1. As Stage Gate systems have evolved, (1) should all types of product development activity within a company follow the same Stage Gate process or should the process and stages used depend upon the “type” of NPD activity, like product enhancements vs. totally new innovations? (2) Explain and clearly demonstrate with examples or illustrations what you mean relative to the Stage Gate process?

2. Sony introduced the 1 ^st e-reader in 2004. Amazon then entered the market in 2007 with the Amazon Kindle. Amazon quickly became the market leader with its initial Kindle e-book reader. Since then they have expanded the product following a product line extension strategy by introducing the Kindle Paperwhite and most recently the Kindle Voyager. All three models are still offered. (1) If you had been the Product Manager before releasing the initial Kindle e-book reader in 2007, would you have used some type of “test marketing,” other type of “market testing” or determined that no market testing was required before introducing this type of product? (2) Explain why? (3) To support your answer in part 1, give an example of what your specific, detailed plan, if any, to test market and/or market test the initial Kindle e-book reader before launch would have been?

3. If you worked for Campbell Soup Company and were the Brand Manager for the Prego Spaghetti Sauce product line and responsible only for product line enhancements and product line extensions and not involved in any development of new product lines, (1) would you still want to use Voice of Customer (VOC) research techniques in your NPD efforts? Explain why or why not? (2) Regardless of your answer in part 1, if you did use VOC for enhancing the Prego line in the NPD process, describe in detail at least two specific VOC techniques you would use, one each for at least two different stages of the Stage Gate system, and what you would be trying to accomplish?

4. One of the concept papers introduced us to SCRUM, an agile project management methodology. If SCRUM was used by a NPD team at Softbank Robotics to develop a new talking robot designed to help and interact with disabled people, (1) would the use of SCRUM replace the use of the Stage Gate System in NPD or is there advantage in the two systems working together? (2) Explain?

5. How does a Product Innovation Charter (PIC) and a Product Protocol differ in purpose? Explain clearly? (2) Are both documents always necessary and critical to NPD success regardless of the “type” of new product development project involved, like simple product modifications vs. developing a totally new product line? Explain why or why not?