This book will focus on the up-front activities required for product and service differentiation, the learning methodologies that contribute to arriving at that differentiation, and the role that technology plays in implementing the process. The book will show how technology factors into such entrepreneurial activities as engaging in business planning and utilizing creativity and innovation, and how creative innovation, in turn, is achieved and enhanced through an understanding of two different modes of learning: "learning about" and "learning by doing". A successful product introduction depends on an efficient supply chain, a strong brand, and the ability of a manufacturer or provider to differentiate it successfully in the marketplace. New Product and Services Development demonstrates how differentiation, this last critical component, can be secured by the strategic use of technology and by engaging in two key learning methodologies.
Many professional services businesses want to create more scalable services and solutions but they often lack the tools and capabilities to successfully transition from a customized services model to a scalable solutions and products model. Productize outlines the unique pitfalls that professional services organizations face when they embark on a strategy of creating more scalable, often tech-enabled, products and services and it provides you with the tactics and tools to overcome these pitfalls. It is designed to be a practical playbook for any leader of a professional services business who wants to successfully accelerate growth.Productize draws on the 25+ years of experience that Eisha Armstrong has in successfully creating, launching and growing productized services. Eisha knows what works and what doesn't and she is passionate about making sure organizations learn from each other and avoid reinventing the wheel.Productize includes real-life case studies and stories featuring professional services leaders who have successfully led their organizations to create more scalable services and products. It also includes more than two dozen tools and templates to help your team implement the tactics so you don't have to start from scratch.In this book, you'll learn:1) How to turn shift your culture to embrace a product mindset2) The capabilities you to be successful and whether or not you should acquire them or grow them internally3) How much money to invest in exploring and building more scalable solutions and products4) How to ensure there is a viable market for your product idea5) How to sequence investments in new product development6) How to successfully source and work with developers and data scientists7) How to inexpensively test your ideas before investing in development8) How to win the hearts and minds of your sales team to ensure your new products are commercially successfulBonus: Key point summaries at the end of each chapter to help you lock in what you learnBonus: More than two dozen tools and templates to help your team implement the tactics so you don't have to start from scratch.
The price of a product or a service is a critical element of the marketing mix. Price influences product demand, and the firm's revenue and profits. Prices also signal product quality and value, customer self-image, and the seller's pricing practices. With appropriate balance of theory, applications, and analytics, this book provides business students and practitioners the tools to make profitable pricing decisions under a variety of real-life contexts — current and emerging.Theoretical foundations for pricing decisions come from microeconomics, psychology, and behavioral decision theories. Well-established economic principles, with available data and analytics, help firms customize prices based on customers' willingness to pay, quantity purchased, timing and urgency of purchase, and by bundling their products and services. Pricing and promotional strategies of firms are further informed by the consideration of consumer psychology as well as the decision rules that consumers employ in framing of and responding to prices.As a practical step-by-step guide for firms, the book presents a comprehensive framework for pricing decisions. The framework illustrates how firms' pricing decisions are shaped by customer valuation of the product or service, firm cost, and competition within the category. Additional considerations include: channel arrangements, legal and regulatory limits, public sentiments, and the overriding strategy for the firm. Short cases and numerical examples help illustrate how these factors can be incorporated in firm making decisions.In addition to offering the theoretical foundation and practical guidelines for pricing, there are several distinctive features of the book.Pedagogically, the book takes a quantitative approach to pricing decisions and places a special emphasis on the utilization of data and analytics. Nevertheless, sound intuition and judgments remain a prerequisite.
New laws, global competition, technological advances, and evolving societal values toward disability all demand the integration of universal and accessible design principles into the general practice of the design community. This growing international movement forces competitors to expand their traditional concepts of design and adopt these princip
This textbook teaches the key business and marketing principles needed to successfully design and launch new products and services in an international marketplace. The book emphasizes marketing research techniques that can help firms identify the voice of the customer and incorporate these findings into their new product development process. It addresses the role of social networks in innovation, open innovation strategies, and international co-development efforts of new products and services.
A world-renowned innovation guru explains practices that result in breakthrough innovations "Ulwick's outcome-driven programs bring discipline and predictability to the often random process of innovation." -Clayton Christensen For years, companies have accepted the underlying principles that define the customer-driven paradigm--that is, using customer "requirements" to guide growth and innovation. But twenty years into this movement, breakthrough innovations are still rare, and most companies find that 50 to 90 percent of their innovation initiatives flop. The cost of these failures to U.S. companies alone is estimated to be well over $100 billion annually. In a book that challenges everything you have learned about being customer driven, internationally acclaimed innovation leader Anthony Ulwick reveals the secret weapon behind some of the most successful companies of recent years. Known as "outcome-driven" innovation, this revolutionary approach to new product and service creation transforms innovation from a nebulous art into a rigorous science from which randomness and uncertainty are eliminated. Based on more than 200 studies spanning more than seventy companies and twenty-five industries, Ulwick contends that, when it comes to innovation, the traditional methods companies use to communicate with customers are the root cause of chronic waste and missed opportunity. In What Customers Want, Ulwick demonstrates that all popular qualitative research methods yield well-intentioned but unfitting and dreadfully misleading information that serves to derail the innovation process. Rather than accepting customer inputs such as "needs," "benefits," "specifications," and "solutions," Ulwick argues that researchers should silence the literal "voice of the customer" and focus on the "metrics that customers use to measure success when executing the jobs, tasks or activities they are trying to get done." Using these customer desired outcomes as inputs into the innovation process eliminates much of the chaos and variability that typically derails innovation initiatives. With the same profound insight, simplicity, and uncommon sense that propelled The Innovator's Solution to worldwide acclaim, this paradigm-changing book details an eight-step approach that uses outcome-driven thinking to dramatically improve every aspect of the innovation process--from segmenting markets and identifying opportunities to creating, evaluating, and positioning breakthrough concepts. Using case studies from Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, AIG, Pfizer, and other leading companies, What Customers Want shows companies how to: Obtain unique customer inputs that make predictable innovation possible Recognize opportunities for disruption, new market creation, and core market growth--well before competitors do Identify which ideas, technologies, and acquisitions have the greatest potential for creating customer value Systematically define breakthrough products and services concepts Innovation is fundamental to success and business growth. Offering a proven alternative to failed customer-driven thinking, this landmark book arms you with the tools to unleash innovation, lower costs, and reduce failure rates--and create the products and services customers really want.
