Skip to content 
Resources & Information
About TCGen
TCGen Inc. is a product management and product development consulting firm based in Menlo Park, California. TCGen advises companies on accelerating product innovation and reducing costs by working with teams and management to unlock the value they already have in engineering and marketing.
TCGen assists companies in the strategy and innovation processes through product definition, execution, and launch. TCGen has helped cut time to market, rapidly scale product programs, foster a product mindset and improve innovation.
History of TCGen
John Carter is the founder of TCGen Inc. Carter was chief engineer at BOSE Corporation, a consumer electronics company. Carter shares the patent for BOSE’s Noise Canceling headphones and the patents assigned to Livescribe for a design to reduce noise in smart pens.
Carter founded Product Development Consulting (PDC) in Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts. Carter and his PDC colleagues wrote the Apple New Product Process (ANPP) for Apple Computer, a product development process used in all of the company’s divisions.
After serving as a CTO and on the Board of several organizations, including Cirrus Logic, a semiconductor supplier, Carter founded consulting firm TCGen in 2002.
Clients
- Amazon, Apple, Cisco
- Dolby, BOSE, Fitbit
- Roche, Medtronic, Baxter
And numerous other companies…
Services
- Product Management, Product Development
- Agile Transformations, Product Portfolio Consulting
- Product Strategy, Program Management Consulting
About John Carter
TCGen Principal & Founder, John Carter
John Carter has been a widely respected adviser to technology firms over his career. John is the author of Innovate Products Faster: Graphical Tools for Accelerating Product Development. As Founder and Principal of TCGen Inc., he has advised some of the most revered technology firms in the world:
• Abbott, Amazon, Apple
• BOSE, Cisco, Fitbit
• HP, IBM, Roche
He specializes in the value-creating aspects of product development – from the strategy and innovation processes through product definition, execution, and launch. He has helped companies cut time to market, rapidly scale their product program, and improve innovation with customer-led insights, leading to greater profitability, reduced costs, and improved customer satisfaction.
John currently serves on the Board of Directors of Cirrus Logic (CRUS), a leading supplier of mixed-signal semiconductors, where he is involved with company strategy and sits on the Compensation and Audit Committees.
He was the founder of Cambridge-based Product Development Consulting, Inc. (PDC), a consultancy advising Fortune 500 companies in the areas of research, development, and marketing. During his time there, he worked with Apple to create the Apple New Product Process (ANPP) used in all product divisions. He has been an invited speaker at MIT and Stanford University and a faculty member at Case Western’s Executive program.
Before starting PDC, John was the Chief Engineer of BOSE Corporation. John is the inventor of the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones and shares the original patent with Dr. Amar Bose. He was one of the initial contributors in BOSE’s entry into the automobile OEM business. He led the product and business development of BOSE’s patented noise reduction technology for the military market.
He earned his MS in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BS in engineering from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA.
Publications
What is trending in our corporate Newsroom
- Measure the Steps to Success [Concurrent Engineering], Wayne Mackey, John Carter, IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 31, 6, 1994.
- Getting It Done: New Roles for Senior Executives, Tom Hout and John Carter, Harvard Business Review, November-December, 1995.
- Innovate Products Faster: Graphical Tools for Accelerating Product Development John Carter and Jeanne Bradford (CreateSpace: 2012).
- Strategic Agility – The Trinity of Governance, Process & Funding, John Carter, Business Agility, April 2, 2020.
- Can Agile and Waterfall Co-Exist?, John Carter, TrendiG, April 8, 2020.
- Predictive Metrics: Measuring the Key Drivers That Indicate Agile At Scale Success, John Carter, Atlassian, May 6, 2020.
- How to Manage an Innovation Portfolio, John Carter, Viima, May 8, 2020.
- Five Product Development Pitfalls — And How to Avoid Them, John Carter, Zoho, May 20, 2020.
- 15 Key Considerations Before Expanding Your Product Offering, John Carter, Forbes, January 20, 2021.
- Looking For Innovation In All The Wrong Places? Inventing Outside The Core, John Carter, Forbes, February 3, 2021.
- Avoid The Next Product Failure: Rethinking Your Product Strategy, John Carter, Forbes, May 27, 2021.
- Jesse Nieminen, Interview with John Carter, Founder, TCGen, The Innovation Room, May, 11, 2020.
- Yaniv Corem, School of Innovation – Episode 16, June 9, 2020.
- Jess Larsen, Innovation and Leadership – Episode 397, June 2020.
- Phil Mckinney, Innovation Lessons from Bose, Killer Innovations, July 7, 2020.
- Chris Kalaboukis, Corporate Innovation with John Carter of TCGen, think future, July 21, 2020.
- The Productivity Process, Agile Innovation – Why Doing the Right Things is Not Enough, Zoho, July 21, 2020.
- Meaningful Metrics Are Simpler Than You Think, Solutions IQ, July 21, 2020.
- Brett Harned, Innovation Process with John Carter, Team Gantt, August 3, 2020.
- Nick Skillicorn, Overcoming the Hurdles of Designing New Technology, Idea to Value, October 12, 2020.
- Michael Luchen, How To Cultivate Innovation In Product, The Product Manager, June 7, 2021.
- Terri Williams, Debunking Myths About Agile (and How to Use it Well), The Economist, July 23, 2021.
- Tim Reitsma, How To Build a Culture of Innovation, People Managing People.
- Jesse Nieminen, Innovating Faster & Navigating Barriers to Innovation with John Carter, Viima.