December 2007 - Pricing strategies at Fairchild Semiconductor

At Fairchild Semiconductor, value pricing strategies are based on a framework called EVC - Economic Value to Customer.

How is the value calculated for new, differentiated components? According to Brumana, "Factors that typically increase the value of an electronic component that fulfills a specific function include: reducing the circuit board space requirements, reducing design time, reducing the pin count, or lowering the power requirements. These attributes allow designers to create products more quickly and lower production costs while packing more functionality into a given electronic device."

The full article can be read at the Product Development and Management Association website at http://www.visions-digital.com/visions/200712/?folio=8

 

September 2007 - Pricing impacts success in NPD: Experts discuss pricing strategies at Florida PRICEX conference

Who should have responsibility for pricing a new product? Will sales representatives be predisposed to make decisions that lower prices to close deals? Will marketing specialists advocate campaigns to increase product share? Will the finance department insist on increasing margins? Will executives offer special discounts to ensure that quarterly targets are met? What factors impact pricing in the distribution channel? Does the product manager have sufficient influence to set the pricing strategy?

Pricing is evolving into its own discipline. This article explores pricing strategy as a part of the new product development process.

The full article can be read at the Product Development and Management Association website at http://www.pdma.org/visions/sept07/launchpad.php

 

June 2007 - Who will you designate as 'Launch Architect'

In a large percentage of new product efforts, most of the engineering development is finished before the launch plan is assembled. Typically, the launch plan is built by a cut-and-paste method with a predisposition for popular components. To increase the effectiveness of future launches, this article introduces the concept of a “Launch Architect.”

“Launch architecture” is the interdisciplinary design of new product launches. It provides a robust, system-level plan to complete all of the development within the project constraints. It includes the entire launch environment from the macro level of prioritizing product features to the micro level of developing the search engine optimization strategy.

The full article can be read at the Product Development and Management Association website at http://www.pdma.org/visions/june07/launchpad.php

 

December 2006 - In Developing and Launching a Software Product, Try an Underdo Strategy

When creating new software products, sometimes it seems almost impossible to compete. For instance, in the project management software category, how can anyone compete with Microsoft Project—the entrenched leader? And, if the company creates a competitive product, how can they launch it for maximum impact?

This article presents the 37signals method for building better software such as Basecamp and Backpack. 37signals can produce great software faster and more efficiently than most of their competitors. 37signals doesn’t use traditional advertising or PR to persuade potential customers that they have a great product. By using an interconnected marketplace to identify the best solutions from a multitude of alternatives, they rely on the Voice of the Marketplace to drive both sales and product development.

The full article can be read at the Product Development and Management Association website at http://www.pdma.org/visions/december06/launch-pad.php

 

April 2006 - Making Robust Launch Decisions [part 3 of 3]

This article covers two commercially available tools from Decision Lens and Robust Decisions. Using products such as these allow team members to contribute effectively, such as voting in real time or offline, voting publicly or privately, identifying inconsistencies mathematically, and also evaluating proposed decisions.

This article defines the "Back End of Innovation." Making robust product launch decisions is one component of the Back End of Innovation. "During the Back End of Innovation, the number of people contributing to the project is maximized and the number of decisions increases geometrically. This provides opportunities for improvements in activities, such as idea management, productivity, orchestration, resource adjustments, and analysis."

The full article can be read at the Product Development and Management Association website at http://www.pdma.org/visions/apr06/launch-pad.php

 

January 2006 - Making Robust Launch Decisions [part 2 of 3]

How can you ensure that your decisions are robust - likely to produce acceptable results for most launch scenarios? This installment presents several decision management techniques to improve the robustness of launch decisions.

"A robust product launch decision must coexist with pervasive factors, such as company culture, portfolio strategy, and an emergent competitive landscape. In addition, a robust launch decision is influenced by the practical constraints of a project schedule. A decision should be neither too impulsive nor too indecisive."

The full article can be read at the Product Development and Management Association website at http://www.pdma.org/visions/january06/launch-pad.php

 

25 July 2005 - Making Robust Launch Decisions [part 1 of 3]

To ensure a robust product launch, teams evaluate different combinations of New Product Development (NPD) criteria and alternatives that are more likely to work with changing market conditions. Risks include:

• Execution risk—The risk that designated activities won’t be carried out properly,
• White space risk—Some activities will not be identified in advance, and
• Integration risk—Disparate activities won’t come together at the end.

This article presents a characterization of new launch decision types: simple, iterative, complex, and emergent.

The article can be read at the Product Development and Management Association website at http://www.pdma.org/visions/july05/launch-pad.html

 

6 April 2005 - This e-newsletter from the Product Strategy Network contains an article, "Improving the odds for successful product launch." This article was inspired by an interview with industry veteran Joy Burd. She states, “You can go through the motions and appear to have a great product launch. You can even have a great looking tradeshow booth. But you may never have great sales. There are lots of reasons why.”

This article includes a comparison of the impact of beta testing and reference accounts on product launch. This article in not available online.

 

15 January 2005 - A report from a recent conference, "Experts at NorCal Conference provide advice on how to ensure successful launch" in the January issue of Visions magazine. This article summarizes the PDMA NorCal Chapter product launch conference of November 2004 and includes insights from:

• Elon Musk, Founder and CEO of SpaceX, a company that is developing launch vehicles (rockets) to access space. Must is a cofounder and former CEO of PayPal.
• Michael K. Tanner, Managing Director of Adexta Inc., a consulting services company for growth stage businesses
• Steven Blank, the author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany: The Road Map for Successful Startups and an entrepreneur who has done eight startups in 25 years

The article can be read at the Product Development and Management Association website at http://www.pdma.org/visions/jan05/experts.html

 

15 November 2004 - The October issue of Visions magazine includes "Trade Shows, Part II -- How to selectively increase attendance at your trade show booth, and gather market intelligence at the same time." This article describes ten-second, one-minute, and five-minute objectives for booth representatives. It contains a generic template for the design of a 10x10 foot trade show booth for a new product.

The article can be read at the Product Development and Management Association website at www.pdma.org/visions/oct04/trade-show.html

 

22 July 2004 - The July issue of Visions magazine includes a product launch column titled "Boosting the impact of new products at trade shows - Some suggestions on how to do that." Part 1 of this series includes a media kit template for new products. This article is the first to list Mark Hart as the Visions Launch Editor.

The article can be read at the Product Development and Management Association website at www.pdma.org/visions/july04/trade-shows.html

 

12 May 2004 - The April issue of Visions magazine includes another product launch column by Mark Hart. The April 2004 article is "How to improve the early sales performance of 'discontinuous' innovations - the way Vocera did."

The article can be read at the Product Development and Management Association website at www.pdma.org/visions/apr04/vocera.html

 

5 February 2004 - The January issue of Visions magazine debuts a column by OpLaunch's Mark Hart on product launch. The goal of this column is to give "readers a look at this frequently under-reported and under-discussed important segment of the new product process." The January 2004 article is "Why public relations can make or break a new product launch."

The article can be read at the Product Development and Management Association website at www.pdma.org/visions/jan04/pad.html

 

10 October 2003 - The October issue of Visions magazine includes the "How to change direction in new product development in 30 days without a budget!" article by Mark Hart. This article summarizes the steps used to objectively convince a core new product development team to change a key element of a product.

The article can be read at the Product Development and Management Association website at www.pdma.org/visions/oct03/how_to_change.html