Product Development and Design (MKTG-464-A)

Faculty

Walter B. Herbst, Professor of Marketing
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Allan R. Glass, Professor of Marketing
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Most recently offered:

Fall 2003

Course overview

New product design drives healthy companies. That's why they're healthy. They allow organizations to differentiate from their competition, they stimulate growth, they are sensitive to changing consumer needs and they assure an enterprise a strategic competitive advantage. But if everyone understands that basic concept and need for successful new products, why is that some companies consistently get it right, while others fall on their face? Why is it that within your own organization you can find some great historical successes, but it is even easier to find many more failures? There is a methodology that is driven by a structured process to allow surety and greater success in the development of new products. This course teaches that process and should be mandatory for everyone that may ever find themselves in the role of Product Manager, assuming that role includes the development of new products. Areas of study include an overview of design and development including distinguishing factors for successful products, organizational structure for success, organizing the project into the appropriate phases and gates with go/no-go criteria and developing a proposal format. The format will be from a consulting point of view but will also be presented to assure the manager a structure when working within your own organization. You will also learn a basic knowledge of manufacturing techniques in order to more clearly speak and understand the language when working with your engineers, industrial designers and production people. The manufacturing overview is critical to anyone with a marketing or financial background, recognizing you may find your future in a manufacturing based organization or will have to deal with manufacturers. This mini course is not intended to assure the manager proficiency as a designer, but rather to allow the manager to understand and manage the process of design and development in an efficient and professional manner.

Northwestern University, Kellogg Graduate School of Management