The one page NPD plan

I discussed some tips in the previous post to help you in the development of your New Product Development plans for the coming financial year.

I thought it might also be a good idea to give you a practical way of refining and summarising the output for your NPD planning, brainstorming and research activities.

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What are your NPD plans for FY2010-11?

As we move well into the final quarter of this 2009-10 financial year, the business community begins to ramp up it’s planning, strategizing and forecasting activities.

So it got me thinking: how about developing a formal New Product Development (NPD) plan just as you would a cashflow, marketing and overall business plan?

To develop a decent NPD plan, you would need to consider the following goals as essential:

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Designing the right things (+ PRIZE!)

So, you read the last post about tips for using Design to deliver value and growth to your business. I hear you say, “Easier said than done! It’s so difficult to know where to start…”

Efficiency vs Effectiveness

The old adage of “Efficiency is doing things right; Effectiveness is doing the right things” is particularly relevant here. My “design” version is:

“Designing the right things is more important than Designing things right… To be effective and successful in product development, you have to design the right things”

As product developers, we need to continually ask ourselves if we are designing the right things. Do we know what our customers really need? Are we sure that this concept or idea has the legs to make it in the market?

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