PDMA (Product Development and Management Association) and Other Resources

PDMA is only one of the sources you can tap for product development help. Here we provide two kinds of online resources to assist managers in accelerating or improving their product development: Websites and listservers.

For further leads, including many hyperlinks, see our articles, "What Do Product Developers Read?" and "Online Resources for Product Developers," both from the PDMA magazine, Visions.

Websites

Product Development and Management Association (PDMA)  One of very few professional organizations devoted to product development. Strong marketing and academic representation. PDMA sponsors many conferences and seminars, the excellent Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM), and an informative magazine.

Management Roundtable (MRT) Sponsors a variety of innovative conferences and seminars regarding product development issues, for example, their annual metrics conference. Lots of product development material online, including conference follow-ups. Also home to an engaging paper/online newsletter, Product Development Best Practices Report.

Project Management Institute (PMI) Excellent for project management aspects of product development. PMI establishes standards in this field and provides seminars, educational programs, and professional certification. They have a special interest group (SIG) for new product development and a good online bookstore. Learn how project management relates to product development.

Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN) Provides an alternative or a supplement to PMI when projects must deliver value under great uncertainty and flux, as often happens in accelerated product development. Also see our material on flexible development.

Quality Function Deployment Institute (QFDI) A non-profit organization dedicated to advancing QFD methods. It is closely aligned with Yoji Akao, co-founder of QFD, who continues to develop his methods through his authorized QFD Green Belt® and QFD Black Belt® courses. QFDI hosts an annual QFD Symposium and offers a complimentary e-newsletter.

Product Design and Development This popular -- but expensive -- textbook by Karl T. Ulrich and Steven D. Eppinger has a useful associated Website. The site links to many other sites associated with the book, including those for their case studies.

Design Management Institute (DMI) Focuses on managing corporate design, including industrial design, and linking design to strategy. Offers excellent conferences, seminars, an elegant Design Management Journal, and other publications.

Wohlers Associates Provides technical, marketing, and strategic consulting on new developments and trends in rapid prototyping, tooling, and manufacturing. It also publishes the Wohlers Report, an annual worldwide progress report on the rapid prototyping and tooling state of the industry.

TRIZ Journal In Russian, TRIZ is an acronym for "Theory of Inventive Problem Solving." These techniques, especially for inventions and technical creativity, have been highly developed in Russia over the past 50 years. Many companies in the West now use them.

Imaginatik This firm provides software to manage a firm's idea stream, but they also conduct considerable research into idea management and corporate innovation on their own and in conjunction with leading outside researchers. See their research papers, links to related websites, and list of related books.

Manufacturing Management & Technology Institute Rather than product development, this site is dedicated to the allied field of lean manufacturing. Under the motto, "We fix factories," MMTI provides a broad variety of publications, courses, and links to other sources on lean production, supply chain management, and product development.

International Federation of Inventors' Associations Many people arrive at this site because they have invented something and need help in developing, protecting, marketing, or financing it. Our site will not help you, as it pertains to those who already have ways of handling these activities. Instead, use this IFIA site to locate a local group of inventors association, search the Internet for " inventor " or " invent,." or see the listing below.

InventorResource This site provides directly useful advice to beginning inventors on topics that include patents, product evaluation, presenting a product, and obtaining loans and grants.

Listservers

We have no intention of insulting your intelligence, but we find that many people have not discovered listservers yet. So here is a brief explanation that experienced list-browsers can skip over.

A listserver is an automated e-mail list on a specific subject. Each has its own character, for example, on its tolerance for off-topic or commercial intrusions. A message sent to the listserver is sent to all "subscribers" on the list. Anyone who receives such a message, subscriber or not, can respond, either to the list, to the originator, or both. Thus, some "threads" continue for a week or more. A few lists are moderated, which means that a person receives the incoming message and judges whether it is appropriate before posting it. But most are unmoderated, so every incoming message is posted automatically.

It is important to understand that each listserver has two e-mail addresses. One is for administrative purposes, such as subscribing and unsubscribing. The other is for sending messages to the list. For instance, if you send your subscription request to the wrong address, it will be broadcast automatically to the whole list, and your unskillful conduct is likely to be noted by some on the list.

So here is our list. In general, you subscribe by sending an e-mail to the listed address with nothing on the subject line and just the text listed below in the body of your message (remember to disable any signature you may have). If you enjoy other lists, please let us know so that we can add them to this list.