Spivey, W.A., Munson, J.M., & Wolcott, J.H. (1997). Improving the New Product Development Process: A Fractal Paradigm for High Technology Products. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 14(3), 203-218.
Format: Peer-reviewed article
Type: Research — Non-experimental
Experience level of reader: Advanced
Annotation: The authors developed a fractal paradigm to represent the new product development process, which is built around two factors: management factors and resource factors. The term fractal is metaphorically described as a fern. The fern represents the essences of NPD, where the same set of concerns arise at every level from which the NPD process if viewed; the organization, the division, the team or the individual.
Setting(s) to which the reported activities/findings are relevant: Federal lab, Large business, Small business (less than 500 employees)
Knowledge user(s) to whom the piece of literature may be relevant: Manufacturers, Researchers
Knowledge user level addressed by the literature: Organization
This article uses the Commercial Devices and Services version of the NtK Model
Method: One way to integrate the “voice of the customer” is to implement quality function development (QFD). QFD emphasizes identifying customer needs and mapping them to specific product characteristics. A series of interaction matrices translates customer needs into process step specifications. (Hauser & Clausing [1988] and Griffin [1992])
Occurrence of finding within the model: Step 4.11, Step 6.1, Step 5.3
Tip: Musselwhite reported that over 80% of the projects using a cross-functional team met or exceeded commercial expectations-compared with 60% for projects headed by technical line management, 50% for technical project management, and only 20% for one-person operations. (Musselwhite [1990])
Occurrence of finding within the model: Step 4.6