Managing Innovation, Design and Creativity

Chapter 3. Structured processes for developing new products

For most companies wanting to become more innovative, which they will almost certainly associate with the development of new products, the starting point is the introduction – or revision – of a new product development process. While structured processes for the development and management of new products are no guarantee for improving innovativeness they are nevertheless an important part in an organisation's armoury to improve new product introduction rate and maximise the benefits from a company's product portfolio. One of the key dilemmas is described by one interviewee, "The problem with process is, if you provide too much detail you create information overload; if you have too little detail – people make mistakes and lose perspective." The processes should be about providing guidance, not dictating what needs to be done.

The last few years have brought a couple of new insights into processes in the context of innovation. First, a structured process alone is often not sufficient; the behaviours of the people will have to change alongside. Second, many companies have realised that one process is not enough, particularly if innovation is to go beyond the incremental. Incremental and radical innovation require different conditions under which they flourish. Leading innovators have started to address this by either having different pathways or by establishing a pre-process phase. We will come back to that in more detail ...