Performance Drivers: One is the Quality of Execution. Eight activities distinguish best from worse performers: 1) Conducting a post-launch review (8.2); 2) Assessment of product's value to business (2.1); 3) Test market or trial sell to a limited set of customers (7.13); 4) Concept testing to determine customer reaction to product and gauging purchase intent before Development begins (4.11); 5) Idea Generation (1.3); 6) Customer tests of products under real-life conditions (6.3); 7) Detailed market study/research or Voice of the Customer (4.3, 4.13); 8) Pre-launch business analysis (7.7, 7.8, 7.9).
A quantitative survey of 105 business units, supported by team's experience in NPD modeling, consultation, application and analysis.
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Techniques for gathering voice of the customer information include: use of customer complaints, internal market research, focus groups, one-to-one interviews, phone interviews, contextual inquiry, customer behavior studies, and perceptual mapping.
Literature review and case studies
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Utilization of market research early in the new product development process, and continuing throughout the entire development phase is critical to ensuring success.
Survey data.
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Voice of the Customer Information as a Best Practice for the NPD process: 1) Market and buyer behavior studies are a valuable source of information for planning the market launch. 2) Market research as a tool to help define the product. 3) The customer or user ought to be an integral part of the Development process. 4) Identification of customers or users real or un-articulated needs and their problems, is considered fundamental to voice-of-the-customer research, and should be a key input to product design. 5) Working with highly innovative users or customers.
A quantitative survey of 105 business units, supported by team's experience in NPD modeling, consultation, application and analysis.
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Utilize early sales data following a product launch to predict future performance. Utilize historical sales data for analogous products to assess the diffusion of newly launched products.
Literature Review
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The strategic activities which are essential to the successful marketing of complex, technology-based products include product customization, information gathering on product performance, product education and training, ongoing product support.
Source: Athaide et al (1996). In: Goffin, K. (1998)

Short term financial performance assessment of a new product development project.
Source: Brentani & Kleinschmidt (2004). In: de Weerd-Nederhof, P. C., Visscher, K., Altena, J., & Fisscher, O. A. M. (2008)

To assess the performance of product design, the following measures are often used: quality, time, competency, and costs directly related to profit.
Source: Ulrich & Eppinger, 2000; Wheelwright & Clark, 1992. In: Meybodi, M.Z. (2003)

Use the Internet to assist with customer and product support. Train salespeople and provide them answers to product questions online.
Source: The Baan Company: Case Study (2002), FileNew Corp: Case Study (2002), Tompkins Group: Case Study (2002). In: Ozer, M. (2003)

When conducing evaluations, keep in mind that customers are likely to retain or switch suppliers on the basis of service (55%), quality (7%), or price (7%).
Source: Forum Corporation, 1988. In: Datar, S., Jordan, C.C., Kekre, S., Rajiv, S. & Srinivasan, K. (1997)