Customer-centric Product Definition: The Key to Great Product Development

Despite the prodigious research and money devoted to new product development, nearly nine in ten new products fail to solve a perceived need--and are gone within their first two years. This unique new book introduces and explains Market-Driven Product Definition (MDPD), a proven methodology for identifying and understanding customer-value-based needs, then turning them into products that consistently break through the clutter of the marketplace.

Drawing on techniques developed by experts from MIT, the University of Chicago, and the Center for Management of Quality, as well as product development experiences from inside hundreds of top companies, including Abbott, Compaq, and Cisco, the book reveals MDPD techniques managers can use to:

* Determine customer needs and value-based requirements
* Choose which requirements to satisfy in order to distinguish their products from the competition
* Determine which trade-offs can--and must--be made in product development
* Decrease time to market by up to 40 percent and minimize time to profit.

Sheila Mello (Boston, MA) is the managing partner of Product Development Consulting, Inc. Mello has years of hands-on experience in product development, hardware engineering, software development, manufacturing, and marketing.