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Overview

In Milestone One, you recommended an innovation option (incremental or discontinuous) to the organization from the course scenario. Now that senior management of the company has approved your recommendation, your task is to find an efficient process for your cross-functional team to follow during the development of your innovation. Remember that your perspective is still that of a middle manager for one of the top U.S. producers of luxury and mass-market automobiles and trucks.

You and your team are considering using Cooper’s stage-gate process for new product development. This is a standard process that shows the journey of an idea from conceptualization to the market. You will create a detailed flowchart to share with your cross-functional team on one possible process for implementing the innovation recommendation you have made.

Assignment Details:

Create a PowerPoint presentation with the following requirements, including a detailed flowchart. Ensure the presentation is useful in helping your team understand the stage-gate process. Your presentation should include the following:

1. Describe the major elements of the stage-gate process (1–2 slides).

· How many stages are in the process?

· What is the purpose of each stage?

2. Create a stage-gate process flowchart (1 slide) using proper shapes for each step in your flowchart.

· In the flowchart or speaker notes, list an example of an activity at each stage.

· In the flowchart or speaker notes, list a decision criterion at each stage using the company. Some examples of decision criteria include:

i. Filter ideas to the preliminary investigation

ii. Filter projects to business opportunities

iii. Filter projects to product or process development

iv. Filter products to limited launch

v. Filter products to international marketing

3. Discuss the implications of using the stage-gate process (1–2 slides).

· When is the use of the stage-gate process appropriate?

· How could the stage-gate process slow down innovation?

· Is the stage-gate process more conducive to an incremental or discontinuous innovation?

Submission

Using PowerPoint, create a presentation that is 3 to 5 slides with detailed speaker notes that highlight the important points you want to emphasize to your team. If references are included, they should be cited in APA format.

Textbook:  Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological, Market, and Organizational Change (Tidd), Chapter 10: Figure 10.1 SEE BELOW!!!!!

This figure describes Cooper’s stage-gate approach. Based on this figure, you will learn that successful product development needs to operate some form of structured, staging process. As projects move through the development process, there are several discrete stages, each with different decision criteria, or gates, which they must pass. 

FIGURE 10.1  Stage-gate process for new product development

Source: Cooper, R.G., Winning at new products. 4th ed., 2011, New York: Basic Books;Cooper, R.G., Doing it right: Winning with new products. Ivey Business Journal, 2000. 64(6), 1–7.