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Forecast
August 31 2009 Issue
INITIAL SCREENING OF NEW PRODUCT CONCEPTS
IS DEFICIENT IN MOST COMPANIES
If your company is like most, you do some sort of initial screening before you make the initial go/no go decision on whether to allocate funds to a proposed new product idea. Most likely, that initial screening is an informal decision process, either made by a group or an individual. And if your company is like most, the process you use for initial screening could be improved.
Initial screening was rated as the weakest of the 13 new product activities, scoring lowest on the proficiency scale, and among the highest on the need for improvement scale, according to a comprehensive research study conducted by Robert G. Cooper and Elko J. Kleinschmidt.
While 90% of the projects studied by Cooper and Kleinschmidt did some sort of initial screening, in 84% of the cases, the decision was made informally and used no formal techniques such as checklists of criteria or scoring/rating forms. In only 12% of the cases was the decision based on a formal checklist of criteria.
Cooper and Kleinschmidt conclude that special attention must be paid to initial screening to ensure that it is carried out well.
How proficient is your company at initial screening?
If you would like an objective third party assessment of your company’s initial screening process or recommendations on formal techniques for initial screening, e-mail or call me at (602)840-4948.
If you would like to read a summary of Cooper and Kleinschmidt’s study, click here.
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