Mantova 18/10/2002 "A Roadmap to New Product Development" Supporting Innovation Through The NPD Process and the Creation of Spin-off Companies

NPD Roadmap Mantova 18/10/2002 Elements of Innovation New Product Development Roadmap. Is a tool that can help companies and organizations to successfully develop new products or upgrade existing ones through a series of logical steps, starting New from the process of idea generation and ending at the launch of the product into a market. This kind of roadmap is usually based on the model developed by Dr. Robert G Cooper and it is known as Stage – Gate Process. Creating a spin off company. Spin offs are the new entrepreneurial activities that have as a scope the financial utilization of innovative results of scientific research, which could be products, services, processes or even organizational structures.

NPD Roadmap Mantova 18/10/2002 Creating the Roadmaps Content Presentation Software Tools Books Web Links Articles Input Output Black Box Roadmaps New Product Development A Creating a spin off company B Flow Diagram Theoretical Analysis Research

NPD Roadmap Mantova 18/10/2002 The User Perception Sequential progress through the roadmap stages Each roadmap will include sub-stages and decision points which will act as gates – that will allow the user to go from one stage to another. Ability to create new projects on each roadmap and. Analyze. Plan. Monitor them. Activity log: It will be user – friendly and all data entered will be saved in a database for future reference and evaluation or benchmarking. Most of the tools or techniques that are available today for each of them will be included in the roadmap depending on the stage that the users exploits. Roadmaps

NPD Roadmap Mantova 18/10/2002 Schematic Approach Idea Generation Idea Screening Concept Development Product Development Product Launch

NPD Roadmap Mantova 18/10/2002 I. Idea Generation Generation of new ideas There are many techniques and tools Internal & external sources Requires a person who will collect the proposed ideas Conjoint Analysis Quality Functional Deployment Voice of Customer Brainstorming Use of Competitive Intelligence

NPD Roadmap Mantova 18/10/2002 Brainstorming Facts Good technique to obtain broad and odd ideas for new products that can be developed fast. There is individual and group brainstorming. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Group is more effective but individual a lot more productive. In group it is critical the set up of rules that will govern each session.

NPD Roadmap Mantova 18/10/2002 Use of Competitive Intelligence Use of public resources to find out about competition. Information gathered must not only be on competitors but also on market trends and market situation, technological advances and economic conditions. Very thin line between C.I. and industrial espionage so one must be extremely careful of what information he gathers and from where. On – line tool available can be found at under Technology Watch.

NPD Roadmap Mantova 18/10/2002 Conjoint Analysis Can be used in stage 1 of the roadmap. Very useful in the case of developing complements or upgrades of existing products. It works by describing product features and characteristics of a family products or of a single product, and by obtaining feedback on these one can determine the level of importance of each as a numerical value. By comparing these numerical values, product features can be optimized, competitor products evaluated and new products can be developed.

NPD Roadmap Mantova 18/10/2002 II. Idea Screening Concept Development Typically a combination of should and ought to be criteria The first allocation of resources Preparation of the action plan It includes elements such as If it fits with the company strategy Competitive advantages Market attractiveness Technically feasible Cost benefit analysis QFD Quality Function Deployment Qualitative Research Quantitative Research

NPD Roadmap Mantova 18/10/2002 Cost Benefit Analysis Business Plan Why ? The basic objective is to secure finances external or internal to start up a business venture such as new product development. When ? The sooner the better. Usually a business plan or a cost benefit analysis that is prepared in the last minute, leads to failure and the product never makes it to the market. Who ? A team of specialized personnel coming from different principles and company departments must provide input and not a single individual. Usually used in the beginning of NPD since one will want to know if the proposed NPD process will lead into a profitable product or not. Tool available on-line at under Financing Innovation and will be possible either integrated or used in parallel with the roadmap.

NPD Roadmap Mantova 18/10/2002 Qualitative – Quantitative Research Company research tool that gets a feel of the research topic. Used in stage 2 of the roadmap. Not accurate since it targets focus groups and not the whole of the market. Focus groups can be manageable potential customers or users. Results are usually subject to great statistical errors. Helpful for small companies due to its cost and to the fact that they can recover easily from wrong actions taken based on the research data. Based on accurate numerical measurement of the entire market population. Also used in stage 2 of the roadmap but by large companies or corporations that can not afford making mistakes on product concept or idea screening. Needs well designed questionnaires, random sample and large sample of interveners. More demanding and informative questions used than the ones in qualitative research. Qualitative Research. Quantitative Research.

NPD Roadmap Mantova 18/10/2002 Quality Function Deployment QFD The QFD methodology is based on an engineering approach. QFD use a series of matrices to document information collected and represent a plan for product development. Matrices include the “Product Planning Matrix”, the “Concept Selection Matrix” and the “Assembly – Deployment Matrix”. QFD can be used in both Stage 1 and 2 of the NPD Roadmap in development.

NPD Roadmap Mantova 18/10/2002 III. Product Development Implementation of the action plan for product development Implementation of lab and alpha testing Production of lab tested (alpha) prototype or sample Implementation of tests with a sample of customers Planning of Production Design of test & control plans Design of a plan about the market launch of the new product Outsourcing Prototyping

NPD Roadmap Mantova 18/10/2002 Outsourcing & Prototyping Techniques Outsourcing can be the cheap way to develop a new product. With outsourcing a task is passed to someone that can do it more effectively. Outsourcing allows companies to develop products without allocating resources to their development. Points that need to be mentioned, that can lead to either success or failure outsourcing are good contracting, good process management, cost and end- result benchmarking. Prototyping can reduce development time since it can be used to test products prior to their market launch. Rapid prototyping is one of the techniques that can be used but it is under development due to the existing technology. Rapid tooling and rapid manufacturing come as a result of rapid prototyping. It can be expensive but also highly informative as it gives a 3D feel of the product under development. OutsourcingPrototyping

NPD Roadmap Mantova 18/10/2002 IV. Product Launch Implementation of The production plan The quality assurance plan The market launch plan The plan for monitoring and controlling the product after the its introduction to the market The Product life cycle plan

NPD Roadmap Mantova 18/10/2002 NPD Roadmap Concluding Generation of New ideas Idea Screening Concept Development Product Development Product Launch Content Presentation Software ToolsBooks Web Links Articles Case studies

NPD Roadmap Mantova 18/10/2002 Tools & Techniques to Be Used Tools Techniques Conjoint AnalysisOutsourcing Quality Functional DeploymentPrototyping Voice of CustomerCompetitive Intelligence Qualitative ResearchCAD/CAM Quantitative ResearchReverse Engineering BrainstormingReengineering Cost Benefit Analysis