implementation of a new NPD process. Thus, there is an apparent need to see the give and take between the two leaders of the changes in new product development to gain confidence in those changes.

The process manager also frequently serves as the process analyst. ...