10 Ways To Get More From Your Stage-Gate® Process Real gains in product innovation performance occur when the powerful design principles of Stage-Gate are deeply embraced and consistently practiced by key stakeholders in the organization. It is a level of excellence many businesses aspire to achieve. Is it tough to do? You bet. Is it impossible? Not if you are equipped with lessons learned by companies that have successfully implemented Stage-Gate before you. Is it worth the effort? The results speak for themselves. In this brief article, Scott and I share 10 lessons that have stood the test of time. Whether you adopt one or all of the tips, you will see results. Read Article Best regards, Michelle Jones, EVP, Global Growth

New Books – Order Now Successful Product Development: A Collection of Our Best Product Innovation and Technology Strategy Improve Your Innovation Process SG Navigator for NPD SG Navigator for TD Benchmark Online Now Discover Your Product Innovation Strengths and Weaknesses

SG Navigator is a best-in-class product innovation process that saves you both time and money. It is ready to customize and implement and thus permits you to focus on what counts most - successfully implementing it in your company. Authored by innovation experts, Dr. Robert G. Cooper and Dr. Scott J. Edgett and a team of implementation experts, SG Navigator: 

• Significantly reduces the resources, effort and calendar time required to properly research and design a best practice Stage-Gate process
• Increases the probability that the organization will adopt ‘a new way of working’ as enabling methods are already ‘designed-in’
• Minimizes friction, politics and ‘analysis paralysis’ that can occur when designing an organization-wide process that affects most functions and key decision-makers
• Accelerates a successful implementation.

Hard research evidence proves that a focused approach for new product development has been found to be an important ingredient of successful innovation strategies¹. Focus provides direction for idea generation, criteria for idea screening and project selection and targets for resource acquisition. It also improves creativity by targeting scarce resources and energies on those areas where the payoff is likely to be the greatest.

In their newest book, Product Innovation and Technology Strategy, Dr. Robert G. Cooper and Dr. Scott J. Edgett, help you pave the path to dominance in today’s marketplace by outlining the most effective way to become and stay focused – a Product Innovation and Technology Strategy.  This books is a must read for executives and senior managers who have a mandate to impact business performance through product innovation results. For More Information Click Here!

After a combined total of 50+ years of research and in-the-trenches knowledge gathered from leading companies around the world, Dr. Robert G. Cooper and Dr. Scott J. Edgett, bring together an impressive collection of eighteen of their most popular articles in their new book – Successful Product Innovation: A Collection of Our Best.

The book offers compelling evidence, best practices and practical advice for successful implementation of the Innovation Diamond™. The four points of the Innovation Diamond are the four major factors that drive a business’s new product performance: Product Innovation and Technology Strategy, Portfolio Management, Stage-Gate Idea-to-Launch System and Climate, Culture and Leadership.

This book is a must read for people responsible for achieving innovation results.

Whether you have NPD software or are planning to purchase something soon, you stand to benefit by working with a software provider that is Stage-Gate Ready Certified.

Only a handful of providers have been able to achieve this unique ‘seal-of-approval’, granted only after the software successfully passes a rigorous evaluation of some 200 innovation-specific criteria.  The rigor doesn’t end with the first evaluation.  To maintain their certification status, vendors submit to ongoing evaluations against evolving and increasingly more difficult criteria.

“We strongly encouraged our software partner to become Stage-Gate^® Ready Certified and are very pleased that they did.”
– John Gilbert, R&D Director,
Johnson & Johnson Group of Consumer Companies

The Stage-Gate Ready Certification Program helps buyers take advantage of innovation productivity tools that can help advance their organization’s business performance.  It provides peace-of-mind and assurance that the software they select has the necessary functionalities to successfully implement Stage-Gate best practice processes. Every provider that becomes Stage-Gate Certified receives a Report outlining their performance against all 200 criteria.  This Report is available to you upon request and serves as an excellent communication tool between your NPD and IT organizations.

Congratulations to the following software providers that have achieved and maintained Stage-Gate Certification:

Innovation Framework Technologies; Sopheon; CA^®; The GenSight^® Group;
Planisware; Planview, Inc. and Enrich Consulting