Interview with Bob Cooper

The Innovators, Dr. Robert G. Cooper, July 2013

 

Bob Cooper: „I had a serious concern […] about the lack of bold innovation in product development, particularly in the U.S. The kind of innovations that built the country and built entire industries seems to be lacking … with a few exceptions. Our research shows that an increasing proportion of R&D money is going to renovation projects instead of innovation. Companies seem to be more focused on tweaking their current products than creating genuine, new products“ …
©
Copyright
2013
I
NNOVATE
LLC. publisher of
The Innovators
electronic magazine
www.innovate1st.
com
®®
Interview with Bob Cooper
Creator of the Stage

Gate
®
Idea to Launch Process
Bob Cooper is
emeritus
Professor of
Marketing at McMaster
Universit
y, DeGroote School of Business
,
and
ISBM Distinguished
Research Fellow at Penn State University’s Smeal College of
Business Administration
.
He is the f
at
her of the Stage

Gate
process. Bob is a
n extensive researcher in the
field of
product
innovation management. H
e is
the author of
eleven
books and
over
120
articles on new product management. He divides his
time betwe
en his two places of residence
:
T
oronto, ON
,
and
Sarasota, FL.
He can be reached
at
robertcooper675@gmail.com
Interviewed
by Doug Berger, Managing Partner,
I
NNOVATE
LLC.
doug@innovate1st.com
Doug:
Bob, it’s
been 6 years since our last interview.
You continue to do
research
and work with leading companies
.
How has
your thinking
evolved?
Where
are
the data
and your experience
indicativ
e of some new emerging trends
?
Bob:
I
had a serious concern during our last interview
that
has been
subsequently
reinforced
about the lack of bol
d innovation in
product
development,
particular
ly
in
the U.S
. The kind of inn
ovations that built the country
and
built
entire industries seems to be lacking

with a few exceptions
. Our research
show
s
that an increasing
proportion o
f R&D money
is
going to renovation
projec
ts instead of innovation. C
ompanies seem to be more focused on
tweaking
their current products
than
creating
genuine,
new products

the
types of
new products that built these co
mpanies
and entire industries
in
the
first place. T
hose days
seem to be gone
for too many firms
.
Now
assuming a company has decided to get back to basics in innovation and
devote a significant amount of time, money, and energy to
true product
innovation rather than just renovations
and tweaks
,
the next issue is where
do
you
get the big, bold ideas
?
We hav
e done some research into
th
is topic
and
have
looked at about 25 different methods of getting
breakthrough
ideas
,
in
addition to
using
traditi
onal brainstorming
methods or
attending
various offsite
events held by consulting companies.
W
e find that the most popular methods are not necessarily the most effective
in terms of getting breakthrough ideas. The voice of customer tends to be a
very prolific source of ideas.
Yet, one of
the
most effective but
least popular
sources of
breakthrough
ideas
is
ethnography, c
amping
out with customers.
I
f
you want to
really understand
gorillas, you don’t run a couple of focus groups
on gorillas
, or conduct a
surv
ey.
You buy
a backpack
and tent
;
you move into
their
habitat,
camp out with them and learn what makes them tick.
T
he really
July
2013
Conversations
On the
Cutting Edge
www.innovate1st.com
2
good in

depth research
,
sp
ending a week at
a customer’s
factory,
their kitchen
or their office place
is
much more profound research that yields
many
more
breakthrough ideas and systems solutions.
Doug:
W
hat would be number two on
your
top ten?
Bob:
Number two
,
and
a
very close second to ethnography
,
is pre

planned site
visits
to the customer
by
a cross

functional team from your company
. T
his is
p
a
rticularly appropriate for
B2
B
product
develop
ers
. A
team of three people,
for example,
somebo
dy from technical,
from marketing or product
management, and perhaps
a
salesperson
,
visit the customer site, meet
a
group of key purchase influencers
, and spend
a considerable amount of time
going through a fairly detailed interview guide
with them
.
T
he qu
estions in the interview guide are not the direct, simplistic
questions
like, “What do yo
u want in a new product?” That
’s
a
naïve question.
The
answer
you
get
is
a descriptio
n of your competitor’s product
and
a
t a price
ten
percent
less
than your
current
price
. The
probing
kind
s
of questions
sh
ould
be, “W
hat do you do with this product?” “Why do you do it that way?”
“Can
y
ou think of a better way?”
“What re
ally
angers
you about the prod
uct?”
“What are the most significant drawbacks when you use the product?”
“W
hat does the product let you do (its benefits)?”
You
can then take this
problem or opportunity i
nformation back to your
development group
to
conceive
solutions. Don’t expect the customer to tell
you what
they need

to define the innovative product
.
Often t
hey don’t
know
until
they see
it in front of
them
. It is
your job to
understand
their innermost
desires, needs, problems, and challenges
,
and then to translate these into a
proposed solution which you can present to the customer
.
Doug:
From the
R&D point of view, companies
often
come up with something that is
a new
technology
for which there is not an immediate, obvious market
applicatio
n. What has
been an effective practice of actually finding market
entry points for that kind of technology?
Bob:
You ar
e describing
another source of ideas, which
we
f
ound
to be
moderately
effective, namely
technology

driven ideas.
A
person
working away
in t
he lab
comes up with an, “Ah

ha!
We can do this.

Sometimes these
new
technologies
are
even
disruptive
.
We found that these technology

driven and
disruptive technology

type projects
are
moderately
effective
as
a source of
b
reakthrough ideas.
T
he big problem with
this
route
is that
often
you have solutions in search of
problems.
Thus
,
w
e
have
created
a
n alternate
process called the

technol
ogy
development process

similar
to stage

gate, but
designed for scientists
and
tech development initiatives
.
For example,
3M
’s normal
stage

gate process
(its
New
Product Innovation
process) is employed to develop new pro
d
ucts
.
But f
or
scientists
doing fundamental research,
aiming
to
create
new
technology that could then spawn
multiple new products,
3M has
a
different
methodology
, called
NTI,
New Technology Innovation.
It
forces
this
technology development team
to spend
time doing something they
rarely
do …
talk to some potential users and consider potential problems
that
the
new
technology
might solve
, and determine the value of the technology to the
user.
In other words, before you move too far
and
into
heavy spending,
scientists
need to
get out
in
to the field and talk to some potential early adopters to find