The 5-th Generation Stage-Gate Idea-to-Launch Process

If your organization faces new-product challenges—development projects taking too long, new products not hitting sales targets, or an overloaded development pipeline—then it is time to move to a fifth-generation system. In the 40 years since Stage-Gate was introduced, leading firms have made major improvements to their NPD gating systems; some changes are relatively simple in concepts, such as using Value Steam Mapping to remove bureaucracy and waste, or adopting concurrency and parallel processing. Iterations can be built in throughout the development process, a series of build-and-test steps to get both feedback from customers and technical validation. Another major improvement is more focus on the development pipeline by toughening the gates—making them gates with teeth or investment decision points . Finally, integrating Agile into your gating system is a major step, far larger than simply introducing some new methods and tools but has yielded very positive results for some physical-product firms.