What is your success rate in delivering new products to market (products actually making it      to the marketplace versus total products developed)?

         What is the success rate of products that have made it to the marketplace (those meeting or exceeding financial expectations)? 

         What income was generated from the new products?  

         What percent of organization time was spent on unsuccessful projects (product that either didn't make it to market or didn't make money)?

Drawing conclusions

After completing these exercises, it should be clear whether changes are necessary to your new product development process.  Once you've identified what is and isn't working, you can begin to define the changes necessary to improve your process.  These changes can range from a fine-tuning to a complete overhaul.

For change to be effective, it must be understood and championed by top management and  implemented in appropriate areas of the organization. Knowledge of your current methods and their impact on past and current performance is critical to assuring senior level engagement and successful implementation of new processes that address the unique needs of your organization.

The benefits

Properly designed, a new product development process becomes a template for best practices.  It sets organizational expectations and promotes effective use of resources in advancing new product projects from concept to market.  Defining a new product development process appropriate to your business pays off in an improved ability (certainty, effectiveness and efficiency, profitability) to bring new products to market.

Most new product processes can be improved in several ways:

         Defining financial success early.

         Establishing and maintaining a pipeline of ideas. 

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