"R"

Question 1

Radical Innovation

Answer 1

A new product, generally containing new technologies, that significantly changes behaviors and consumption patterns in the marketplace.

Question 2

Rapid Prototyping

Answer 2

Any of a variety of processes that avoid tooling time in producing prototypes or prototype parts and therefore allow (generally non-functioning) prototypes to be produced within hours or days rather than weeks. These prototypes are frequently used to test quickly the product product’s technical feasibility or consumer interest.

Question 3

Reactors

Answer 3

Firms that have no coherent innovation strategy. They only develop new products when absolutely forced to by the competitive situation.

Question 4

Realization Gap

Answer 4

The time between first perception of a need and the launch of a product that fills that need.

Question 5

Relay-Race Process

Answer 5

A staged product development process in which first one function completes a set of tasks, then passes the information they generates sequentially to another function, which in turn completes the next set of tasks and then passes everything along to the next function. Multifunctional teamwork is largely absent in these types of product development processes, which may also be called phase review or baton-passing processes.

Question 6

Render

Answer 6

Process that industrial designers use to visualize their ideas by putting their thoughts on paper with any number of combinations of color markers, pencils and highlighters, or computer visualization software.

Question 7

Reposition

Answer 7

To change the position of the product in the minds of customers, either on failure of the original positioning or to react to changes in the marketplace. Most frequently accomplished through changing the marketing mix rather than redeveloping the product.

Question 8

Resource Matrix

Answer 8

An array that shows the percentage of each non-managerial person’s time that is to be devoted to each of the current projects in the firm’s portfolio.

Question 9

Resource Plan

Answer 9

Detailed summary of all forms of resources required to complete a product development project, including personnel, equipment, time, and finances

Question 10

Responsibility Matrix

Answer 10

This matrix indicates the specific involvement of each functional department or individual in each task or activity in each stage.

Question 11

Return on Ideas

Answer 11

Reflects the potential value of an idea.

Question 12

Return on Investment (ROI)

Answer 12

A standard measure of project profitability, this is the discounted profits over the life of the project expressed as a percentage of initial investment.

Question 13

Rigid Gate

Answer 13

A review point in a Stage-Gate™ process at which all the prior stage’s work and deliverables must be complete before work in the next stage can commence.

Question 14

Risk

Answer 14

An event or condition that may or may not occur, but if it does occur will impact the ability to achieve a project’s objectives. In new product development, risks may take the form of market, technical, or organizational issues. For more on managing product development risks, see Chapters 8 and 15 in the PDMA ToolBook 1 and Chapter 28 in The PDMA HandBook 2nd Edition.

Question 15

Risk Acceptance

Answer 15

An uncertain event or condition for which the project team has decided not to change the project plan. A team may be forced to accept an identified risk when they are unable to identify any other suitable response to the risk.

Question 16

Risk Avoidance

Answer 16

Changing the project plan to eliminate a risk or to protect the project objectives from any potential impact due to the risk.

Question 17

Risk Management

Answer 17

The process of identifying, measuring, and mitigating the business risk in a product development project.

Question 18

Risk Mitigation

Answer 18

Actions taken to reduce the probability and/or impact of a risk to below some threshold of acceptability.

Question 19

Risk Tolerance

Answer 19

The level of risk that a project stakeholder is willing to accept. Tolerance levels are context specific. That is, stakeholders may be willing to accept different levels of risk for different types of risk, such as risks of project delay, price realization, and technical potential.

Question 20

Risk Transference

Answer 20

Actions taken to shift the impact of a risk and the ownership of the risk response actions to a third party.

Question 21

Roadmapping

Answer 21

A graphical multi-step process to forecast future market and/or technology changes, and then plan the products to address these changes.

Question 22

Robust Design

Answer 22

The design of products to be less sensitive to variations, including manufacturing variation and misuse, increasing the probability that they will perform as intended.

Question 23

“Rugby” Process

Answer 23

A product development process in which stages are partially or heavily overlapped rather than sequential with crisp demarcations between one stage and its successor.