Learn from New Product Failures

Author： Hlavacek Jim Maxwell Craig Williams Jr. Jimmy

Publisher： Industrial Research Institute, Inc

ISSN： 0895-6308

Source： Research-Technology Management, Vol.52, Iss.4, 2009-07, pp. : 31-39

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Abstract

Overview: Many companies do not learn from their new product mistakes. Consequently, the mistakes are repeated, wasting millions, even billions, of R&D and marketing dollars every year. Product development success would be higher and far less risky if companies would regularly analyze, widely share, and learn from each unsuccessful new venture. The positive effect of formal post-launch reviews on the top and bottom lines is often impressive. Post-launch reviews in companies we studied often improved the new product success ratio from 30 to 50 percent. This article describes the needed culture, process and steps to conduct post-launch reviews from new product failures that closely parallels the methodology teaching hospitals use to learn from their mistakes.