ABSTRACT
Developing new products is both important and risky, this much is clear from the last chapter. But why is it so risky? What makes so many products fail? Perhaps if we knew that we could see more clearly how to succeed. Major studies in the UK, USA and Canada [1] have undertaken the laborious task of back-tracking through completed product development projects to find out how they were done and how this related to their commercial performance. In total, over 14 000 new products in 1000 firms were studied, some of which went on to be commercially successful and others which failed. By studying what was done differently during the development of successful products, on the one hand, and failed products, on the other, key factors for new product development have been identified.
