New Product Development For Dummies

by Robin Karol, Beebe Nelson, Geoffrey Nicholson (Foreword by)

Overview

The global consumer product market is exploding. In 2006 alone, 150,000 new products were brought to market. Now for the bad news: of those, fewer than 5% were hits, and fewer than 15% will even exist five years from now.

Written for small business owners and entrepreneurs looking for an inside track on new product development, New Product Development for Dummies offers you a unique opportunity to learn from two consummate insiders the secrets of successfully developing, marketing and making a bundle from a new product or service. You learn proven techniques for sizing up market potential and divining customer needs. You get tested-in-the-trenches strategies for launching a new product or service. And you get a frank, in-depth appraisal of the most challenging issues facing new product developers today, including the need to collaborate with global partners, optimizing technology development for a 21^st century marketplace, getting start-up capital in an increasingly competitive environment, and much more. Key topics covered include:

• Developing a winning NPD strategy
• Generating bold new ideas for products and services
• Understanding what your customers really want
• Keeping projects on track, on budget, and on-time
• Building effective cross-functional teams
• Planning and executing a blockbuster launch
• Collaborating with global partners
• Maximizing your chances for success

No matter what size or type of business you’re in, this book provides you with an unbeatable competitive advantage in the booming global marketplace for new products and services.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470117705
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	05/07/2007
Series:	For Dummies Books
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	517,726
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Robin Karol is CEO of the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA), a professional society that creates and nurtures a global community in which people and businesses learn to grow and prosper through innovation and the introduction of new products. Robin is an adjunct full professor at the University of Delaware Lerner School of Business Administration, where she teaches courses on the Management of Creativity and Innovation. Robin worked at DuPont for 23 years in various aspects of innovation and new product development, achieving the role of Director of Innovation Processes. A certified new product development professional (NPDP), she received her PhD in Biochemistry from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She has numerous publications and has presented at many conferences and workshops. The Industrial Research Institute (IRI) presented Robin with its Maurice Holland Award for the best paper in its journal Research-Technology Management in 2003.

Beebe Nelson is Co-Director of the International Association for Product Development (IAPD), a consortium of leading product developers who come together to improve their ability to execute new product development. She has organized, chaired, presented at, and facilitated conferences and workshops in product development, and has contributed chapters and articles in a number of venues. From 1998 to 2003, she was Book Review Editor of the Journal of Product Innovation Management, a publication of the PDMA. Beebe is a certified new product development professional (NPDP) and holds a doctorate in philosophy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Beebe has taught Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and most recently in the College of Management at UMass-Lowell. She chairs the Advisory Council of Partners in Ending Hunger, a not-for-profit organization located in Maine.

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Table of Contents

Foreword xxi

Introduction 1

Part I: The Basics of New Product Development 9

Chapter 1: It Takes a Company 11

Chapter 2: What Are You Developing, and Why? 23

Chapter 3: Defining Your Product Strategy 37

Part II: Charting the Ocean of Opportunity for New Products 59

Chapter 4: What Do Your Customers Really Want? 61

Chapter 5: Turning Your Company into an Idea Factory 89

Chapter 6: Picking Winners and Losing Losers 115

Chapter 7: Making the Most of Technology 127

Chapter 8: Focusing Your NPD Efforts 147

Part III: Navigating the River of Product Development 165

Chapter 9: One Foot in Front of the Other: The Product Development Process 167

Chapter 10: Organizing the NPD Troops 191

Chapter 11: Managing Your Corporation’s NPD Resources 211

Chapter 12: Using Reviews to Keep Projects on Track 233

Chapter 13: Launching Products for Market Success 253

Part IV: New Challenges in Product Development 271

Chapter 14: Developing Products in the Digital Age 273

Chapter 15: Product Development Goes Global 287

Chapter 16: Choose Your Partner! Partners in Product Development 303

Part V: The Part of Tens 317

Chapter 17: Ten Ideas on Ways to Test Your New Products 319

Chapter 18: Ten (Or More) Ways to Track Your Innovation Efforts 329

Appendix: Business Case Outline 339

Index 341