Product Development for the Service Sector: Lessons from Market Leaders

Some companies are beating the odds and are winning more often than losing at service development. What separates the winners from the losers? In Product Development for the Service Sector, Cooper and Edgett offer compelling research confirming the specific practices that truly drive performance at both the business unit level and at the project level.

They delve into the three cornerstones of new product performance: Strategy, Resource Allocation and Idea-to-Launch Process and offer practices, processes and illustrations to ensure all are in excellent working order.

Ask anyone who works in the service industry and she/he will tell you that developing a new service is far more difficult than developing a tangible new product. Why is this? What makes developing a new offering in a service environment more challenging than developing a new product? Over the years, four main characteristics peculiar to services have been identified, and their impact on service development has been studied: Intangibility, Inseparability, Heterogeneity and Perishability.
In Product Development for the Service Sector, Cooper and Edgett apply their pioneering approaches to the unique issues, challenges and opportunities facing service companies. They tailor the world's most trusted and widely implemented development process, Stage-Gate®, to the dynamics of the service industry and offer numerous real company illustrations along the way.

• Understand why new service development is critical to the future viability of service companies
• Discover the critical drivers of successful service development
• Learn how to develop and launch winning new services
• Discover how to screen and pick the right projects
• Learn how to define, design and implement a new service development process.

Key Topics:

• Service Innovation Benchmarking Research Study Results
• Best Practices in Service Development
• The Tangibility-Intangibility Spectrum
• How to conduct an effective Innovation Performance Evaluation
• A Guide to a World-Class New Service Development Process
• Tips and hints for making the development process work and avoiding common pitfalls
• A step-by-step guide for each stage and gate in the Idea-To-Launch Process
• Unique issues in the service industry that impact the Idea-To-Launch Process
• Portfolio management and how it interacts with your Idea-To-Launch Process.

Dr. Robert Cooper

Dr. Robert G. Cooper is one of the most influential innovation thought leaders in the business world today. He pioneered the original research that led to his many groundbreaking discoveries including the Stage-Gate Idea-to-Launch Process. Now implemented by almost 80% of North American companies, it is considered to be one of the most important discoveries in the field of innovation management. He has spent more than 30 years studying the practices and pitfalls of 3,000+ new product projects in hundreds of companies and has assembled the world's most comprehensive research on the topic. His presentations and practical consulting advice have been widely applauded by corporate and business event audiences throughout the world making him one of the most sought-after speakers.


Dr. Scott Edgett

Dr. Scott J. Edgett is internationally recognized as one of the world's top experts in product innovation and is the pioneer of portfolio management for product innovation. He is a high profile speaker and sought-after executive advisor on product innovation. Dr. Edgett has extensive experience advising large multinational clients in a variety of industries, principally focusing on issues affecting innovation leadership and capability. He is credited with helping business executives and innovation professionals successfully implement world-class innovation processes that have generated outstanding results. His speaking engagements and professional work have taken him around the globe to work with some of the world's best innovators and companies among the Fortune 1000.