Do You Know You Know or Think You Know?

12 Jun 2018

Meet the BEVL Method

How can a business know a new or revamped product is good to go? Reputation and financial success depends on it and every company has their own way of making this happen, their "test plan," so to speak. Yet there may be stumbles, re-dos and delayed launches along the way. Why?

The answer lies in the chasm between technical execution and desire. If a test plan is successfully completed, one might assume the product is ready for prime time. The problem is that most test plans do not deliver "done." The trick is to ask the right questions, which can be done with the Brand Execution and Value Linkage (BEVL) method.

The BEVL method outshines other means to deliver a trustworthy product because of its

• Premise: The BEVL method keeps the customer in focus. It is all too easy to focus on "how" rather than "why." The customer is the focus – not our experiences, technical knowhow, inventiveness or internal happenings.
• Simplicity: The method is straightforward and simple to understand at all levels of an organization. This doesn't mean there is not a great deal of effort and talent needed to complete the tasks; it means it is easy for anyone to quickly see if the project is starting to veer from the BEVL path.
• Flexibility: Not all projects, products and services are the same and they shouldn't be treated the same. The BEVL method is flexible enough to accommodate variation to deliver exceptional results.
• Ability to Transform: Customers lead; products follow. Those that "get it" are passionate and emotionally linked to why they do what they do. Organizations are seldom passionate and emotional. The BEVL method is a compass, a beacon for where the entire organization is headed and it defines the road to get there. It galvanizes cross-functional alignment around the customer and provides the instruction on how to do what needs to be done.

All companies and organizations want to be successful. The reality is that few are as successful as they want to be or think they can be. The BEVL method clearly focuses a company's actions on what delivers success – satisfying the customer. It is a path that all product/process development tools can use to align to the final intent of customer satisfaction. Too often, tools are used for the sake of using the tool. You don't need 6-Sigma analysis to tell you not to write on the white board with permanent ink. On the other hand, you do need tools to understand if the production variation in part dimension can be controlled to minimize the customer's perception of a "cheap" product.

The BEVL method can be culture changing. As an organization starts to use it, a foundation of customer-focused specifications and emerges and is used more often. It can evolve the fabric of the organization's thoughts and actions so that everyone is focused on the same things, speaking the same language across the same table. This can ensure success.