Complete Idiot' s Guide to New Product Development

Rating:
Summary: Robert Cooper's writings chewed up and "Dummy"-ized
Review: Leave it to a Certified Management Consultant to put the best advice and writings of Robert Cooper (Winning at New Products, 1993; Portfolio Management for New Products, 1997) into For Dummies "shrink-wrap". The content is not new, there are no new "silver bullet" insights -- just repackaged content from the past decade of PDMA (Product Development Management Association) research and conferences, and Management Roundtable seminars.

I bought my copy for $5.99 at the local discount bookshop. It was worth that just to have an amusing "most all in one place" reference with such amusing jacket promises as: "Idiot-proof steps for making the most of market research"...

Get the real references first.

Rating:
Summary: Overview coverage, short on details
Review: The "The Complete Idiots Guide to New Product Development" is a broad treatment of the subject of Product Development. It was first published in 1997 so it is relatively up-to-date, but not cutting edge. The book covers many topics from types of new products to Market Research. The book is aimed at small companies and corporations, managers in big companies that want an understanding of the development process, and entrepreneurs. The book tends to address the small business that needs a new product but does not do this sort of thing very often. I believe a manager in a large corporation would be better served by a book like "The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development" that is dedicated to corporate product development processes.

The book has the trappings of the "Idiot's" series of books that I am not a big fan of. That is to say there are cute little cartoons to get a point across along with countless sidebars that highlight ideas from a section. You can get a good idea of the content by skimming these sidebars in a half-hour. There are two Tables of Contents, one simplified and one detailed. There is a pull out reference card. Some of these effects are nice but when you are bombarded by them page after page you begin to feel that this format wastes a lot of space at the expense of content.

The "The Compete Idiot's Guide...." is a good first book to pick up for a small manufacturer with one product and looking to expand. It is not a "how-to" handbook but more of a big picture "why-to" book. There are quite a number of references in the form of periodicals, books, and Internet resources that will lead to further investigation. To remain timely the Internet resources do not have URL's, but more general references that should help begin a search on the Internet.

Because the book is aimed at small companies there are advice and hints on how to deal with the New Product Development "Team" issues. While this is pretty good advice for people in those situations, it is less valuable advice for an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur may still need to hire someone to help with a marketing plan, engineering, or production, but those people will be contracted which changes the dynamics quite a bit.

There are several chapters on how to deal with patents, trademarks, and other Intellectual Property issues. Too, there are hints on how to name the product, and sell to the distribution channel. The chapters are peppered with interesting business cases to make a point.

The author, Edwin E. Bobrow runs is a business consultant and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at NYU. He has written a number of business books. Bobrow's uses his business knowledge to introduce concepts such as product development gates and team product development. For many entrepreneurs, this may be overkill because the product "gate" system is too complex for many small entrepreneurial projects. Still, if you would like a quick overview of the entire process of creating a new product and bringing it to market this is a worthwhile overview. One thing is for sure, in this genre you can't beat the price.

Rating:
Summary: Good for the Basics
Review: This book lives up to its billing as providing quick and easy guidance, having idiot-proof steps and offering down to earth advice. It's ideal for the novice to become acquainted with new product development because it gives the reader a complete overview of it. However, it will be of little help to the seasoned practitioner or someone looking for in-depth information about an aspect of new product development. The only shortcoming of the book was in Chapter 20 about product naming. While this chapter gives an overview of nuances, it does not clarify the few key points needed to have an outstanding name for a new product. Nevertheless, on the whole this book is good for the basics and I would recommend it for this reason.

Rating:
Summary: Good for the Basics
Review: This book lives up to its billing as providing quick and easy guidance, having idiot-proof steps and offering down to earth advice. It's ideal for the novice to become acquainted with new product development because it gives the reader a complete overview of it. However, it will be of little help to the seasoned practitioner or someone looking for in-depth information about an aspect of new product development. The only shortcoming of the book was in Chapter 20 about product naming. While this chapter gives an overview of nuances, it does not clarify the few key points needed to have an outstanding name for a new product. Nevertheless, on the whole this book is good for the basics and I would recommend it for this reason.