Robert Cooper and Ulricke de Brentani report the results of their study of firms participating in the industrial financial services industry. Using a self‐administered questionnaire, they obtained data on 56 successful and 50 failed products and found that success and failure are strongly associated with eleven important dimensions: synergy, product/market fit, quality of execution of the launch, unique/superior product, quality of execution of marketing activities, market growth and size, service expertise, quality of execution of technical activities, quality of service delivery, quality of execution of pre‐development activities, and the presence of tangible elements of the service offering. They report some surprises, including their observation that while new to the firm, products entail more risk than “close to home” ones, the resulting level of success is not sharply reduced.

Speed to market is a compelling objective in new product development. Robert Cooper and Elko Kleinschmidt report the results of an extensive study of 103 new product projects in the chemical industry, with a particular emphasis on project timeliness. The key questions addressed in the study are: what are the drivers of an on‐time, fast‐paced project; and to what extent are timeliness and profitability connected? The strongest driver of project timeliness was the use of a cross‐functional, dedicated, accountable team, with a strong leader and top management support. Number two was solid up‐front or predevelopment homework, whereas building in the voice of the customer–a customer‐focused, market‐oriented new product effort–was the third key to on‐time, fast‐paced product development projects. In total, six drivers of project timeliness were uncovered. The authors expand on each timeliness driver, giving details of best practices in the projects and firms studied, as well as their recommendations to managers for driving products to market more quickly. There are some words of caution as well: the link between timeliness and profitability was also investigated, with some sobering and provocative results.

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Robert G. Cooper presents an update on the NewProd model, a new product screening, evaluation and diagnostic tool first described in this journal in 1985. He reviews the model's original development and describes subsequent modifications. Next, he presents validation results from North America and Europe, revealing a predictive ability of 73–84%. An actual case study demonstrates NewProd in use, complete with computer output graphics and analysis.

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