The influence of project novelty on the new product development process

In this paper we review the range of formal tools and techniques available to support the new product development process, and examine the use and usefulness of these by means of a survey of 50 projects in 25 firms. For each firm, we compare routine and novel development projects, and identify the influence of project novelty on the frequency of use and perceived usefulness of a range of different tools and methods. In terms of usefulness, focus groups, partnering customers and lead users and prototyping are all considered to be more effective for high novelty projects, and segmentation least useful. Cross-functional development teams are commonplace for all types of project, but are significantly more effective for the high novelty cases. In addition, many tools rated as useful are not commonly used, and conversely some tools in common use are considered to be of limited use.