An exploration of the pre-development phase in New Zealand small-to-medium enterprises

Developing successful products is difficult, with few companies being highly successful more than half the time. This presents a significant challenge for a product development team. This research was aimed at exploring the pre-development phase currently employed by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from the New Zealand manufacturing industry. The purpose was to gauge the understanding and importance of this early stage in product development amongst practitioners from these SMEs, as the literature highlighted this as an area of weakness requiring empirical research. This study involved twenty-two SMEs using a questionnaire survey followed by personal interviews with some of the participants. The study found that the pre-development phase of New Zealand SMEs lacked awareness, commitment, and formality. Difficulties were also associated with carrying out the activities, worsened by the lack of skills in-house to do so.