Emerging Issues in New Product Development

Report from a PDMA Research Colloquy

The Philadelphia Chapter of the Product Development and Management Association recently sponsored a Research Colloquy on the "Future of NPD: What will we need to know in five years that we don't know now?".  Inngenuity partner Marty Watson was fortunate enough to attend and has now co-authored a conference short report with Chris Miller, Founder of Innovation Focus.  You can find their paper in Visions (July/August 2002), XXVI(3), pp 12-13, available on the PDMA website.

The participants ultimately put hundreds of thoughts, concerns, problems, and ideas into 15 buckets, which we repeat here:

"15 Emerging Issues

1. The middle space
   NPD lies between the obviously continuous and the obviously discontinuous product innovation.
2. General manager's role
   Senior managers in NPD; managing the multicellular business organism.
3. Forecasting uncertainty
   Analyzing NPD risks and comparing the disparate risks of running a business.
4. Technology applications
   Emerging tools for all parts of NPD.
5. Morphing "Stage Gate"
   How will the 'standard model' evolve?
6. Role of the Internet in NPD
   Better communications allow new organizational structures.
7. Link to the bottom line
   Pulse on the NPD Process within the matrix of business processes.
8. Internal PDMA focus
   The volunteer organization delivering more to NPD professionals.
9. The organizational puzzle
   How and why organizational structure inhibits deploying next generation NPD processes.
10. Latter-stage innovation
    Case study-based research into NPD process evolution and erosion.
11. Brand issues
    Migrating NPD into organizations.
12. Longevity of the process projects
    Knowing when to fold.
13. Value Chain Innovation
    Employing the core NPD process all along the value chain.
14. Wall Street finance
    Using detailed financial analysis to improve incremental product development.
15. Entrepreneurial
    The seeds of tomorrow's innovation may lie in ideas which are considered disruptive to the NPD process today."

Are any of these your issues?  Well, join the dialogue!

You can contact us at:
theInnovators@inngenuity.com