6.2 People in product development management

It is important to recognise that there are different layers of management. The different levels of management can be identified as directors, chief executives, product development managers and project leaders, although the actual titles of the managers may be different from this in the individual companies (see Fig. 6.2). The directors are at the business strategy level, the chief executive at the product/innovation strategy level, the product development manager at the new product programme level and the project leader at the level of the individual project as shown in Fig. 6.2.

Fig. 6.2 Levels of PD management.
(- click to enlarge)

All of these different levels have their own basic philosophy and understanding, abilities and responsibilities, but they need to be coordinated into the whole product development management.

The interwoven nature of responsibilities should be noted; people may have individual responsibilities at their level of management, and also joint responsibilities at higher levels. There is no clear demarcation of responsibility in product development because it has to be collaborative management.