A systematic approach to product development success. An amalgamation of best practices from several practical and successful frameworks and methodologies.

1. Sustainable New Product Development A systematic approach to product development success

3. Strategy has long-term thrust and focus

4. Role of product in achieving business’s goals and product strategy clearly communicated

5. Clear goals and objectives

6. Clearly defined arenas (i.e., areas of strategic focus)

8. Commit the necessary resources to achieve the firm’s new product goals

9. Closely involved in the project Go/Kill and new product spending decisions

10. Foster innovation in the organization

11. Having the right resources

12. Having sufficient resources

14. Strong market-orientation and building in Voice of Customer throughout

15. Sharp, early product definition

16. Tough Go/Kill decisions at every stage where projects really do get killed

17. Focus on quality of execution – no corner-cutting(c) 2010 Shardul Mehta 2

20. Prioritization

21. Resource AllocationTactical Portfolio Decisions (c) 2010 Shardul Mehta 3

23. Have the steps in the previous stage been executed in a quality fashion?

24. Does the project (continue to) look like an attractive one?

25. Are the proposed action plan and the resources requested reasonable and sound?

29. Attrition rates: what % of projects continue at each stage/gate in the process?

30. Proportion of resources devoted to winners vs. losers vs. killed projects(c) 2010 Shardul Mehta 4

31. Critical Success Factors Senior management has made the necessary resource commitment, and kept it Have a superior, differentiated product that delivers unique benefits and better value to customers Right organizational structure, design and climate Leverage core competencies – synergy with the base business and its strengths are vital to success; “step-out” projects tend to fail more often Market attractiveness is a key criterion for project selection and prioritization Speed is everything! But not at the expense of quality of execution! (c) 2010 Shardul Mehta 5

32. Identifies a market problem Quantifies the opportunity to make sure it’s big enough to generate a profit Articulates the problem & opportunity to the rest of the organization Executives: business rationale for pursuing, including financial forecasts and risk assessment Development, in the form of market requirements Marketing Communications, using positioning documents, one for each buyer type Empowers sales effort by defining a sales process, supported by requisite sales tools so customer can choose the right products and options While other departments are focused on this release, this campaign, this deal, this customer, product management is a strategic role focused on what products and markets the organization can serve in the years to come Strategic Role of Product Management If you don’t want to be market-driven, you don’t need Product Management (c) 2010 Shardul Mehta 6

34. Product profitability

35. Win/loss analysis

36. Market problems & definition

37. Product strategy & roadmap

38. Build/buy/partner decisions

40. Determine market messaging

41. Market launch management

42. Create standard presentations and demo scripts

43. Align sales tools and ideal sales process to typical buying process

45. Package features into releases

46. Act as customer representative during development

48. Presentations & demos

49. Event support

50. Proposal preparation

51. “Special calls”(c) 2010 Shardul Mehta 7

52. Role of Senior Management Best performing companies have senior managements that: Are strongly committed to new products and product development Embrace a long-term commitment to product development, beyond a 1-year horizon Ensure development portfolio contains a certain proportion of long-term and platform projects – not just quick, one-year hits Develop a vision, objectives and a strategy for new product efforts driven by (and linked to) the corporate objectives and strategy Install a systematic, high-quality new product process in the organization, and practice discipline, following the principles of the process Commit the necessary resources to achieve the firm’s new product goals Are closely involved in the project Go/Kill and new product spending decisions Have a central role in the new product review process and in resource allocation decisions Foster innovation in the organization Support, reward and recognize new product efforts Empower project teams Support committed champions: act as godfathers, sponsors or executive champions for major new product projects (c) 2010 Shardul Mehta 8

53. “Product Leadership: Creating and Launching Superior New Products” by Robert C. Cooper, ISBN: 0738201561 http://www.amazon.com/Product-Leadership-Creating-Launching-Superior/dp/B000B86FPK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265259676&sr=8-1 “Developing a Product Innovation and Technology Strategy for Your Business” by Robert C. Cooper http://www.stage-gate.com/knowledge.php “Make Your New Product Process Agile and Adaptable with Spiral Development” by Robert C. Cooper http://www.stage-gate.com/knowledge.php “The Strategic Role of Product Management” by Steve Johnson http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/strategic-role-of-product-management Pragmatic Marketing Framework http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/pragmatic-marketing-framework “Product Management: The Conscience of Every Product Company” by ZigZag Marketing http://www.zigzagmarketing.com/product-management-conscience-of-every-product-company.html “Getting Real” by 37signals.com http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ “Top 10 Product Launch Mistakes” by 280 Group http://www.280group.com/whitepapers.htm#launch “The Three Dimensions of Product Launch” by David Daniels http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/publications/magazine/7/2/goals-readiness-and-constraints-the-three-dimensions-of-product-launch “Where Does Product Management Belong in an Organization?” by Steve Johnson http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/publications/topics/07/where-does-product-management-belong-in-the-organization Sources, References (c) 2010 Shardul Mehta 9