next-generation and new core products follows a familiar cycle in most
organizations (Cooper, 2000):
1. Ideation
2. Preliminary investigation
3. Detailed investigation
4. Development
5. Testing and validation
6. Market launch and full production
Each of these steps involves interaction with customers, who may participate
in idea generation and feature recognition. Key performance criteria
in the design process revolve around the following (Smith &
Reinertsen, 1995):
Time to market
Product cost
Customer benefit delivery
Development costs
These criteria can be traded off against one another. For example, development
costs can be traded against time to market, customer benefits can
be traded against product costs, and so on. Three design methods have
established themselves as providing a management system for effective
product innovation: phase review, stage gate, and product and cycle time
excellence (PACE).