Benchmarking Best NPD Practices—III

The new product process by which firms drive new product projects from inception through to commercialization, and the methods, practices and tactics embedded within that process, are the focus of this final of three articles reporting the results of the recent American Productivity and Quality Center study on performance and best practices in new product development. Many of the decisive activities that were identified turn out to be poorly executed, while a handful of tasks emerge as pivotal to NPD performance. Most firms now employ a systematic, formal, new product process, but the nature of the process and the way it is implemented are the true keys to success. For instance, delivering a differentiated, superior product is one practice that strongly separates the Best and Worst Performers. Market information, up-front homework, stable product definition, and voice-of-customer research are found to be relatively weak practices in businesses' new product efforts, but all strongly discriminate between the Best and Worst Performers.