What’s the best “roadmap” for training new teams in New Product Blueprinting?
We’d like to work with you on these steps to ensure you have successful new-product projects… and especially to build your customer-facing skills and culture for many years to come.
Step 1: Plan Your Training: Most companies choose the “Team Plan,” sending their teams to a public virtual kickoff workshop (two half-days), followed by virtual, team-specific AIM coaching for each team. But if you have 4 or more teams to train, consider a private workshop using the “Business Plan.” Both plans are described in the matrix at the bottom of www.BlueprintingTraining.com. You can use the “Calculate Cost” buttons there to print out a customized Statement of Work.
A. Plan Teams: Determine how many teams you want to train, which projects they’ll pursue, and who should be on each team. For suggestions, see www.BlueprintingProject.com.
B. Select Workshop(s): AIM usually offers 2 public workshops per month (visit www.BlueprintingWorkshop.com), one starting at 8:30am ET (good for N. America) and one at 7:00am ET (good for Europe in the afternoon and “OK” for Asia). All members of a single team don’t have to attend the same workshop, since all sessions have identical content and hands-on role-playing.
C. Notify Learners: Establish who is going to which workshop as soon as possible, so they can get these dates on their calendars. They do NOT need to individually register at the above website. We’ll register them for you.
D. Notify AIM: Please download Attendee Spreadsheet, enter your attendees and team names, and email it to aimteam@theaiminstitute.com. If you don’t have the project name or team affiliations yet, please send that information later, as soon as you have it.
Step 2: Set Up AIM as a Vendor: The following steps are only needed if this is your first engagement with The AIM Institute.
A. Execute NDA: We’re extremely careful about keeping your company’s information confidential. But you may want us to sign a non-disclosure agreement, so your team(s) can freely discuss their project with their AIM Coach. If so, please email your NDA to ann.eiden@theaiminstitute.com.
B. Inform Your IT.: All your teams’ data is stored in Microsoft Azure cloud servers using the highest security protocols. Since Blueprinter software is cloud-based, it doesn’t require any special permissions from your IT department to be used. Still, we recommend you contact your IT dept. and introduce Ann Eiden so we can…
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- Ask them to whitelist the email domain, theaiminstitute.com. This way attendees will receive workshop invitation emails that might otherwise go into their spam filter.
- Provide them with our security documentation and satisfy their security needs.
- Ask them to check some settings that might otherwise block your company’s use of Blueprinter® software.
- Set up single sign-on (SAML). This is an optional service we provide at no cost that lets your employees use their standard company log-in.
C. Connect Purchasing Department. We will be in touch to help get this step completed.
D: Execute Agreement (optional): Some clients like to execute a Master Services Agreement or SaaS Agreement. (AIM does not need any signed agreement from you, as it wouldn’t be binding anyway: Our work is 100% satisfaction guaranteed.) Please contact ann.eiden@theaiminstitute.com if you wish to pursue this.
Step 3. Begin Training & Coaching: A strong beginning for each of your teams involves these sequential steps.
A. Pre-workshop: We’d like to connect an AIM coach with your team leader(s) before their workshop so they can cover these points (as described in www.BlueprintingTeam.com): Discuss project scope, confirm team members, discuss team "rules of engagement," and—most important—schedule first team meeting (to take place soon after the workshop).
B. Workshop: Team members attend a virtual workshop over two consecutive half-days (www.BlueprintingWorkshop.com) where they learn the fundamentals of Blueprinting and participate in breakout rooms, so an AIM Coach can guide them in interview role-plays. The public workshop is also attended by other companies (some of whom are not starting “real” teams, but just checking out Blueprinting) but nothing confidential is discussed.
C. Post-workshop: Only ~20% of the learning takes place during the workshop. The rest occurs as each team get private AIM coaching during their regularly scheduled team web-conferences. To see the topics your AIM Coach covers, see www.BlueprintingCoaching.com.
D. Integrate Blueprinting: The most successful Blueprinting clients integrate this methodology into their DNA. As your team(s) begin their work, consider these ways to make Blueprinting work for you beyond these projects:
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- Executive Mindset: Blueprinting works best when leaders have a “Builder” mindset. Ask your leaders to watch a new 2-minute video daily or weekly (there are 50 videos) by subscribing for free at b2bgrowth.video.
- Executive Dashboard: Access the Executive Dashboard, so your executives can see their portfolio of Blueprinting projects. This is a free service for the first year: After that your executives pay only for Blueprinter software renewals (since Dashboard lets them open any Blueprinter project). To see how you can assign a company Admin to set this up, visit How to set up your Executive Dashboard.
- Project Reviews: Your team(s) will complete a Market Case, which is typically used to begin the development stage in a project. Establish a target project review date for your team(s) so they can present theirs.
- System Integration: Integrate into your stage-and-gate process and CRM, e.g., SalesForce.com. Blueprinter software has a full complement of APIs for connecting with your software platforms. Just let us know when you’re ready to discuss.
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