Introduction
Factors influencing
product development
team satisfaction
Gloria Barczak and
David Wilemon
The authors
Gloria Barczak is Associate Professor of Marketing,
Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
David Wilemon is Director, Earl V. Snyder Innovation
Management Center, Syracuse University, Syracuse,
New York, USA.
Keywords
Teams, New product development, Effectiveness,
Methodology
Abstract
The increasing use of cross-functional teams for new
product development (NPD) belies the difficulty managers
face in creating teams that are truly effective.
Effectiveness depends, in part, on having members who
are satisfied with their team and their project. This article
reports the results of 71 interviews with members of NPD
teams, with a particular focus on the drivers of team
member satisfaction. These drivers include: team
characteristics, clear project goals, clarity about
evaluation and rewards, effective leadership,
management support, and manageable levels of conflict
and stress. To create satisfied team members, we discuss
actions that can be taken at the senior management,
project leader and team member level.
Electronic access
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European Journal of Innovation Management
Volume 4 . Number 1 . 2001 . pp. 32±36
# MCB University Press . ISSN 1460-1060
32
Cross-functional teams (CFTs) are being
used 70-75 per cent of the time for new
product development (NPD) (Cooper and
Kleinschmidt, 1994; Griffin, 1997). Despite
the attractiveness of such teams, many
companies and managers are finding it
difficult to create teams that are effective.
Effectiveness is partly a function of team
members being satisfied with their team and
their project. Not surprisingly, most of the
elements driving team member satisfaction
and thereby, team effectiveness, are
controllable by senior management and team
leaders. The challenge is identifying those
drivers so that appropriate actions can be
taken to establish teams with a greater
probability of success.
This article reports the results of 71
interviews with members of NPD teams from
a variety of industries. Our emphasis is on the
factors that influence team member
satisfaction and the actions managers need to
take to ensure that these drivers are fully
implemented.
Methodology
In-depth interviews using a structured
protocol were conducted with 71 members of
NPD teams in 18 diverse technology-based
companies. These companies were drawn
from a variety of industries including medical
technology, software, electronics, industrial
automation, telecommunications,
biotechnology, and computer hardware.
Particular firms were chosen due to their
long-time use of cross-functional NPD teams,
their accessibility to the researchers, and their
willingness to participate in the study.
Individual team members were selected for
similar reasons. All interviews were tape-
recorded and transcribed. The average length
of each interview was about one and a half
hours. All individuals and companies were
based in the USA.
About 68 percent of respondents were from
engineering while the remaining 32 percent of
team members were from other functional
areas such as marketing, quality assurance,
and manufacturing. About 54 percent of team
members had bachelor’s degrees while 34
percent had Master’s degrees. Team
members had been with their company an
 Factors influencing product development team satisfaction
Gloria Barczak and David Wilemon
average of ten years. The average length of an
NPD project was 1.8 years with a range from
one to five years.
Drivers of team member satisfaction
Six key factors from our study were identified
as drivers of team member satisfaction. They
are:
(1) team characteristics;
(2) clear project goals;
(3) clarity about evaluation and rewards;
(4) effective leadership;
(5) management support;
(6) manageable levels of conflict and stress.
Let us now consider each driver with evidence
of both good and poor practice within the
companies studied and the implications for
management:
(1) Team characteristics are critical to team
member satisfaction. Positive characteristics
such as sharing a common purpose, having a
team orientation and members with the
‘‘right’’ skill mix lead to greater satisfaction.
Team members who have a shared
understanding of a common goal are
aligned in their efforts to achieve that
goal. Clear roles and responsibilities help
keep each member focused on their
specific task and provide a sense of how
their task fits into the ‘‘big picture’’.
Teams require members who are
cooperative and get along with others.
They thrive with members who put the
needs of the team and the project before
their own needs and agendas.
Effective team members possess a set of
skills that facilitate their functioning in a
team environment. Although expertise in
one’s functional area is necessary, it is not
sufficient for being a member of a team.
We found that team members also need
to have effective work-styles which means
they have a strong work ethic, are
disciplined, determined and motivated.
In other words, effective team members
are committed to a common objective
and will do what it takes to achieve that
objective.
Strong communication skills are also
important to effective team members.
Our interviews noted that members must
be willing and able to share ideas, listen,
and be open-minded about the views of
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European Journal of Innovation Management
Volume 4 . Number 1 . 2001 . 32±36
others on the team. Thus, team members
need to possess several different
interpersonal skills as well as functional
expertise to be effective.
(2) Setting clear project goals that are
communicated to and understood by team
members pays off in greater focus and thus,
greater satisfaction.
Lack of clear project goals and
continual shifting of goals makes it
difficult for the team to know how to
proceed. It leads to frustration and
dissatisfaction and ultimately, less
successful project outcomes. Team
members desire to know the project’s
purpose, the goals of the project as well as
their role in accomplishing these.
Moreover, they need stable goals, which
they can continually use as a guide to
keep them on-track and focused.
(3) Clearly articulating how team members are
evaluated and rewarded is crucial to team
member satisfaction.
Most NPD team members are
uncertain as to how they are evaluated
and/or rewarded. Firms rarely specify
NPD or any other performance
evaluation criteria or the reward for good
performance. Although the types of
reviews and rewards vary, we found that
team members are most frustrated by the
lack of knowledge and understanding
they have about the evaluation and
reward systems for new product
development work.
To do their jobs well, NPD team
members require clear communication of
evaluation and reward criteria,
mechanisms and procedures. Members
need to know who is doing the evaluation
(i.e. their functional manager or the NPD
project leader), what the criteria are (i.e.
contribution to functional group or
contribution to the NPD project/team),
and the specifics of the rewards for good
performance (i.e. keeping one’s job,
bonus/raise, recognition, attaboys).
(4) Effective team leaders possess a variety of
skills important to enhancing team member
satisfaction.
One important characteristic of an
effective leader is the ability to manage
the team. This includes taking actions
that serve to motivate, coordinate and
facilitate team members in their efforts.
 Factors influencing product development team satisfaction
Gloria Barczak and David Wilemon
Leaders also need skill in managing the
process/project itself. It is important that
they set schedules, define roles and
responsibilities, organize and manage
meetings, establish budgets and review
performance.
Personal qualities of the leader are also
important to team member satisfaction.
Traits such as being approachable,
respected, motivated, visionary and easy
to work with are qualities highly regarded
by team members. Leaders who possess
such valued personal qualities may
command more respect and cooperation,
thereby enhancing the team’s
effectiveness. In addition, such leaders
may attract individuals with the proper
mix of task and interpersonal skills to
improve the team’s performance
Although leaders need strong technical
skills, these alone are not sufficient for
effectiveness. Thus, leaders need to possess
three sets of skills: interpersonal, project
management, and technical. Through
effective utilization of these skills, the team
leader is able to motivate team members,
generate involvement, manage conflict
constructively, manage the environment of
the team, and overall, achieve continuous
levels of satisfactory behavior.
(5) Support from senior management in the form
of clear goals and priorities, adequate
resources, appropriate schedule, and a sense
of commitment to the project engender
satisfaction.
Lack of senior management support is
a common source of team member
dissatisfaction. Support deficiencies
include having unclear goals and
priorities, inadequate resources,
unattainable schedules, and a lack of
commitment by senior management. We
found that one of the greatest frustrations
of team members is thinking that their
project is not of value to the company or
of interest to senior management.
Team members need to know that
management supports their project. This
must be done not simply through words
but through actions. For example,
management can show commitment by
knowing the status of the project, talking
with team members about problems and
issues, and by providing requisite
resources when a strong, logical rationale
is offered.
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European Journal of Innovation Management
Volume 4 . Number 1 . 2001 . 32±36
(6) Manageable levels of conflict reduce the
amount of stress experienced by team
members and, thus, increase satisfaction.
The primary conflict experienced by
NPD teams is conflict between them and
senior management or between the team
and other organizational units (functional
departments). Our interviews indicated
that friction with senior management
centers around policies and procedures,
support, and resources over which the
team has little control. For example, the
project schedule is a primary source of
conflict between the team and senior
management. This conflict leads to a high
degree of stress on individual team
members and the team to get the project
completed quickly in spite of resource
constraints and technical difficulties.
Discord between the teams and other
organizational units generally takes the
form of politics or turf battles.
Team members also experience
conflict around teamwork. Strife around
teamwork stems from interpersonal
conflicts and ineffective communication
between members as well as having
members with ‘‘big egos’’ who put
themselves before the team and/or the
project. Such conflicts can lead to finger
pointing; members not pulling their
weight on the team; and withdrawal by
some team members. These interpersonal
conflicts lead to stress. Thus teamwork –
learning how to work together as a team –
can be a major source of stress.
Another source of conflict emanates
from the task itself. Shifting goals,
priorities and schedules cause conflict. So
do roadblocks such as not being able to
solve technical issues quickly or
completely.
We found that conflict between the
team and management, between the team
and other units, and between team
members has a greater impact on team
members than conflict about the task.
However, too much conflict can result in
negative feelings about the project,
frustration, stress and apathy. These
feelings, in turn, often negatively affect
morale and commitment to the project.
Negative feelings about the project can
also affect the quality of work. Thus,
conflict can lead to poor direction, poor
coordination and communication
 Factors influencing product development team satisfaction
Gloria Barczak and David Wilemon
between members, lower quality work,
and more mistakes and errors. Clearly,
these negative results can create even
more conflict resulting in even lower
quality project work. It is important,
therefore, for team members and their
leaders to deal with the conflict so that
this iterative cycle does not spiral into
deeper and deeper negativity.
What can be done?
To create satisfied team members, several
actions must be taken at the senior
management, project leader and team
member level. Specific recommendations at
each level are discussed below.
Implications for senior management
. Build an organizational culture that supports
teamwork. This can be achieved by:
creating models of effective teamwork
and sharing exemplary stories throughout
the organization, emphasizing cross-
functional integration, recognizing and
rewarding cooperation, and providing
training in teamwork skills.
. Support NPD projects by setting clear
goals, providing resources, and protecting
teams from political in-fighting. Failure
to provide these elements can lead to
conflict and feelings of frustration and
dissatisfaction on the part of team
members. This, in turn, can lead to
negative attitudes and behaviors when
individuals are assigned to a team.
. Ensure that team leaders possess three sets of
critical skills: interpersonal, project
management and technical. As a first step,
management needs to consider carefully
whom they place into team leadership
positions. In addition, however, as teams
become more prevalent, training needs to
be provided to various levels of managers
for the purposes of building and
enhancing their interpersonal as well as
project management skills.
. Reconsider hiring criteria to include
interpersonal skills along with functional
expertise. Both qualities can be used for
evaluating NPD team leaders as well as
team members. By including these
criteria in their hiring and performance
evaluation processes, management sends
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European Journal of Innovation Management
Volume 4 . Number 1 . 2001 . 32±36
a clear signal that both skills are
important.
. Improve how team members are evaluated
and rewarded for their NPD efforts and
clearly communicate this to NPD personnel.
Although the intrinsic challenge of an
NPD project can be highly rewarding,
team members’ comments suggest that
knowledge of how they are evaluated and
rewarded is important to their behavior
and motivation towards the project.
. Be aware of the causes of stress and develop
activities to help team members deal with
stress. The fact that the very process of
team membership is stressful to team
members implies that activities that focus
on team building, communication, stress
management, and healthy living can help
members manage stress.
Implications for team leaders
. Develop, manage, and sustain the team’s
relationship with senior management. Since
disagreements about organizational issues
create conflict and affect team members’
satisfaction, engage in activities aimed at
promoting and generating support for the
project. To do this, one must possess
strong interpersonal skills which allows
him/her to forge positive relationships
with senior management, with other
functional groups, and with customers.
. Understand the internal dynamics of cross-
functional teams and take appropriate
actions to manage these relationships. Since
CFTs require strong interpersonal skills
as well as functional expertise, special
care should be taken when selecting/
assigning individuals to particular teams.
Although it is not always possible or
practical to consider carefully the mix of
people on a team, evidence indicates that
selecting the right team members can
have significant benefits. More
importantly, however, since individuals
often need help being part of a team,
team leaders need to take responsibility
for securing and providing training in
teamwork to NPD team members.
Particular skills which team members
need to develop include: conflict
resolution, stress management,
negotiation and communication.
Training in these interpersonal skills can
lead to better internal team functioning
 Factors influencing product development team satisfaction
Gloria Barczak and David Wilemon
which, in turn, can result in the team
reaching its goals.
. Reconsider and communicate the criteria used
for performance evaluation. Since many
team members are uncertain about how
they are evaluated, leaders need to
articulate clear performance criteria.
These criteria should include assessments
of interpersonal skills (ability to work with
others) as well as functional expertise.
Implications for team members
. Possess the capabilities needed to be an effective
team member. If management is unwilling or
unable to take action on this issue, find
ways to develop your own teamwork
capabilities. For example, team members
can: seek out and participate in training
seminars in areas such as team building
and interpersonal communication and
identify and develop relationships with
others who have strong interpersonal and
team skills and solicit them as a mentor.
. Recognize that strong communication skills
are not sufficient to be an effective team
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Volume 4 . Number 1 . 2001 . 32±36
member. This does not suggest that
communication is not important to
member or team effectiveness. Rather, it
indicates that effective communication
needs to be integrated with a willingness
to support others as well as to work
towards common goals. By displaying
these characteristics, team members show
their willingness and ability to truly be a
‘‘team’’.
. Proactively acquire what is necessary for
project success. If goals or performance
criteria or rewards are not clear, seek
clarity from team leaders and managers.
References
Cooper, R. and Kleinschmidt, E.J. (1994), ``Determinants of
timeliness in product development’’ , Journal of
Product Innovation Management, Vol. 11,
pp. 381-96.
Griffin, A. (1997), ``The effect of process and teams on
product development cycle time’’, Journal of
Marketing Research, Vol. 34, pp. 24-35.