Back in the 1990s, when OMICRON already had an impressive success record of innovative products, a hands-on, enthusiastic, pioneering approach characterized their innovation culture. As the company was growing, with more people involved, systematic, state-of-the-art methods were needed to support effective co-operation and well grounded decisions in the product development process as well as an enthusiastic strive for customer benefits and speed to market. Therefore, OMICRON’s management team invited us to share our knowledge and best practice methods with them. A project, ATOM – Accelerate to Market, was started at OMICRON with the aim of designing and implementing an excellent new product process. The method of choice was Stage-Gate®.
A Stage-Gate process is a conceptual and operational map for moving new product projects from idea to launch and beyond: A blueprint for managing the product innovation process to improve effectiveness and efficiency (see Figure 1). Stage-Gate is not unlike a "playbook" for a football team. It maps out what needs to be done – as well as how to do it – in order to win the gameA Stage-Gate process is a conceptual and operational map for moving new product projects from idea to launch and beyond: A blueprint for managing the product innovation process to improve effectiveness and efficiency (see Figure 1). Stage-Gate is not unlike a "playbook" for a football team. It maps out what needs to be done – as well as how to do it – in order to win the game