Q&A Hero

Q: One important principle, firms, involved in a product development process, should follow is to ask customers what product improvements they want rather than asking them for outcomes.

Q: Lead users are especially helpful in giving new product ideas because their work is of the problem-find-solve type.

Q: If one wants to design the best way to go about product innovation, then, in general, the best way is to have first the technology, then the finished firm, and then the benefit.

Q: The product innovation process can start with any one of the three dimensions of technology, form, and benefits and can vary in what happens second.

Q: Product innovation is possible even in the absence of one of the three inputs of the new products process.

Q: When launched, a new product is a concept still in tentative form.

Q: A new product only really comes into being during generation of its concept statement, irrespective of its success or failure in the market.

Q: Cross-functional diversity often leads to information overload and can act as a barrier to firm creativity.

Q: Creative abrasion is a technique of encouraging creativity through conflict.

Q: Since creative people believe that group contributions are valuable, they are often quite impressed with group rewards.

Q: Google's Gmail service was one innovative product that sprang from a freetime project.

Q: According to the MBTI Creativity Index, creative people tend to be less intuitive and more introverted than other individuals.

Q: Creativity can be measured.

Q: Discuss the portfolio evaluation model proposed by the Strategic Decision Group (SDG) which takes into consideration expected commercial value and probability of technical success.

Q: What are the various ways of implementing the first to market strategy? Explain with examples.

Q: Write a short note on the Product Innovation Charter (PIC).

Q: Elaborate how platforms can be used to gain competitive advantage globally with suitable examples.

Q: Describe a product platform and its importance in the new products process.

Q: Which timing strategy is very demanding, because a firm following this strategy has to make the decision to enter the market before the innovator is successful or has even come to market? A. Slower entry B. Quick second C. First entry D. Late entry

Q: In order to generate quick revenue, Helium Corp., an electronics manufacturing firm makes a technical improvement to one of its competitor's ERP offerings. This is an example of _____. A. leveraged creativity B. state-of-the-art breakthrough C. applications engineering D. product adaptation

Q: First-to-market products that do not involve any changes in technology, but the use is totally new primarily involve _____. A. leveraged creativity B. state-of-the-art breakthrough C. applications engineering D. product adaptation

Q: Tweaking existing technology in a new way is usually called _____. A. leveraged creativity B. state-of-the-art breakthrough C. applications engineering D. product adaptation

Q: Using glue to replace metal fasteners in electronics and automotive products best exemplifies _____. A. leveraged creativity B. state-of-the-art breakthrough C. applications engineering D. product adaptation

Q: Which of the following is the most common way to execute a first-to-market strategy? A. State-of-the-art breakthrough B. Applications engineering C. Leveraged creativity D. Adaptive applications

Q: _____ is a way of executing a first-to-market strategy. A. State-of-the-art breakthrough B. Mass production C. Mass customization D. Adaptive applications

Q: A famous fast-food joint is offering all its regular customers a product of their individual choice through the program, "Have It Your Way". This is an example of: A. mass production. B. mass customization. C. mass standardization. D. mass advertising.

Q: Which of the following is a variation on the single-customer focus where each customer is offered a product of his or her individual choice? A. Mass customization B. Mass production C. Mass standardization D. Mass advertising

Q: The best new product ideas are based on _____, which serve as the heart of the concept generation process. A. channel desires B. manufacturing efficiencies C. profit goals D. customer problems

Q: The procedure of converting technical specifications, to product features and benefits, to market needs is called the _____. A. dual-drive strategy B. just-in-time strategy C. T-P-M linkage D. customer franchise

Q: In the context of new product arena, focus is generally achieved by the use of four types of strengths or leverage capabilities. Which of the following is one of those strengths? A. End-use experience B. Employee skills C. Market capitalization of the organization D. Ownership of a scarce resource

Q: Exploring technology and market drivers separately, then seeing their value when taken in combination is often called the _____. A. primary-secondary measure B. dual-drive idea C. goals-objective metric D. supply-demand ratio

Q: Identify the section of the product innovation charter (PIC) which recaps the analysis behind the preparation of the charter. A. Background B. Focus C. Goals-objectives D. Guidelines

Q: Any "rules of the road" requirements imposed by a situation or by upper management form a part of the _____ section of a PIC. A. background B. focus C. goals-objectives D. guidelines

Q: Which of the following, if implemented, will most likely ensure that the product innovation charter (PIC) is effective? A. A PIC strategized toward processes rather than products B. A PIC prepared by senior management to define the role and scope of innovation C. A PIC developed exclusively by specific teams rather than cross-functional teams D. A PIC that is relatively different from a mission statement

Q: The problem of scope creep faced by a new product team in an organization is most likely to occur when: A. employees in the organization are not aware of the PIC. B. the PIC is not given to all the members of the new product team in the form of a written document. C. the definition of the project constantly keeps changing. D. the senior management is not involved in the implementation of the PIC.

Q: Which of the following statements is true of a product innovation charter (PIC)? A. It is typically prepared by middle-level managers. B. It is designed to provide guidance to the business units on the role of innovation. C. It reminds us that the new product strategy is primarily for processes and other activities. D. It can be thought of as a kind of vision statement that is applied at macro level.

Q: A computer services firm decides to diversify in the field of cosmetics. According to the product market matrix, the innovativeness risk in this case could be _____. A. none B. low C. medium D. dangerous

Q: A manufacturer of ice creams introduces a new mint and lime flavored ice cream. According to the product/market matrix, the amount of innovativeness risk that the firm brings with this new flavor would be _____. A. high B. low C. medium D. dangerous

Q: Identify the situation associated with the greatest amount of innovativeness risk. A. Moderate changes in operations/marketing and major changes in consumer use behavior B. Major changes in both operations/marketing and consumer use behavior C. Major changes in consumer use behavior and moderate changes in operations/marketing D. No change in operations/marketing and major changes in consumer use behavior

Q: Many futurists advocate studying the emerging trends in society and deriving product opportunities from them. A team of experts from the consulting firm Social Technologies identified six important and provocative modern trends. Which of these trends is most likely to influence consumers to make spur-of-the-moment decisions? A. Co-creation B. Just-in-Time Life C. Sensing Consumers D. The Transparent Self

Q: Many futurists advocate studying the emerging trends in society and deriving product opportunities from them. A team of experts from the consulting firm Social Technologies identified six important and provocative modern trends. One of these trends is "The transparent self." Which of the following observations is primarily associated with this trend? A. There is more information about consumers available to product managers now than ever before. B. People like making spur-of-the-moment decisions based on real-time information. C. People can sense their environment better now than ever before; what might be "too much information" for some might be essential information for others. D. As more people become accustomed to virtual spaces, the boundary between these and the real world will become increasingly blurred.

Q: A single overall plan for a product industry is typically known as a _____ platform. A. brand B. line C. channel D. category

Q: The value of an established brand is called its _____. A. brand mark B. brand identity C. brand equity D. brand recognition

Q: _____ are widely used and tend to be billion-dollar assets personally driven by CEOs. A. Channel platforms B. Category platforms C. Product platforms D. Brand platforms

Q: Which of the following is most likely to be an advantage of a product platform? A. It increases brand awareness. B. It increases the market capitalization of the organization. C. It offers cost efficiencies. D. It improves the quality of the product.

Q: A platform procedure that uses top-down mechanisms is intended to: A. allow for less sharing of components within a platform. B. become the basis for a family of products, possibly for years into the future. C. generally increase the cost of the products as and when demand increases. D. consolidate components within an existing family of products to gain scale economies.

Q: In an attempt to allow for more sharing of components, Designethic, redesigns its power tool groups into specific product families, allowing for more sharing of components. This best exemplifies a _____. A. multiple platform procedure B. bottom-up platform system C. global product platform D. mindshare platform procedure

Q: Ace Corporation, a software development firm, used a standard set of subcomponents for all its multimedia products. Ace is using a _____. A. brand platform B. category platform C. channel platform D. product platform

Q: Which of the following is true of product planning? A. If customers differ in their preferences, firms will often resort to a platform strategy. B. Firms that take a domestic approach to new products, on average, do better than those that develop products for multinational markets. C. If customer needs are very different; one way is to sell a global product that does not scale economies. D. Firms adopt a "global" strategy to use several platforms to provide a single product across multinational markets.

Q: Which of the following best describes the process of modularization? A. It involves identifying similar platforms that share similar features. B. It involves pooling in several functional areas into a single unit. C. It involves decomposing complex systems into subsystems. D. It involves generating complex systems from simpler systems.

Q: Reinforay, an aircraft manufacturer, makes passenger, cargo, short-haul, and long-haul aircraft from the same design, with many shared components. Reinforay is using a _____. A. product platform B. brand platform C. channel platform D. category platform

Q: The term "platform" was initially associated with the _____ industry. A. packaged food B. consumer electronic C. automobiles D. computer

Q: With reference to product development, a _____ is defined as a set of systems and interfaces that form a common structure. A. product portfolio B. product platform C. product module D. product pool

Q: According to the product-portfolio proposed by the Strategic Decision Group (SDG), white elephants represent projects with high expected commercial value.

Q: The quick second entry option is the last timing alternative and is usually a price entry keyed to manufacturing skills.

Q: According to the definition of goals in the Product Innovation Charter (PIC), goals are short-term, specific measures of progress/accomplishment.

Q: A variation on market drivers is the "distributor" when a producer develops new products to meet the needs of, or capitalize on the franchise of, resellers.

Q: Mass customization is an activity where all customers of a product are offered products of their individual choices.

Q: Letting customers' stated wants drive product innovation is most likely to fail when in a market with enormous unmet needs and very slow-reacting competitors.

Q: The core competencies of a firm are an excellent place to start the search for charter arena definitions.

Q: The product innovation charter can be thought of as a kind of mission statement, but applied at a more micro level within the firm.

Q: In the research conducted by Social Technologies, it was found that the more people become accustomed to virtual spaces, the boundary between these and the real world will become increasingly pronounced.

Q: An example of an internal mandate of a firm is the introduction of new regulatory restrictions from regulatory bodies.

Q: Most marketing effort today is conducted at individual product platform levels.

Q: The value of an established brand is called its brand equity.

Q: Platforms are not a possibility in service industries as they are for manufactured goods.

Q: Due to rapid market turbulence and the number of product varieties demanded by customers, many firms find that it is efficient to develop a single consistent product.

Q: The group of people who lead the development of a new product act as "a company within a company."

Q: Discuss the role of serial innovators in the new products process.

Q: Identify the factors responsible for the high failure rates of new-to-the-world products with relevant examples.

Q: Discuss the risks and guidelines of speeding to market.

Q: Discuss the five methods to accelerating time to market as identified by new products consultant Robert Cooper.

Q: Discuss the concept or project evaluation phase of the new products process.

Q: Identify the term used to describe the iterative process where the developing team develops prototypes from dozens of different new product ideas, eventually settling on a prototype that customers like. A. Focused prototype method B. Prototype analysis C. Lickety-stick D. Concept improvisation

Q: Identify the new products process where, through interaction with customers, designers are inspired to probe, experiment, and improvise, and as a result, may come up with a successful new-to-the-world product. A. Probe-and-learn B. Consumer analysis C. Mind sharing D. Concept redefining

Q: Early, non-functional versions of proposed new products, called ____, are often provided to allow consumers to try and comment on innovative offerings. A. product props B. focused prototypes C. product models D. batch concepts

Q: Services and goods are often arrayed on a scale which ranges from pure service to pure good. Where does an insurance policy stand on this scale? A. Pure service B. Primarily service and partly a good C. Primarily a good and partly service D. Pure good

Q: Digicon Inc. is a firm with mindshare in the category of digital cameras. With reference to this information, which of the following statements is true regarding the firm? A. The digital cameras manufactured by the firm are the cheapest in the market. B. The firm offers the widest range of digital cameras. C. The marketing plan employed by the firm is the best in the industry. D. The digital cameras manufactured by the firm are seen as the standard for competitors to match.

Q: In the new products process, a cross-functional team: A. only includes members of the top management. B. seeks to eliminate "over-the-wall" product development. C. discounts parallel processing. D. starts working on the project only in the later phases of the process.

Q: Which of the following is true of the batch concept? A. It is the first full test-of-fit with manufacturing. B. It is a form or a technology, plus a clear statement of benefit. C. It is a tentative physical product. D. It is a concept that passes the test of fit with a companys situation.