Creative ideas take time: business practices that help product managers cope with time pressure

States that the ongoing success of a mature product depends largely on the product manager’s ability to identify creative new ways to market the product. Suggests that one reason why many marketing programs lack creative initiatives is that product managers operate under significant time pressure, and time pressure kills creativity. Highlights four business practices (formal planning process, use of teams, interaction with other functional areas, experience with the product category) which were expected to help product managers to cope with time pressure. Finds, however, through a survey of consumer goods product managers, that only experience with the product category worked as expected. Concludes, therefore, that top management must directly reduce time pressure by examining policies on practices such as frequent product reassignment and downsizing, and the proliferation of line extensions.