ModIV Product Development Team
For the exclusive use of Y. Zhou
Harvard Business School
9-491-030
Rev. March 5, 1991
Mod IV Product Development Team
It was April 1989. Just four months remained until the Honeywell Building Controls
Division (BCD) planned to introduce the Mod IV, and the product development team was fighting to stay on schedule. Mod IV, a motor used in heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning
(HVAC) applications, represented the most ambitious project in the division's history, and the product's development reflected many of the changes the division had experienced in recent years.
For three people in particular, Mod IV also typified the challenges of working amid new pressures and demands.
As director of HVAC Controls, one of the Building Controls Division's four product areas,
Linda Whitman was the senior marketing person for the Mod IV product line and had primary profit and loss responsibility for Mod IV. She could see the impact a delay would have on her area's performance, and she understood the pressing market need to have Mod IV contain attractive features. When she first became director of HVAC Controls in 1986, she realized that marketing had to play a more active role in development of Mod IV. Since then she had watched her fellow marketers on the Mod IV team work through problems and conflicts with engineers, and she knew some of the most difficult issues still had to be resolved. But addressing any issue required patience, persistence, and tact, and even then Linda often found herself torn. She had to make sure HVAC Controls met its projections, which required collaborating with engineering and manufacturing, both of which seemed at times overburdened and at times unresponsive.
Larry Rodgers, lead design engineer on Mod IV, had been involved in the Mod IV project for five years. He could sense the pressure mounting both on the team and on the division as
Mod IV encountered difficulties entering the final months of the project. Larry and
Harvard Business School
9-491-030
Rev. March 5, 1991
Mod IV Product Development Team
It was April 1989. Just four months remained until the Honeywell Building Controls
Division (BCD) planned to introduce the Mod IV, and the product development team was fighting to stay on schedule. Mod IV, a motor used in heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning
(HVAC) applications, represented the most ambitious project in the division's history, and the product's development reflected many of the changes the division had experienced in recent years.
For three people in particular, Mod IV also typified the challenges of working amid new pressures and demands.
As director of HVAC Controls, one of the Building Controls Division's four product areas,
Linda Whitman was the senior marketing person for the Mod IV product line and had primary profit and loss responsibility for Mod IV. She could see the impact a delay would have on her area's performance, and she understood the pressing market need to have Mod IV contain attractive features. When she first became director of HVAC Controls in 1986, she realized that marketing had to play a more active role in development of Mod IV. Since then she had watched her fellow marketers on the Mod IV team work through problems and conflicts with engineers, and she knew some of the most difficult issues still had to be resolved. But addressing any issue required patience, persistence, and tact, and even then Linda often found herself torn. She had to make sure HVAC Controls met its projections, which required collaborating with engineering and manufacturing, both of which seemed at times overburdened and at times unresponsive.
Larry Rodgers, lead design engineer on Mod IV, had been involved in the Mod IV project for five years. He could sense the pressure mounting both on the team and on the division as
Mod IV encountered difficulties entering the final months of the project. Larry and