New Product Management

Chapter 2: The New Products Process

- The overall new products process-that combination of steps/activities/decisions/goals, and so on that, if performed well, will churn out the new products the organization needs.

- The process is not over when the new product is launched. It ends when the new product is successful, usually after some in-flight corrections (such as with the special in-store display piece).

- Basic New Product Process (some firms refer to it as a stage-gate process):

o Opportunity Identification and Selection

o Concept Generation

o Concept/Project Evaluation

o Development

o Launch

- Advantages of this process:

o Improvement in product teamwork

o Less rework

o Greater success rate with new product

o Earlier identification of failures

o Improved launch

o 30% shorter cycle times

- Overlapping phases occur in the process because there is much pressure for firms to accelerate time to market for new products.

- Product development is a multifunctional program, where all functions work together as a cross-functional team to accomplish the required tasks.

- Phase 1: Opportunity identification and selection

o Ongoing marketing planning

o Ongoing corporate planning

o Special opportunity analysis

- Opportunities identified for the activities above:

o An underutilized resource

o A new resource

o An external mandate

o An internal mandate

- The process of creatively recognizing the opportunities is called opportunity identification. Most firms have ongoing strategies covering product innovation.

- Product Innovation Charter (PIC).

- Phase 2: Concept Generation

- Product concepts – creating new product ideas.

- Phase 3: Concept/Project Evaluation

- Concept test – to see what the potential consumers thought about the new product.