STAGE-GATE^®

The need for lean, rapid and profitable new product development has never been greater. Product life cycles are shorter, competition is more intense and customers are more demanding. Companies that fail to innovate face a grim future. The problem is that winning with new products is not easy. An estimated 46% of the resources that companies devote to the conception, development and launch of new products go to projects that don't succeed - they fail in the marketplace or never make it to market.

Leading companies have overhauled their new product processes, incorporating the critical success factors discovered through best practice research, in the form of a Stage-Gate new product process. According to a Product Development & Management Association (PDMA) best-practices study, almost 70% of leading U.S. product developers now use some type of Stage-Gate process.

A Stage-Gate System is a conceptual and operational road map for moving a new-product project from idea to launch. Stage-Gate divides the effort into distinct stages separated by management decision gates. Cross-functional teams must successfully complete a prescribed set of related cross-functional tasks in each stage prior to obtaining management approval to proceed to the next stage of product development.