The new product process and strategic planning

Question 1

What are the phases of the new product process? (5)

Answer 1

phase 1. Opportunity identification
phase 2. Concept generation
phase 3. Concept/project evaluation 
phase 4. Develpoment
phase 5. Launch

Question 2

What questions do we ask at each phase of the new product process?(5)

Answer 2

phase 1. Where should we look?
phase 2. Is the idea worth screening
phase 3. Should we try to develop it?
phase 4. Have we developed it? if not should we continue to try?
phase 5. Should we market it? if so, how?

Question 3

Give more detailed description of the sub stages of Phase 1. Opportunity identification. (4)

Answer 3

1. Active/passive generation of new product opportunities as spinouts of the ongoing business operation.
2. New suggestions (changes in Marketing plan, resource changes, new needs/wants in the marketplace)
3. Research, evaluate, validate, and rank them (as opportunities, not specific product concepts).
4. Give major ones a preliminary strategic statement to guide further work on it.

Question 4

What are the potential sources that can be used during Phase 1? (4)

Answer 4

1. Underutilised resource (manufacturing process, operation, strong franchise).
2. New resource (discovery of new material with new potential uses).
3. An external mandate (stagnant market combined with competitive threat)
4. Internal mandate (new products used to close long-term sales gap, senior management desires)

Question 5

What is the significance of greenfield markets in phase 1? (4)

Answer 5

1. Find another location or venue
2. Leverage your firm’s strengths in a new activity centre
3. Identify a fast-growing need, and adapt your products to that need
4. Find a new to you industry

Question 6

What are the six catalysts shaping the future of product development? (6)

Answer 6

1. Just in time (JIT) life
2. Sensing consumers
3. The transparent self
4. In search for enoughness
5. Virtual made real
6. Co-creation

Question 7

Give a more detailed description of the 2 sub-stages of Phase 2. Concept generation. (2)

Answer 7

1. Select a high potential/urgency opportunity, and begin customer involvement.
2. Collect available new product concepts that fit the opportunity and generate new ones as well.

Question 8

Give a more detailed description of the 4 sub-stages of Phase 3. project/Concept evaluation. (4)

Answer 8

1. Evaluate new product concepts (as they begin to come in) on technical, marketing, and financial criteria.
2. Rank them and select the best two or three.
3. If the decision is to GO ahead – the evaluation turns into project evaluation (you are not longer evaluating the idea but rather the plan we propose for capitalizing the data)
4. Product protocol: Agreement before extensive technical work gets underway.

Question 9

What is meant by the fuzzy front end? (1)

Answer 9

1. The first stages of the new products process are sometimes called the fuzzy front end because the product concept is still fuzzy. By the end of the project, most of the fuzz should be removed.

Question 10

What are the 2 sub-stages of Phase 4. Development (2) (technical)

Answer 10

1. Specify the full development process and its deliverables.
2. Undertake to design prototypes:
   - > test and validate prototypes against protocol
   - > design and validate the production process for the best prototype
   - > slowly scale up production as necessary for product and market testing.

Question 11

What are the 3 marketing tasks of phase 4. Development? (3)

Answer 11

1. Prepare strategy, tactics, and launch details for marketing plan.
2. Prepare the proposed business plan and get approval for it.
3. Stipulate product augmentation (service, packaging, branding, etc.) and prepare for it.

Question 12

Give a more detailed description of the 3 sub-stages of Phase 5. Launch (3)

Answer 12

1. Commercialize the plans and prototypes from the development phase.
2. Begin the distribution and sale of the new product (maybe on a limited basis).
3. Manage the launch program to achieve the goals and objectives set in the final business plan.

Question 13

What happens throughout the process of concept to new product? (1)

Answer 13

Concepts become more concrete and have higher value throughout the process.

Question 14

According to Cooper 1993, what are the 5 methods for accelerating time to market?

Answer 14

1. Have a clear product innovation strategy – doing the opportunity identification homework and have a clean product definition
2. Have a third-generation new products process that permits overlapping phases/parallel processing
3. Product portfolio and careful project selection to allocate scarce resources.
4. Focus on quality: “get it right the first time.”
5. Have an empowered cross-functional team.

Question 15

What are 5 additional techniques for accelerating time to market? “work smarter not harder”

Answer 15

1. Organization: not just an empowered team, but also effective team leadership and focus on organizational learning and knowledge transfer.
2. Intensify Resource Commitments: Integrate vendors and resellers, get users involved and capture the Voice of the Customer.
3. Design for Speed: use computer-aided design, rapid prototyping, common components, get a fast trial.
4. Rapid Manufacturing: standard processes, computer-aided manufacturing, just-in-time delivery.
5. Rapid Marketing: Use rollouts, spend as needed to generate awareness, offer trial purchasing.

Question 16

How does the process differ for new-to-the-world products? (4 points)

Answer 16

1. The first phase remains the same: opportunity identification and development of a strategic statement.
2. Clear connection required between the radical innovation and the firm’s strategic vision.
3. A firm may establish a transition management team to move the R&D innovation project to business operating status.
4. The new products process is more explanatory: need to bring in Voice of the Customer (VOC) early. (Lead users may be critical here)

Question 17

What are the steps to best manage the breakthrough innovation? (4)

Answer 17

1. Incubation Stage: Involves customer and market interaction as well as technical development.
2. Tolerate failure but learn from it (Google claims a 60% failure rate on innovative products).
3. Longer and much more expensive than typical business development, but required for breakthrough opportunities.
4. Discovery-Driven Planning: Forecasts and plans evolve as more information becomes available.

Question 18

What is the probe-and-learn process for new-to-the-world products? (3)

Answer 18

1. Focused (limited-performance) prototypes
2. “Lickety-Stick” iterative process: non-linear, more flexible process in which dozens of prototypes may be tried (“lickety”) before settling on one that customers like (“stick”).
3. The goal at this early stage is not to determine how to cut costs, but to see what functionally consumers are looking for – rolling out several prototypes quickly and efficiently, gives you flexibility to try out different ideas and audiences.