Customer Reviews

The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development, Second Edition

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The PDMA Handbook is one of those rare and valuable books that characterizes a "body of knowledge" for a professional discipline. It was produced by the preeminent industry organization for New Product Development (NPD) professionals, the PDMA .... This text describes current, best practices in NPD and includes contributions from knowledge leaders in academia, consulting, and industry practice. If you are a CEO, COO, CTO, Marketing Manager, Product Manager, Product Planner, Engineering Manager, Project Manager, Program Manager, or any other professional involved in new product development (especially for technically complex products like hardware and software) you really need this book.

Product Managers (should) perform the nitty, gritty, roll-your-sleeves-up: opportunity analysis, business case formulation, and requirements management for new products. Research shows that judicious performance of this critical pre-work is a key determinant in the ultimate market success of new products and is usually performed inadequately. Unfortunately, most professionals in such roles have had no formal training beyond an MBA (sometimes). The PDMA Handbook provides a comprehensive treatment of virtually all the subject areas new product development (business) managers need to understand to drive the success of their endeavors. Want to know the key success factors for new products, understand value proposition, differentiation, features vs. benefits, uniqueness, sustainable competitive advantage, the fuzzy front end, pipeline management, how to plan a new product launch, manage a product portfolio, and more? This is the book you need. The PDMA Handbook is the Gray's Anatomy of product management. Buy it and READ it at least twice.

This book seem to be written by persons who really know what NPD (or NPI) really is. All those described mistakes possible to be done is made by me during last five years...this is a good book.

The area of NPD is large. Luckily people in PDMA have come to the right conclution: it is not possible for one person to handle the whole area throughly. Every chapter in this book is written by expert on his/her own area. Unfortunately the maximum size of one book restricts the possible space per one writer to include only the most vital parts into this book.

To whom I can recommend this book? --- To anyone who will to increase his/her own scope of NPD and especially to a person who already have gained some experience on this field and is able to compare his/her own experiece to this book.

A good collection of papers, but not a complete "handbook". It is definitely worth buying, reading and studying, but the best resource for NPD is still New Products Management by Crawford and Di Benedetto. Both are excellent resources for the NPDP certification exam.

This book has disappointed me. The authors could have included some real life cases on NPD. The "handbook" tag is highly misleading. For example : One would tend to compare it with Juran's Quality Handbook.Also the foucus in this book is more on New Product Launch and less on real product designing.

This book is a must read for every Product Manager or aspiring Product Manager. It is very detailed and covers the product development process from start to finish. I highly recommend it as a reference that should remain on your desk within arms reach.

However, please note that this book does not address product marketing; it only covers product develop processes.

I bought this book for NPDP (new product management professional) exam preparation. After reading the first halp I discover it might not create direct benefit, then I stopped.

It's more about advance topics, apprepriate for those who are already a product manager or those running a new product development projects. For those who's objective is to pass the exam, they may feel disappointed, however, for NPDP certificate holders, this book will definitely enhance your knowledge and view.

Haven't read from cover to cover, but proving to be an excellent reference. Good examples from industry reinforce key messages. Haven't learnt anything groundbreakingly new, but it has been a good confirmation or fine-tuning reference when needed.

".....The book's concise, how-to approach enables readers to access the basic information they need quickly, while providing helpful references to up-to-date sources of further information.

By providing a complete picture of the knowledge needed for effective new product development today, THIS ALL-IN-ONE GUIDE IS AN INVALUABLE ASSET TO PROFESSIONAL AT EVERY LEVEL."
[from the book of the front flap]

Being a PDMA publication, I expected this treatment of new product development to be exceptional. However, I was disappointed. Rather than being detailed "how to" -- which is what I would expect of a "handbook" -- it is a collection of chapters by different authors that aren't integrated well and cover the broad spectrum of product development without handling anything in great detail. There are chapters that are well done and I found worthwhile, but there are numerous other books that I think cover this complex topic much more clearly.

This is the "Bible" for NPD professionals. An excellent addition to the guides by Cooper and Crawford.