Introduction:
The Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) is proud to introduce the 3rd edition of its Body of Knowledge (BoK).

1 ABOUT PDMA

The Product Development and Management Association () was founded in 1976. Founded in the USA, it has International Affiliates in Europe, South/Central America, and Asia/Pacific. It is the premier association worldwide for everyone involved in product innovation.

Membership includes practitioners, academics, and service providers and represents a broad cross‐section of product and service industries, both “business‐to‐business” (B2B) and “business‐to‐consumer” (B2C). Members come from many industries, with a few including:

• Consumer goods
• Heavy machinery
• Information Technology
• Food and beverage
• Banking
• Healthcare
• Software
• Consultancy

Central to PDMA is its Body of Knowledge (BoK). This book is the guide to the PDMA BoK. PDMA also provides a professional qualification, the New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification. Earning the certification demonstrates competency in the BoK concepts.

The BoK is founded on a broad spectrum of independent research, gathered by PDMA globally, from academic and practitioner sources, over the past 50 years. These include:

• The Journal of Product Innovation Management: an interdisciplinary, international journal that seeks to advance theoretical and managerial knowledge of innovation management and product development. The journal publishes original articles on organizations of all sizes (start‐ups, small to medium‐sized enterprises, and large corporations) and from the consumer, business‐to‐business, and policy domains.
• The PDMA Knowledge Hub (kHUB): a website of resources facilitating the creation and exchange of product management and development knowledge and best practices.
• The Outstanding Corporate Innovators Award (OCI): a rigorous assessment of the innovation capabilities of award applicants. The award‐winning company or companies have created and captured long‐term value through product and service innovation, demonstrating their innovation leadership.
• Research forums and Conferences: virtual and in‐person meetings organized to facilitate the global exchange of ideas and practices among thought leaders.
• Publications covering a range of topics: PDMA explores current and emerging topics through a variety of publications. These are listed at the end of this introduction.
• Best Practice Surveys: these research studies started in 1997 and are conducted globally on a regular basis. The survey results identify the factors leading to high product innovation performance in organizations. Specifically, the results identify what is different between the best‐performing organizations and the rest, lower‐performing organizations.

The latest PDMA Best Practice Survey (Bsteiler & Noble, 2023) provides a compelling finding in support of the imperative for ongoing improvement in product innovation practices.

PDMA Best Practice Survey 2021 Finding

“The overall NPD [New Product Development] success rate (59.6%) has not changed materially in 30 years of PDMA’s Best Practice surveys. Although many differences between the Best and the Rest are statistically significant, the absolute differences are not that large. Numerous new tools and practices such as stage‐gate, concurrent, waterfall, and agile product development processes, Voice‐of‐the‐Customer research, virtual team management, and electronic communication techniques and advanced digital development tools, have been implemented by firms, and they have improved the efficiency and effectiveness of NPD programs. Together, these results imply that all firms must continually evolve their NPD capabilities just to “stay in the game” as circumstances and the environment change.”

2 ABOUT THIS BOOK

PDMA’s 3rd edition of its Body of Knowledge (the BoK3) is designed to present a holistic view of Product Innovation Management, discussing individual components and their integration into the whole.

The Product Development Handbook, 4th edition (also published by PDMA) presents an Innovation Management (IM) Framework to help new product development managers identify those activities required to be a successful innovator (Markham, 2023). The IM Framework (Figure 1) was developed by the Center for Innovation Management Studies (CIMS). It describes a systematic way to think about managing innovation, breaking it down into competencies across several dimensions that can be learned, practiced, measured, and improved.

FIGURE 1 An innovation management framework.

Source: Markham, 2023 / John Wiley & Sons.

3 THE BOOK STRUCTURE

Inspired by the IM Framework, BoK3 provides a structured description of the key activities involved in product innovation management, comprising an “end to end” description of the product innovation: product strategy, portfolio management, product innovation processes, product design and development, market research, and organizational culture. All are presented in the context of an overall framework of product innovation management.

BoK3 is divided into seven chapters, diagrammatically presented in Figure 2. At the center of the figure is strategy, which defines the direction and goals for product innovation. This provides the basis for the product innovation portfolio, for the process leading to individual new products, and the consequent management of these products through their life cycles. Contributing at all levels of strategy, portfolio, and life cycle management are market research, specific tools for design and development, and people (culture, organization, leadership, and teams).

FIGURE 2 The seven chapters of PDMA’s BoK3

A brief outline of each chapter is provided below:

Chapter 1 Product innovation management

The first chapter addresses the role of product innovation management. The first part defines product innovation and the key factors that lead to successful products. The breadth of the product innovation management role is discussed, together with the skill sets and knowledge required to manage across a range of disciplines and functions and how this differs from project management. Management of product innovation through the stages of the product life cycle – development, introduction, growth, maturity, decline, and retirement – is addressed with a focus on the product innovation strategies required at each stage. The second part focuses on the product life cycle and how product innovation is managed through this life cycle. While specific tools and techniques are discussed in other chapters, specific reference in this chapter is placed on road‐mapping – product and technology, and light coverage of project management with reference to the Project Management Institute’s PMBoK (2021).

Throughout BoK3, we emphasize the fundamentals for successful product innovation. There is no single recipe that can be used across all organizations. The third part of this chapter discusses the development and application of product innovation metrics, particularly how these form critical ingredients in organizational learning and continuous improvement.

Chapter 2 Strategy

The strategy chapter covers various strategies, from corporate, business, and functional strategies. An emphasis is placed on the innovation strategy, particularly as it sets out the framework and provides direction for product innovation. The benefits and limitations of specific innovation strategic frameworks are discussed. The role of supporting strategies from technology, marketing, platforms, intellectual property, and capability are presented, both as being directed by higher‐level business strategy and in their mutual contribution to the overall business strategy.

Chapter 3 Portfolio management

The portfolio management chapter relates strategy to project selection, selecting the right innovation projects for the organization. A product portfolio is defined as the set of current and potential new products that can form the basis for a program of product innovation, including product improvement, cost reductions, line extensions, and new‐to‐the‐company products.

Methods for project selection are presented, both as a means of assessing project potential and of achieving strategic alignment regarding individual project prioritization and balance across specific categories of product innovation. Portfolio management is presented as a cross‐functional activity that encompasses the development of new products through to launch and the ongoing review of existing products to ensure optimal alignment with strategy and resource...