Welcome to
Practical Agile Product Development
Who We Are
Auxilium helps product development companies and teams take their NPD capability to a new level of performance. While Agile principles are at the core of what we do, organizations and teams must go beyond process methods to create performance breakthroughs — they must start with clear strategies, have leaders that can clear hurdles and build cultures of trust and efficiency.
As a leader in NPD methodology and tools, Auxilium brings decades of real world experience of what works and what doesn’t to every program we deliver. Whether you currently implement Stage-Gate, Lean, Six-Sigma, SAFe or any other process, you found us because you know you can do better. Contact us for a discussion of your situation and how we might help your team deliver better NPD performance.
NPD Challenges We Address
Reasons our clients come to us for help include:
- Slow or inefficient NPD processes
- The need to adapt quickly to changing market needs
- Better engagement with customers as development partners
- A desire to enhance resource utilization
- Misaligned hardware and software processes
If your team has similar challenges, contact us for a discussion of your situation and discover how we can help.
How We Deliver Better Performance
Four Elements Drive Optimal NPD Performance
Auxilium’s consulting and training programs focus on four key success elements to build new and better NPD capabilities. Our four areas of performance focus:
- Process: Agile methods to enable team focus and adapt to change through rapid cycles
- People: The skills to lead teams and deliver project results
- Culture: Building organizational harmony and effectiveness
- Strategy: Expertise driving innovation & product efforts to meet financial goals
- Learn more about how Auxilium can help you optimize performance in each area here.
Our Services
NPD Consulting
Your company has unique needs based on your industry, culture and objectives. Your NPD process and methods must reflect this. Auxilium consulting programs always first focus on your situation and desired outcomes and we then work together to develop a program to achieve your goals. Consulting and learning activities can be facilitated in-house or online using interactive tools.
Agile for Hardware
Most software teams have adopted Agile methods and found them superior to waterfall processes. Agile methods also provide extensive benefits for hardware teams, but must be modified. Learn more about the Modified Agile for Hardware Development (MAHD) Framework below or contact us for an overview to see if Agile for hardware is right for you.
Learning Programs
Since 2002, Auxilium has delivered practical, hands-on learning programs for teams and leaders to build new product development and Agile skills fast. These cost-effective workshops in Agile for Hardware, leadership and innovation management increase each of the four performance areas. Browse our learning programs or contact us to customize and schedule sessions for your team.
Who We Help
Our customers are located all over the world and in a breadth of industries. What they have in common is their desire to develop new products that customers love faster and with fewer resources. Our projects range from short workshops to extended programs to assess processes, facilitate pilot NPD projects and build practical agile product development skills.
Why Auxilium Is Different
Experienced Consultants
When working with Auxilium, you work directly with senior consultants and trainers. Each member of our team has over 20 years of real world product development in a variety of technical industries. We’ve also had successful senior roles in R&D, marketing and business leadership before starting Auxilium and know what it takes to deliver great products.
Proven Methods
The most common response we get from our customers is, “This is really practical.” Auxilium methods range from ensuring the team shares a common understanding of customer needs to our advanced Agile for Hardware Development Framework that has been refined by working with dozens of companies. We don’t end a customer engagement until your objectives are met.
Cost Effective Programs
If you’ve worked with tier one consultants, you’re familiar with the hefty price tag. We know because we have worked in these consultancies and talk with clients all the time who are looking for great results, but within budgets. Auxilium has low overhead, offers many programs online and can provide tier one consultant quality and experience at a fraction of the cost.
Learn About Modified Agile for Hardware Development (MAHD)
While many companies use some form of traditional waterfall systems, we’ve found that integrating practical agile product development methods can make big improvements. Stage-gate systems can work, but they can be slow, limit collaboration and make risky assumptions that limit success. How do we know this? The Auxilium team has developed dozens of products using traditional NPD processes and has always sought to improve on these practices.
Agile methods fix many waterfall process problems, but must be modified when applied to physical products (including those with software elements). We began exploring Agile for hardware over 10 years ago and by working with a range of companies and learning what works (and what doesn’t) led to the Modified Agile for Hardware Development (MAHD) Framework. To share this information broadly, we also started the Agile for Hardware community.
Explore MAHD fundamentals at www.agileforhardware.org, visit our summary page, or contact us to discuss how the MAHD Framework can help you enhance your development efforts.
Modified Agile for Hardware Framework Core
Software teams have discovered Agile methods increase customer focus, accelerate development and enhance collaboration. Hardware-based development teams can also get big benefits over traditional PD processes with Agile, but since it wasn’t designed to manage physical products, the methods must:
- Adapt to new insight, but allow designs to freeze
- Accommodate a range of disciplines (including SW)
- Incorporate all production considerations
- Integrate with Stage-gate, Lean, or other systems
To learn more the Complete MAHD Framework, visit the Agile for Hardware community.
Learn More
Contact us for a no obligation discussion of your situation and how Auxilium could help you take your NPD performance to the next level.
