Implementing a Learning
Plan to Counter Project
Uncertainty
W I N T E R 2 0 0 8 VOL.49 NO. 2
REPRINT NUMBER 49217
Mark P. Rice, Gina Colarelli O’Connor
and Ronald Pierantozzi
Please note that gray areas reflect artwork that has been
intentionally removed. The substantive content of the article
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SMR272
54 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW WINTER 2008
INNOVATION
Implementing a Learning Plan to
Counter Project Uncertainty
n new-product development, most management approaches presume a high
ratio of knowns to unknowns, and most planning defines prescribed pathways
through developmental stages and decision gates. In fact, a byproduct of the
focus on quality and operational excellence is that companies tend to avoid
uncertain situations and resist market experimentation. However, such approaches are
counterproductive for any project that has the potential to produce real breakthrough innovations,
1 which, by definition, are fraught with a high degree of uncertainty. Indeed,
when asked about how they managed breakthrough innovation projects, respondents from
a variety of industries expressed difficulty articulating and defining the uncertainties that
confronted them and the approaches they could use to attack those uncertainties. (See
“About the Research,” p. 56.) In this article, we offer a framework, called the Learning Plan,
that enables companies to manage breakthrough innovation by explicitly recognizing that
project teams are proceeding on the basis of assumptions, rather than known facts.
Approaches to Planning in the Face of Uncertainty
In established companies, breakthrough innovation projects often survive for a long time
below management’s radar screen ...