Ranking of Leadership Roles at Different Phases of Innovation Process in a New product Development project

The purpose of this research is to Rank the Leadership Roles at Different Phases of Innovation Process in a New Product Development Project. Reviewing the literature in the field and pointing out the differences between the front-end phase and the developing phase of the new product development process, the leader roles in the new product development process from different authors’ points of view have been considered. And finally five roles had derived. In addition, among different models offered for the frontend phase and the new product development process phase, the Poskela Model (2009) and the Smith Model (2006) were chosen. The results derived from the ques 􀆟 onnaire showed that the most important roles in the front-end phase are technical expert, planner, communicator, team builder and champion. In the development phase the most important roles are technical expert, planner, team builder, communicator and champion. Besides, the ranking of the different stages of the front-end phase in the new product development process derived from the research is: opportunity identification, idea generation, customer need assessment, business analysis, idea screening and selection, concept testing, technology verification, and concept development. Also the ranking of the different stages of the development phase in the new product development process derived from the research is: Development and design, production engineering, pilot testing, and full-scale manufacture