Bubble Innovator, recommended as a tool to manage New Product Development
April 08, 2015

Bubble Innovator, recommended as a tool to manage New Product Development

Emma Winter | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Bubble Innovator

Bubble Innovator is used as a tool to manage new product introduction and process change management across our organisation.

Pros

  • The Bubble team is outstanding at providing technical support, query response times are often within an hour and resolutions (depending on the level of complexity of the query) follow very quickly after this. They provide a professional, reliable service.
  • The software design is simple, intuitive and more accessible than many of the alternatives on the market. It does not require licenses, installations, internal servers, extensive training programs. It doesn't interface directly with 'business management' software which provides flexibility and development opportunities.
  • The Bubble team have a depth of knowledge for new product development processes and relevant industries, and provide much more than just the software. The teams are actively involved in process design beyond the software, and their recommendations have been invaluable when establishing a new stage-gate process across our organisation.

Cons

  • Development of custom functionality, and redefining 'standard' options for the software. As Bubble grows and their customer base increases there will be opportunity for this, at present development projects can be slow and expensive. However the standard software options are excellent, but as processes evolve within organisations the flexibility to evolve the software could be made simpler.
  • Visibility of product development pipelines, including rolled up views for individual portfolios of projects and across the business as a whole
  • Clarity of resource allocation across projects
  • Portfolio management, prioritization of development projects and alignment with business objectives
  • Getting developments 'right first time' by considering risks early, making decisions clear and visible, and holding teams accountable for delivering to timelines
I have not used or evaluated in detail any alternatives, as I couldn't find any alternative offering all the services that Bubble provides.
Bubble Innovator is perfect to manage a stage-gate decision making process without introducing difficult, cumbersome software, and that stands alone from bureaucratic business process management software. I cannot find any other software which delivers this at such a reasonable price and without layers of complexity.

Bubble Innovator Implementation

A cross-functional team should be involved in delivering an implementation plan, along with support from Bubble as required.
  • Vendor implemented
  • Implemented in-house
Yes - Implementation for process change management process came first, followed by the more complex new product development process. Software roll out to users was phased by business group and production site.
Change management was a major issue with the implementation - The change management issues we faced were more to do with the new process, rather than software for managing it. The software implementation was quick and easy... the introduction of a stage-gate process across a global organisation was the biggest challenge, and Bubble supported this throughout the implementation phase.

Bubble Innovator Support

Outstanding response times, and solutions to issues requiring support are quickly implemented. For bigger issues or longer term developments, Bubble happily takes the time to meet in person and discuss requirements to drive detailed solutions.
ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
No escalation required
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
Yes - Yes - always very quickly, and the bugs are always very minor (no showstoppers to report in 2+ years of use).

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