After testing a new recipe on 200,000 subjects and finding that people preferred it over the traditional version, Coca-Cola unveiled New Coke in 1985. Sounds like a safe move, right? Wrong.

Product loyalty and old-fashioned habits got in the way and people didn't buy New Coke as expected, costing the company $4 million in development and a loss of $30 million in back stocked products it couldn't sell.

Traditional Project Management (TPM) depends heavily on being able to clearly define what the client needs. You cannot have a detailed project plan without that information.

1. Based on the New Coke project and its lessons learned and within the framework of the TPM, what could the Project Manager have done differently to get a clear definition of client needs?