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Weekly Blog
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Why Do Innovation Efforts Fail? | |
3 Common Causes
Successful New Product Development (NPD) involves taking an idea to commercial launch via a path littered with design land mines, finicky customers, and technical gaffes. It's a wonder that any new products see the light of day!
 Of every dollar spent on NPD, 75¢ is spent on products deemed "failures". Of these wasted dollars and cents, 2/3 are spent during the later product development stages. Stage 3 (Development) is often considered the most expensive, and irreversible, stage in an NPD Process.
Yet failure, by definition, is a step along the pathway to NPD success. In fact, many companies purposefully design "killer variable tests" into the New Product Process in order to force early failures; thereby freeing resources to work on more promising ideas in the new product portfolio.
Three common causes of NPD failure are misalignment of strategy, intolerance of risk-taking, and cultural.
Learn Best Practices for New Product Development by enrolling in a 2-day course now.
Read more about the causes of new product innovation failures here. (Approximately 5 minutes reading time.) |
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Greetings!
We hope your new year is off to a great start! It's not long  until spring, so now is the time to take a look at your innovation strategies and make sure you are operationalizing them to achieve new product success in 2011.
And to help you out this year, we're offering the Idea Incubator, a weekly blog with tips, tricks, and musings about New Product Development, teams, and tools. Get your free RSS feed by registering here.
Try out our new intense NPDP training: 2 half day sessions, conducted on-line so you save the time and expense of travel.
Or join us for our monthly free webinar, "What is New Product Development?" on Tuesday, 22 February 2011 at 1:00 pm Central Standard Time. Sign up with your email address using the widget on our home page here.
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Innovation Fun Fact | |
Chocolates from Cupid
In February, we celebrate Valentine's Day. Today we tend to think of this as a holiday of love and marriage, trumpeted by a flying pixy with a bow and arrow.
Historically, the first representation of Saint Valentine appeared in the 143 Nuremburg Chronicle, indicating that he was a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Claudius the Second. He was arrested and imprisoned upon being caught marrying couples and otherwise aiding Christians who were at the time being persecuted by Claudius in Rome. Claudius, however, took a liking to this prisoner - until Valentinus tried to convert the Emperor - whereupon this priest was condemned to death. He was beaten with clubs and stoned; when that failed to kill him, he was beheaded.
Of course, I'm happy to stick with chocolate and flowers. Click on the image of a delicious, melt-in-your-mouth truffle to the right to view a short video on how they make fancy candies for Valentine's Day. |
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Recommended Reading | |
Value-Driven Project Management
 Short and easy to digest, "Value-Driven Project Management" by Harold Kerzner and Frank Saladis, presents a tried and truth method to balance the triple constraint: budget, scope, and schedule.
This easy to follow guide presents each concept in graphical form and in text on adjoining pages. Target your research by selecting just one of the 9 chapters on success and best practices for delivering project management.
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| Technology Roadmapping 101 | | |
Directing Technology to Win the Future
Planning for innovation involves being able to time new technology releases coincident with budding market demands. Communication of the strategic innovation plan allows the entire workforce to focus priorities on the most important development work at the right time. One popular visual planning and communication tool is the technology roadmap. Roadmapping is an inherently flexible technique. |
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