The Product Development and Management Association of New Zealand (PDMA-NZ) are back, and this time we are getting down to practicalities with a session focused on project management for innovation.

We usually learn project management tools one by one: stage gate, waterfall, critical chain, rapid learning cycles are some examples. Sometimes we even get told that a certain approach is THE way to do everything. But what innovative project managers are doing is using all of these, creating their own methods by integrating across project lifecycles and even integrating different approaches together to create their own approach. We’ve called this ‘hybrid project management’ and it’s something many people are doing but also something no one really seems to talk about.

Until Now!

We have two great presenters to talk about their experience and spark conversation:

Jason Low is an Innovation Consultant at Solid Consulting. He is a Product Development Expert, Innovation Leader, Designer, Maker, Customer Researcher and a Certified® Rapid Learning Cycles (RLC) Advisor. He has a passion for helping businesses develop meaningful products and services, that will have a lasting impact on their customers and transform their user experiences. Previous to consulting he has held several Head of Design/Innovation/CTO roles. Jason is also experienced in Design Thinking Methodology as well, and how to incorporate these tools within a larger product development plan.
William Fisher is the Product Development Team Leader at Oasis Engineering Ltd and president of PDMA-NZ. Over the years, he and the team at Oasis have continuously improved the product development process used to deliver market leading products to the Compressed Natural Gas, Hydrogen and Dairy industries. He has learned (usually the hard way!) that there is no “one-size-fits-all” method to project management and the approach must be individually tailored to both the project and the team.

We also know there are lots of people with their own hybrid project management approaches and experiences, so we are expecting another hugely interactive session and will make sure there’s plenty of time for audience contributions.

For this session, we are taking a field trip to visit Clark and the good folks at Clark Bardsley Design, an award winning, cross-disciplinary design studio. With curiosity as their common starting point, they strive to build unique character in to each project, with respect and deference to the materials and processes that bring the idea to life. We thought this would be the perfect venue to get the creative juices flowing and discuss all things project management!

So please come along and join us for an evening of learning and sharing, along with usual opportunity to connect with other great people around our innovation community. For this event, we also have the option to join online if you can't make it in person, check out the ticketing page for more info.

Share it around, grab some friends and we'll see you there!

Light snacks and refreshments will be provided.