
Wagile is an approach to new product development that draws on the best of traditional and more contemporary new product development processes. The word comes from a combination of the “W” from Waterfall and “Agile.” I recently spoke to Teresa Jurgens-Kowal, an expert on innovation and new product development and an authority on Wagile.
Wagile takes the benefits of a traditional phased approach to innovation with definitive checkpoints or gates as well as a definition of what “done” means and combines it with the benefits of iterative design and learning within phases that is a key part of Agile. A key philosophical underpinning of Wagile is a focus first and foremost on the customer, to the point where one of the key roles in the process is a Customer Representative.
In my conversation with Teresa, we touch on the defining characteristics of Wagile, the four key roles of a Wagile team, some of the key tools used in Wagile, and the overall benefits of this approach to new product development. You can listen to the full interview here:
Teresa does regular training sessions on Wagile, and has written a number of blog posts. Details can be found at: https://globalnpsolutions.com/. Teresa has published a number of books and her latest book, The Innovation Answer Book, is available at Amazon and other publishers.
Read more about new product development processes in my book, Mastering Product Management: A Step-By-Step Guide, available in paperback and eBook.