The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development

30.2. Establishing Goals

The up-front definition of measurable goals allows all those associated with the launch to know how they will be held ac-countable as well as when they will be successful. In many cases, the cross-functional program goals already exist in the original business case for the service or product. These typically include a suite of metrics, such as overall return on investment, time-to-breakeven, an appropriate measure for quality, and a revenue and profit profile. In addition, measurable supporting interim goals should be added, and proactively affected by the launch team. Examples include a target for time-to-volume for end customers (not channel partners), a target time for reduction-to-zero defects, customer service calls as a percentage of units in the field, and marketing program response rates. For international offerings, targets may include time-to-volume overseas and overseas-to-domestic sales ratio, because research has shown that overall product success is dependent on positive performance in these areas (Oakley, 1997). No set formula exists for determining these goals—they will largely be shaped by the offering, market, and industry structure.

NOTE

For an innovation like this to take place, companies need first to establish the right metrics.

Both experience and training emphasize the importance of establishing measurable goals, but in practice goal setting is frequently skipped, presumably in an effort to avoid the lengthy discussions necessary ...