Tabrizi B, Walleigh R
Harv Bus Rev. 1997 Nov-Dec;75(6):116-24.
The continued success of technology-based companies depends on their proficiency in creating next-generation products and their derivatives. So getting such products out the door on schedule must be routine for such companies, right? Not quite. The authors recently engaged in a detailed study--in which they had access to sensitive internal information and to candid interviews with people at every level--of 28 next-generation product-development projects in 14 leading high-tech companies. They found that most of the companies were unable to complete such projects on schedule. And the companies also had difficulty developing the derivative products needed to fill the gaps in the market that their next-generation products would create. The problem in every case, the authors discovered, was rooted in the product definition phase. And not coincidentally, the successful companies in the study had all learned how to handle the technical and marketplace uncertainties in their product definition processes. The authors have discerned from the actions of those companies a set of best practices that can measurably improve the definition phase of any company's product-development process. They have grouped the techniques into three categories and carefully lay out the steps that companies need to take as they work through each stage. The best practices revealed here are not a magic formula for rapid, successful new-product definition. But they can help companies capture new markets without major delays. And that is good news for any manager facing the uncertainty that goes with developing products for a global marketplace.
科技型公司的持续成功取决于其在创造下一代产品及其衍生产品方面的能力。那么，按时推出此类产品对这些公司来说应该是家常便饭了，对吧？并非如此。作者最近对14家领先高科技公司的28个下一代产品开发项目进行了详细研究——他们能够获取敏感的内部信息，并与各级人员进行坦诚的访谈。他们发现，大多数公司无法按时完成此类项目。而且这些公司在开发衍生产品方面也存在困难，这些衍生产品是为了填补其下一代产品将创造的市场空白。作者发现，每个案例中的问题都源于产品定义阶段。而且并非巧合的是，研究中的成功公司都学会了如何在产品定义过程中应对技术和市场的不确定性。作者从这些公司的行动中识别出了一套最佳实践方法，这些方法可以显著改善任何公司产品开发过程的定义阶段。他们将这些技术分为三类，并仔细列出了公司在每个阶段工作时需要采取的步骤。这里揭示的最佳实践方法并非快速成功进行新产品定义的神奇公式。但它们可以帮助公司在不出现重大延误的情况下占领新市场。对于任何面对为全球市场开发产品所带来的不确定性的经理来说，这都是个好消息。
