1. Your New Product: Good Concept or
Great Product Innovation?
(How to Identify the Golden Goose
among the Ugly Ducklings)

2. Chris Marocchi
President: Klear Strat, LLC
Vice President Product Development & Management:
The UPS Stores
Director of Product Management: CB Richard Ellis, Inc.
Product Marketing Manager: ITT Corporation

3. What This Discussion Is About
This presentation is NOT
about product development.
It IS about how we get from Concept Evaluation
ideas to concept to product Product B
development. Product C
Product
A
Product Development
Product Launch

4. Scenario
Your company sells products.
Your products are good.
Your company is profitable.
A recession hits, and profits shrink.
decides the company needs to pivot its
strategy for growth.

5. New Products vs. New Markets
We need to first evaluate how to grow by examining the
product-­‐market expansion grid.
Existing Products New Products
Existing Market Penetration Product Development
Markets
New
Market Development Diversification
Markets

6. Question
You decide to develop a new product. But how
do you determine which product to develop?
What is so hard about determining this
Golden Goose?

7. The Problem Defined
How do we identify and prioritize the right mix
of new products to develop?
Many stage/phase-­‐based processes tell you
what to do AFTER you have determined which
product to develop.
Product B
Product C
Product
A

8. The Challenge
Multiple Sources of Input
Internal Stakeholders (Executives, Parent
Company/BOD, Sales force, Engineers, etc.)
External Stakeholders (Customers, Shareholders,
Vendors, etc.)
Lack of a Reliable Process
No Crystal Ball

9. Where To Start?
Understand the Market
Innovate Concepts
Select a Process for Evaluation of Concepts
Move Forward with Confidence

10. Step 1 -­‐ Understanding the Market
Stefan Thomke How Can a Company Balance
Creativity and Innovation With the Need for
Process and Structure?
"the key, underlying principle of
the problem" and then the
"beautiful, elegant solution that

11. Step 2 -­‐ Innovate Concepts
How do we generate product ideas through
innovation?
Product Concepts:
Existing (from internal/external sources)
Need to consolidate concepts Product
Product
A Product
A
Product
A
A
Product Product
Product
A
Product
A
A A
Product
Product
A
Product
A
A
Non-­‐existing
Ideation: Brainstorming + Play Theory Thinking
Divergent Support, Wander, Associate, Morph, Inquire
Convergent Sort, Order, Adapt, Refine, Select

12. What the Experts Say
Venkatakrishnan Balasubramanian
Dimensions of the framework for
conceptualizing an idea
The two views of the business model for the idea and the
business strategy of the enterprise combine to give five
important dimensions that an innovator can use to think
through and conceptualize the idea.
1) Competitive Advantage 2) Business Alignment
3) Customers 4) Execution 5) Business Value

13. Step 3 -­‐ The Evaluative Process
Processes:
Subjective Approach
Just Do What Your Boss Asks
Arbitrary Selection/TIATWASWS
Objective Approach
Weighted/Scored Analysis
Nail It, Then Scale It
Good to Great
Optimizing the Stage-­‐Gate Process

14. Weighted Analysis Scorecard
Strategic Assessment
Identify criteria
Weight criteria
Score each criterion
Add up score and compare with other ideas

15. Nail It Then Scale It
Innovation = The intersection of science and industry.
Science Industry
INNOVATION
INVENTION INSIGHT

16. Good to Great
The Hedgehog Concept = the intersection of what you can
be the best in the world at, what you are deeply
passionate about, and what drives your economic engine.

17. Stage Gate
Adding a Discovery Phase

18. Step 4 Move Forward With Confidence
1. Strategy is in place.
2.
3.
4.
concepts.
5.
development with confidence that your product
will be successful in achieving the goal of
profitable growth.

19. Case Study The UPS Stores
Follows a process that is a
combination of the optimized
stage-­‐gate process and
weighted scale analysis.
Pros brings objectivity into
the evaluative process, and
the analysis provides rationale
for the go/no-­‐go decision.
Cons Insufficient resources
to adequately evaluate the
quantity of concepts,
interference from executive
staff in the process.

20. Case Study -­‐ Apple
Apple used a market
research approach
combined with usability
experience studies.
At first, they tried a
product-­‐centric approach
with Motorola, which
failed.
When they brought the
project in-­‐house and
based the product on
what the market wanted,
they succeeded.

21. Case Study CB Richard Ellis
BEFORE
In an off-­‐site strategy
meeting, we conducted a
brainstorming session
driven by the Hedgehog
concept.
The participants were
divided into 3 teams for
brainstorming.
Ideas generated were then
categorized and
consolidated.

22. Case Study CB Richard Ellis
The intersection of 3 areas. AFTER
What product enhancements
should we pursue?
Improved customer
experience/footprint
Portfolio data/reporting
Improved analytics
Axis Community
Sustainability module

23. Discussion
Additional thoughts on product innovation
processes?
Other case studies?

24. Conclusion
Optimal new product introductions will start
with a thorough understanding of the market.
Ideation and a consolidation of existing ideas
will provide a pool of concepts to consider.
Select a process for evaluating and scoring the
concepts based on how well a new product
will align with corporate goals and strategy.
Prioritize projects based on the outcome.