Discussions

M-1
• What aspect of NPD interests you the most? What aspect would you be interested in knowing more about?
• What is the most innovative or useful product you’ve encountered recently, or alternatively what is the most useless product you’ve encountered?
• How do you define innovation within the context of NPD?
• Review the 8 Steps of New Product Development and share any experiences you’ve had with them.
• Share with your classmates any NPD resources that you’ve found to be interesting or informative. Resources may include newspaper stories, articles, blogs, and YouTube videos.

M-1
With all that is known about NPD, with real-world examples of what it takes to successfully launch a product, and with the cautionary tales about what not to do, why do so many new products fail? In your response, discuss how knowledge of the R-W-W Framework and the role of innovation may lead to more new product success stories.

M-2
Contribute to the conversation by sharing your insights from the Module 2 readings and resources then consider the prompts below and select at least two to discuss:
• After completing the M2 readings, what information sticks out to you, what information can you use in your work with your group?
• If time were not an issue, what type of consumer research would yield the best information for your group’s NPD idea?
• Share a story about consumer research or “Unknown Unknowns” (or both) from your own work or personal experience.
• Discuss your opinion(s) about the best way to collect data from consumers for new product development.
• What is the role of quantitative data and experience mapping in NPD?

M-3
Contribute to the conversation by sharing one of your own questions or insights about the Module 3 Readings and Resources and then select at least one prompt from below to discuss:
• After you completed the M3 readings, what information stuck out? What are some factors about your team’s new product idea that you believe may make it attractive to a target market?
• Share any stories or information you’ve found about unknown unknowns that contributed to a slow or speedy rate of adoption in a target market for at least one product not mentioned in your readings.
• Share one or more examples of products that you know of that failed to achieve diffusion and explain why, based on learnings from Modules 1–3.
• Discuss the “connect and develop” model of innovation and its relationship to concept development and testing, and NPD.

M-4
Based on your readings and resources, knowledge of market analysis, and basic research, discuss information and assumptions that inform demand for a new product or a new product extension.
There are numerous new product forecast methodologies, and approaches include the following:
• Strategically important to the business
• Extremely uncertain future demand patterns
• Very unstable demand
• Little or no demand history
• Demand highly influenced by numerous external factors
• Sometimes done a few years before the product is even launched
• More suited for qualitative techniques
• Significant impact on the long-run profitability of the product
• In the majority of cases, it is performed by the marketing department
In your post, identify one or more market analysis or demand forecasting methodologies or approaches and discuss what you think makes the approach effective for understanding demand and gaining funding for a new product offering.

M-5 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGXAVw3vF9A
In this module, we turn our focus to development models, specifically, the lean startup and agile approaches, stage-gate, and the agile-stage-gate hybrid model. All of these models have been tried by NPD teams, and have applications in new product development relative to the reduction in time it takes to complete major iterations of an idea, eliminate waste from the product development process, determine and drive down costs, and mitigate risk in the development process.
In the video Evangelizing for the Lean Startup, Eric Ries, author and entrepreneur, discusses new product development with the lean startup model. Ries discusses the lean startup mostly in the context of software development, but the model has relevance to the development of many types of products. The video is a great companion to your readings this week, and includes interesting insights about NPD.
Initial Post
After watching the video, share and discuss at least one thing from Evangelizing for the Lean Startup that resonated with you, then select any three of the five questions below to discuss with your colleagues:
• Why do most startups fail?
• What ideas about agile product development can be borrowed from tech startups and applied to a manufactured product, or more typical NPD?
• When thinking about development models like Stage-Gate Model, Lean Product Development, and Agile Development, is one model better than the rest, or is there a time and model for all new product developments?
• How do the 8 Steps of NPD line up with the lean startup and other development models?
• What are your critiques of Eric Ries and the ideas he presents in Evangelizing the Lean Startup?
M-6
Initial Post
Read the HBR article “Pricing Policies for New Products” by Joel Dean. The article is a classic HBR article and a must read. Joel Dean was an economist best known for his contributions to corporate finance theory in general, and the area of capital budgeting in particular. Although the article was written in 1976, the concepts of estimating demand, and pricing strategies of price skimming and market penetration, are timeless and still quite relevant today. After reading, think about pricing strategies, what strategies remain relevant today and what has changed? Discuss your thoughts on pricing, pulling examples into the discussion and making connections with the reading and course resources.

M-6

Initial Post
Read the HBR article “Pricing Policies for New Products” by Joel Dean. The article discusses the challenge for top management of estimating demand and pricing a new product. The article shows how the initial problem of estimating demand can be broken into a series of four subproblems:
1. Will the product will go at all?
2. What price range will make the product economically attractive to buyers?
3. What sales volumes can be expected at various points in this price range?
4. What reaction will the price produce in manufacturers and sellers of displaced substitutes?
Next the article discusses how the strategic decision in pricing a new product is the choice between (1) a policy of high initial prices that skim the cream of demand and (2) a policy of low prices from the outset serving as an active agent for market penetration. There are many other pricing strategies that can be considered, such as market pricing, EDLP (Everyday Low Pricing) vs high-low pricing, bundled pricing, segmentation pricing, and channel pricing. When you think of new products like Disney+ or products of other live TV streaming services, like YouTube TV or fuboTV, what are some pricing strategies used?

M-7
Contribute by selecting one of the three discussion questions below to discuss.
1. Based on your reading of the article “Why Sustainability Is Now the Key Driver of Innovation” by Nidumolu, Prahalad, and Rangaswami, think about how the coronavirus pandemic has affected our lives and the national and global economies. The article asserts that “The key to progress particularly in times of economic crisis is innovation.” Discuss your thoughts about innovations and opportunities in light of the pandemic and/or sustainable development.
2. Most of the readings in Module 7 focus on disruptive innovation, disruptive technologies, and the debate over the correct identification of what is actually “disruptive.” In general, the term “disrupter” refers to a product, process, or new technology that upsets the status quo, creating a new value network. For this discussion, let’s assume you either own or have owned an automobile. Developments like the onboard computer, stability control, launch control, and myriad safety features, such as anti-lock brakes (ABS), lane change detection, blind spot detection, and backup cameras, have been introduced and/or included in most automobiles in the market today. In your opinion, are these advancements truly disruptors or merely refinements of a familiar concept that make the product better? Explain.
3. One of the debates running through the readings for Module 7 revolves around what is or is not disruptive. Followers of Clayten Christensen determine whether or not something is disruptive based on his original theory of disruption. Is this simply an academic debate? Is application of Christensen’s theory the way to determine if something is disruptive, or are there other valid ways to identify and respond to disruption. Discuss your perspective, referencing examples from the Module 7 Readings.