The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development

3.3. New Product Portfolio Roles and Responsibilities

Setting up clear ownership of essential roles and responsibilities is crucial to effective portfolio planning and management. This section outlines important roles and suggests where ownership might best be placed.

Process ownership:

Company executives should define a portfolio management team responsible for the overall process of portfolio planning and management. The team should delegate the tasks of developing and carrying out the various parts of portfolio planning and management. However, they must assume overall responsibility for the effectiveness of the integrated process and for the results that it produces. If any part of the process performs short of expectations, this group should detect the problem and take corrective action.

Portfolio ownership:

The portfolio management team also should own the efficacy of the current portfolio of new-product-related investments. All parts of the portfolio are their responsibility. This includes: (1) the expected financial impact, (2) the implied strategic direction, (3) the overall balance, and (4) the expected competitive impact. Portfolio balance (Item 3) is an important part of the portfolio that will be specific to each business (Cooper, 1998). The balance may reflect how investments are spread between market segments addressed by the firm. Alternatively, it might reflect how investment is spread between high-risk, breakthrough projects and incremental product development ...