New Products Management

Rating:
Summary: A Reference Text to Keep By Your Side
Review: Having taken the U of Mich course centered around the material in this text, I can tell you that you'll find at least a third of the material directly applicable to NPD processes at work. A great primer for anyone new to NPD.

Rating:
Summary: A Reference Text to Keep By Your Side
Review: Having taken the U of Mich course centered around the material in this text, I can tell you that you'll find at least a third of the material directly applicable to NPD processes at work. A great primer for anyone new to NPD.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Overview of The New Products Process
Review: The book is organized into five parts:

Part I - Overview and Opportunity Identification/Selection; includes an introductory section and The New Products Process, and Opportunity Identification and Selection.

Part II - Concept Generation; includes sections on Preparation and Alternatives, Problem-Based Ideation, Analytical Attribute Approaches.

Part III - Concept/Project Evaluation; includes sections on The Concept Evaluation System, Concept Testing, Full Screen, Sales Forecasting and Financial Analysis and Product Protocol.

Part IV - Development; includes sections on Design, Development Team Management, Special Issues in Development and Product Use Testing.

Part V - Launch; includes sections on Strategic Launch Planning, Implementation of the Strategic Plan, Market Testing, Launch Management and Public Policy Issues.

The book is a thorough overview of the product planning process, and a very useful validation for someone who had already been involved in product planning. The book could have been enriched considerably by the use of more case studies and examples. The Applications section at the end of each chapter was meant to be a method of reflecting upon and putting into practice some of the ideas learned in the chapter; but the questions were oddly written and there was no "answer key" or discussion of those questions, so I didn't find that section useful at all.