The New Product Development Process

Concept Screening February 13, 2007

Concept Selection / Screening

The NPD Process

Fuzzy Front End

Phase 1:
Opportunity Identification and Selection

Phase 2:
Concept Generation/ Ideation

Phase 3:
Concept Screening & Testing

Phase 4:
Development

Prioritizing Interpreted Needs

Kano Classification (one approach)

L = Linear Satisfiers

(The more the merrier.) N = Neutral/Indifferent (No big deal.) M = Must Haves (I wont buy without!) D = Delighters (What an unexpected treat!)

Kanos Model of (Non-Linear) Customer Satisfaction

Customer Satisfied
Delighter (D) Linear Satisfier (L)

Requirement Not Fulfilled

Indifferent (I)

Requirement Fulfilled

Customer Dissatisfied
Must Have (M)

See (1) Matzler, et al.., 1996, Journal of Product & Brand Mgmt (2) Matzler and Hinterhuber, 1998, Technovation (3) Center for Quality Mgmt

Concept Selection

How can the team choose the best concept (even though the designs are still being developed)? How can a decision be made that is embraced by the entire team? How can the good attributes of weak concepts be identified and used? How can the decision process be systematic?

Selecting Concepts

All teams use some method

first concept considered; external decision; product champion; intuition; voting; pros & cons; prototype & test; decision matrices objectivity in decisions a customer-focused product a competitive design reduced time to product introduction effective group decision making and coordination documentation of process

Potential benefits of a structured method include:

Concept Screening & Scoring

Prepare the selection criteria and create the selection matrix Rate the concepts Rank the concepts Combine and improve the concepts Select one or more concepts

Principles & Caveats

Decomposition of concept quality

basic theory assumes selection criteria are independent and thus does not directly capture non-linear relationships between criterion some criteria (eg, aesthetics) are highly subjective; the teams judgments on these dimensions should be supplemented with the opinions of representative consumers from the target market (perhaps using prototypes, mock ups) the team should make notes of any outstanding (+ or -) attributes, as well as identify any features that might be used to improve the concept

Subjective Criteria

To Facilitate Improvement of Concepts

Step 1

Prepare Selection Matrix:

What are possible criteria for evaluating your automotive dining concepts?
Ability to meet each interpreted need Manufacturing costs Market need, growth, size Compatibility with firms other products/culture Compatibility with firms current technology Market competitiveness (cost to maintain position)

Step 2

Rate the Concepts

Using a reference point Relative performance

much worse than reference = 1 worse than reference = 2 same as reference = 3 better than reference = 4 much better than reference = 5

Step 3

Rank the Concepts

Use criteria weights (if multiple segments) Total score for each concept

Next Steps
4. Combine and Improve the Concepts 5. Select One (or More) Concepts 6. Move on to Concept Testing (Next Week)

The New Product Theorem

All commercially successful new products are solutions to problems.