The 7 Principles of Lean, Rapid and Profitable NPD

Quick Assessment Checklist #2:
The 7 Principles of Lean, Rapid and Profitable NPD
Excerpt from 'Lean, Rapid and Profitable NPD' by Dr. Robert G. Cooper and Dr. Scott J. Edgett

If your organization has a quality stage-gate process in place (see checklist) and you are trying to go to the next level of performance, you can use this quick assessment to test your process against Next Gen Stage-Gate.

Strongly
Disagree

Strongly
Agree

1. Best practices are incorporated throughout your NPD process to focus innovators and decision makers on creating a unique, superior and differentiated product that delivers benefits and value to the customer by making the customer an integral part of this process.

2. Best practices are incorporated into your NPD process to focus innovators and decision makers on conducting the right amount of high quality, pre-development homework activities before technical product development work begins.

3. Best practices are incorporated throughout your entire NPD process which focus innovators on spiral development loops to balance the right number of iterative 'build-test-feedback-and-revise' loops to leverage the changing nature of information and customer feedback.

4. Best practices are incorporated throughout your NPD process to ensure the effective selection and use of crossfunctional teams where key players remain together for the duration of the entire project and have clear roles and accountabilities for project results.

5. Best practices are incorporated throughout your entire NPD process to ensure the effective selection and measurement of key metrics so learning and continuous improvement becomes an integral and routine facet of the process.

6. Best practices are incorporated throughout your entire NPD process to focus innovators and decision makers on effective project evaluation, selection and balancing so the pipeline never becomes overloaded.

7. Best practices are incorporated throughout your entire NPD process to alert and focus innovators and decision makers when its appropriate to be flexible, adaptable and scalable with project process requirements to optimize efficiency without jeopardizing quality.

Your Score out of 35

How to interpret your scores

	High scores (5) across all drivers indicates you may be ready to evolve your Innovation Program to incorporate best practices across the Innovation Diamond^TM. (Strategy, Portfolio Management, and Culture/Environment). Read whitepaper: Succeeding at New Product Development the P&G way: A key element is using the “Innovation Diamond”.
	A mixture of high and low scores indicates several opportunities for improvement. Target these opportunities with the proper 'tool-kit': Attend the popular "Lean, Rapid, and Profitable NPD" Innovation Seminar to learn new ways of enhancing your current process.
	Low to average scores (3) across all drivers. Here you stand to gain the most by overhauling your process. Accelerate time-to-performance with SG Navigator^TM.

© 2000-2009 Stage-Gate International Adapted from 'Winning at New Products, 3rd Edition' by Dr. Robert G. Cooper Stage-Gate ® is a registered trade mark of the Product Development Institute