 |
|
|
|
 |
| |
 |
 |
Product Innovation Articles |
Feature
Article
Ten Tips for Successfully
Implementing a Stage-Gate® Product Innovation
Process
by Dr. Scott J. Edgett and Michelle Jones
In this article Scott Edgett and Michelle Jones share
the top ten lessons that have stood the test of time
as different organizations have designed and implemented
their own Stage-Gate processes. Each of these tips will
contribute to the speed of adoption and the ultimate ‘stickiness’ of
the process within your organization. As product innovation
is a critical competitive weapon in helping your organization
achieve its strategic goals for growth, the effort invested
in developing an implementation plan will provide repeated
payoffs in the future.
Reference
No. 33 |
Download
(.pdf - 210 KB)
|
|
|
|
Receive
the latest research, information and tips to
keep you current in product innovation. You
will also have the opportunity to receive advance
notices on our new articles, research papers,
books, seminars, and more.

|
If you find this knowledge
useful, try our:
|
|
|
 |
How Companies are Reinventing Their Idea–to–Launch Methodologies
By Dr. Robert G. Cooper
Design your innovation process for today’s innovation requirements – a
faster, leaner, more agile and more focused system. Reinvent your process to build-in
the latest thinking, approaches and methods to move to the next-generation Stage-Gate
system. In this article you will learn some of the ways that companies have modified
and improved their idea-to-launch methods. If your idea-to-launch system is more than
five years old then it’s time for a serious overhaul.
|
|
 |
EFFECTIVE GATING
Make product innovation more productive
by using gates with teeth
By Dr. Robert G. Cooper
Most firms suffer from having far too many projects in their product development pipelines,
for the limited resources available. Worse yet, the great majority of initiatives are
low value projects to the corporation. While your company might have installed a Stage-Gate® system,
the gates – vital decision-making and resource allocation points – often
lack teeth.
This new article, authored by Dr. Robert G. Cooper, explains how “Gates with
Teeth” help to prune the development portfolio of weak projects, and deal with
a gridlocked pipeline.
|
|
 |
Accelerate Your ‘Best’ New Product Projects
By Dr. Robert G. Cooper
The tough economy has become a new source of motivation for executives looking to
implement ‘good sense’ practices. Of particular interest is the best practice
of deploying a systematic, disciplined approach to yielding wise investment decisions
and sound resource allocations to accelerate your best projects’ time-to-profit.
|
|
 |
Make Your New Product Process Agile and Adaptable with Spiral Development
by Dr. Robert G. Cooper
Smart, fast failures via spiral development is a practice worth implementing suggests Dr.
Robert Cooper in this brief Best Practice Series article. The most strongly correlated
driver of profitable new product success is a superior product. According to Dr. Robert
Cooper, you stand to win a resounding 98% of the time if you can get the right customer
input at the right time throughout the stages of a disciplined Stage-Gate process. How
does one balance the need for speed, a sharp product definition and adapting to changing
customer information? Dr. Cooper outlines 6 specific points throughout your idea-to-launch
process when you should be tapping into your customers for feedback.
|
|
 |
What Leading Companies are Doing to Re-invent their NPD Processes
by Dr. Robert G. Cooper
The original design of Stage-Gate® was based on Dr. Robert Cooper’s research results
of his groundbreaking studies of successful NPD project teams – how they drove their projects to
market quickly and effectively. Today, leading companies are reinventing their innovation processes,
making them faster, leaner, and more effective. At the same time, they are building in best practices
in portfolio management, voice-of-the-customer methods, open innovation, ideation techniques, and so
on. In this article, Dr. Cooper outlines some of the actions that leading firms – such
as Emerson Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, ITT Industries and GlaxoSmithKline – are
taking as they move toward a NexGen Stage-Gate system.
|
|
 |
Ten Tips for Successfully Implementing a Stage-Gate® Product Innovation Process
by Dr. Scott J. Edgett and Michelle Jones
In this article Scott Edgett and Michelle Jones share the top ten lessons that have stood the test of
time as different organizations have designed and implemented their own Stage-Gate processes. Each of
these tips will contribute to the speed of adoption and the ultimate ‘stickiness’ of the
process within your organization. As product innovation is a critical competitive weapon in helping your
organization achieve its strategic goals for growth, the effort invested in developing an implementation
plan will provide repeated payoffs in the future.
|
|
 |
Benchmarking Best Practices:
Performance Results and the Role of Senior Management by Dr. Robert G.
Cooper and Dr. Scott J. Edgett
Senior Management must lead the way in New Product Development by providing both the leadership and commitment
of necessary resources. The Best Performing Companies identified in the ‘Best Practices in
Product Innovation Benchmark Research Study’ conducted jointly by Dr. Robert G. Cooper, Dr. Scott
J. Edgett with the American Productivity and Quality Center, clearly demonstrate leadership commitment
on a variety of dimensions. This executive summary highlights the top 8 practices of leaders of
the top performing companies.
|
|
 |
Perspective: The Stage-Gate
Idea-to-Launch Process – Update, What’s New and NexGen Systems Dr. Robert G. Cooper
Stage-Gate has become a popular system for driving new products to market; but there are many misconceptions
and challenges in using Stage-Gate.1 Challenges faced in employing Stage-Gate are identified including
governance issues, over-bureaucratizing the process, and mis-applying cost cutting measures such as Six
Sigma and Lean Manufacturing in product innovation. Solutions are offered, including better governance
methods: “gates with teeth”, clearly defined gatekeepers and gatekeeper rules of engagement;
and ways to deal with bureaucracy, including leaner gates.
|
|
 |
Ideation for product innovation:
What are the best methods?
Dr. Robert G. Cooper and Dr. Scott J. Edgett
Surprisingly, little research has been done to evaluate the burgeoning number of techniques and methods
used in the front end of product innovation, particularly ‘ideation’, where ideas come
into the funnel before they are weeded out and evaluated. In this first-of-a-kind study, Dr. Robert
Cooper and Dr. Scott Edgett shed light on the comparative value of 18 of the most popular ideation sources
including Voice of the Customer, Open Innovation and the Disruptive technologies methods. This
article, published in PDMA’s Visions magazine in March 2008, outlines the results of the research.
|
|
 |
Maximizing Productivity In Product Innovation
Dr. Robert G. Cooper and Dr. Scott J. Edgett
Recent evidence suggests that productivity in new product development (NPD) is declining; that is, we
are seeing less output (measured in terms of impact on the business) for the same relative spending level.
This article outlines seven practices or principles which, according to studies of NPD practices and
performance, will increase NPD productivity after they are embraced.
|
|
 |
The Thought
Column with Bob Cooper, Creator of the Stage-Gate® Idea-to-Launch
Process Dr. Robert G. Cooper
Productivity in new product development (NPD) is down when measured by
output over input. Companies are still spending the same amount of money
on R&D as a percentage of sales that they always did; but the percentage
of sales from new products was down from about 32% to 28% over a 10-year
period. This is about a 14% drop in NPD productivity, which is a significant
cause for concern. Download this article and find out how to improve your
NPD productivity.
|
|
Winning Business In Product Development: The Critical Success Factors,
By Dr. Robert G. Cooper and Dr. Elko J. Kleinschmidt
A formal new product process isn’t enough – you need a high-quality process,
a clear and visible strategy, enough people and money, and a respectable R&D budget.
How does your program rate on these 10 metrics?
|
|
Managing Technology Development Projects - Different Than Traditional Development
Projects Dr. Robert G. Cooper
The fact is that traditional systems just don’t work for Technology
Development projects. Why? Traditional new product processes are designed
for fairly well-defined and predictable projects. But TD projects are,
by their nature, high risk projects with many unknowns and great technical
uncertainties. Download this article and learn what leading companies are
adopting to handle these vital TD projects.
|
|
 |
10
Ways to Make Better Portfolio and
Project Selection Decisions
Dr. Robert G. Cooper & Dr. Scott J. Edgett
Good portfolio management (PM) is a key to success in New Product Development
(NPD). But good PM still frequently eludes even the biggest brightest corporations.
In this article, Bob Cooper and Scott Edgett outline ten ways to make better
portfolio and project selection decisions.
Keywords: NexGen Stage-Gate®,
lean, rapid, innovation productivity, scalable
|
|
 |
Formula for Success in New Product Development
Dr. Robert G. Cooper
Many businesses use the Stage-Gate® process to
conceive, develop, and launch new products. As proficient
companies have implemented, modified, adapted, and
improved methodology, it has morphed into a faster,
leaner, and more effective tool. The next generation
process, or NexGen Stage-Gate® builds in seven
principles of lean, rapid, and profitable new-product
development to maximize productivity in product innovation.
Keywords: NexGen Stage-Gate®, lean, rapid, innovation
productivity, scalable
|
|
 |
Winning at New Products: Pathways to Profitable Innovation
Dr. Robert G. Cooper
What are the secrets to success in new product development
(NPD) that these winning businesses share? This whitepaper
highlights the key factors and drivers that distinguish
the best performing business in NPD from the rest.
Those factors and drivers that are common across high-productivity,
best performing businesses in NPD were uncovered in
a recent and major APQC study into best practices.
Prescriptions on how to translate these best practices
into action in your business are also outlined in
this paper.
Keywords: Stage-Gate®, APQC, benchmarking, success
drivers, best practices
|
|
 |
Succeeding at New Product Development the P&G
way: A key element is using the “Innovation
Diamond”
Dr. Robert G. Cooper & Michael S. Mills
New products are engines to growth and profitability
for many companies, including Procter and Gamble (P&G).
In this article, the authors explore the drivers of
new product performance with a particular focus on
P&G’s best practices. The “Innovation
Diamond” is used as an integrative and guiding
framework to help management focus on what’s
important to success: innovation strategy, a solid
idea-to-launch process, portfolio management, and
the right climate and leadership.
Keywords: Stage-Gate®, The Procter and Gamble
Company, Innovation Diamond™, Leadership, Portfolio
Management
|
|
 |
Your NPD Portfolio may be harmful to your business’s
health
Dr. Robert G. Cooper
Recent NPD studies contain a number of surprises:
Most shocking is that the impact of new product development
(NPD) on the sales and profits of many corporations
is down, when looked at in terms of contribution to
total sales and profits. How has this happened, and
why? In this article, Dr. Robert Cooper takes a hard
look at the facts and examines a number of possible
reasons for this trend. He also provides recommendations
on how companies can rebalance their NPD portfolios
to become more profitable.
Keywords: Portfolio, benchmarking, speed, incremental
projects, new product projects
|
|
 |
From Experience: The Invisible Success Factors in
Product Innovation
Dr. Robert G. Cooper
Dr. Cooper lowers the microscope on the state of product
innovation and examines the common reasons for poor
results. The critical success factors are noticeably
absent from the typical new product project. The article
outlines how companies can recognize one of the seven
common innovation problems that Dr. Cooper refers
to as the new product development “Blockers”
to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
Keywords: Product innovation process, critical success
factors, blockers, portfolio approaches, and capacity
analysis
|
|
 |
Overcoming the Current Crunch in NPD Resources
Dr. Robert G. Cooper & Dr. Scott J. Edgett
The resource crunch is a crippling disease sweeping
the new product development (NPD) landscape. The significant
gap between resources required and NPD resources available
has resulted in many negative consequences: projects
taking too long to market, under-performing new product
projects, and development portfolios that contain
too many low value projects. This article explores
the resource crunch problem and its causes, and also
offers solutions.
Keywords: Portfolio management, resource allocation,
resource deficiencies, pipeline gridlock and new product
strategy
|
|
 |
NPD Practices: The dark side of time and time metrics
in product innovation
Dr. Robert G. Cooper & Dr. Scott J. Edgett
Dr. Cooper and Dr. Edgett examine how time and time metrics
are having a negative impact on product innovation
today. The effects of two manifestations of this problem
are examined in detail: too great an emphasis on measures
of short term profitability and too sharp a reduction
in time-to-market. The paper examines what can be
done to counteract these negative pressures and how
to enhance the product innovation process.
Keywords: Profitability, metrics, resource planning,
speed-to-market, and go/kill decisions
|
|
 |
Optimizing the Stage-Gate Process – Part 2
Dr. Robert G. Cooper, Dr. Scott J. Edgett &
Dr. Elko J. Kleinschmidt
Dr. Cooper, Dr. Edgett and Dr. Kleinschmidt focus on the
methods and techniques that help companies achieve
better project selection and prioritization. The paper
examines how to build more effective go/kill decisions
points – tough gates – and to move towards
successful portfolio management.
Keywords: Stage-Gate®, portfolio management,
prioritization, gate meetings, and go/kill decisions
|
|
 |
Optimizing the Stage-Gate® Process – Part
1
Dr. Robert G. Cooper, Dr. Scott J. Edgett &
Dr. Elko J. Kleinschmidt
Dr. Cooper, Dr. Edgett and Dr.
Kleinschmidt report on their
observations and experiences working with a multitude
of companies, and on the practices the companies
have
incorporated into their product innovation processes.
The following practices are explored in the paper:
the addition of a discovery stage at the front end
of the innovation process, harnessing fundamental
research more effectively, and building in more effective
go/kill decision points to move towards portfolio
management.
Keywords: Stage-Gate®, discovery, voice of customer
research (VoC), fundamental research, and technology
developments
|
|
 |
Portfolio Management for New Product Development:
Results of an Industry Practices Study
Dr. Robert G. Cooper, Dr. Scott J. Edgett &
Dr. Elko J. Kleinschmidt
This paper reports the results of a survey questionnaire
sent to IRI member companies participating in an ongoing
best practices study (results as of October 2001).
Dr. Cooper, Dr. Edgett and Dr. Kleinschmidt examine the consequences
of poor portfolio management practices. They outline
the results of the study including the role of portfolio
management at the participating companies and why
industry considers it to be so important. The article
then examines popular tools, methods and models employed
by these companies to make go/kill decisions and to
help prioritize projects.
Keywords: Industrial Research Institute (IRI), portfolio
management, tools, models, and methods.
|
|
 |
Portfolio Management: Fundamental to New Product Success
Dr. Robert G. Cooper, Dr. Scott J. Edgett &
Dr. Elko J. Kleinschmidt
This article reports result from an on-going, large
sample research study into portfolio management best
practices. The goals of the research are to study
industry current and best practices in portfolio management,
and to gain insights to guide in the design and implementation
of superior portfolio management methods. The article
outlines new managerial problems faced in portfolio
management. It details how various portfolio tools
and model are employed by managers to make Go/Kill
decisions and to help prioritize projects.
Keywords: Portfolio management, methods, new products
strategy, project ranking and prioritization.
|
|
 |
Portfolio Management for New Products: Picking the
Winners
Dr. Robert G. Cooper & Dr. Scott J. Edgett
New product portfolio management is about how you
invest your business’s product development resources
– project prioritization and resource allocation
across development projects. This paper addresses
the four goals of portfolio management and the importance
of having an established, high quality Stage-Gate®
system in place.
Keywords: Stage-Gate®, new product process, portfolio
management, project prioritization, and resource allocation.
|
|
 |
Doing it Right – Winning with New Products
Dr. Robert G. Cooper
This paper examines the two ways to win at product
innovation: doing projects right and doing
the right projects. Dr. Cooper explores the critical
success factors that make the difference between winning
and losing at innovation. He outlines key components
of the authentic Stage-Gate® system and the four
goals of successful portfolio management.
Keywords: Stage-Gate®, new product process, critical
success factors, portfolio management, and scoring
criteria.
|
|
 |
New Problems, New Solutions: Making Portfolio Management
More Effective
Dr. Robert G. Cooper, Dr. Scott J. Edgett &
Dr. Elko J. Kleinschmidt
This article incorporates the results of management
interviews conducted with IRI member companies in
an ongoing best practice study (results as of March/April
2000). It isolates the four common difficulties experienced
by the participants along with the proposed solutions.
Dr. Cooper, Dr. Edgett and Dr. Kleinschmidt discuss the benefits
of each of the two approaches to integrating a portfolio
management process with a product innovation process,
and outline common portfolio management methods and
tools used by the companies in the study to help them
to do the right projects.
Keywords: Stage-Gate®, Industrial Research Institute
(IRI), portfolio management, resource capacity analysis,
and methods.
|
|
 |
An Investigation into the New Product Process: Steps, Deficiencies, and Impact on Performance
By Dr. Robert G. Cooper and Dr. Elko J. Kleinschmidt
In a comprehensive study of 252 new products histories at 123 firms, Robert Cooper
and Elko Kleinschmidt looked critically at the new products management process. Each
company was shown a set of 12 activities which formed a general "skeleton: of
a new product process.
|
|
 |
How New Product Strategies Impact on Performance
By Dr. Robert G. Cooper
What is involved in a successful new product program? Is it high spending on risky
R&D? Is it close contact with customers? Is it the overall competitive strength
of the firm? Well, it might be any of these things, and more according to Robert G.
Cooper, depending on your definition of success. In an exhaustive examination of the
new product strategies and performances of 122 industrial products firms, Cooper found
that the strategy that a firm elects for its new product program is closely linked
to the performance results that firm achieves. But what’s performance?
|
|
|