Many firms now realize the importance of planning product families and product platforms.
However, little research addresses planning and execution of different types of projects within a product family platform series. This study investigates project characteristics, development challenges, typical outcomes, and success factors for product development projects at different locations in the product family spectrum. Data on 108 new product development projects from a variety of assembled products industries were collected via a detailed survey and analyzed. The results suggest that firms can continue to employ a single product development management process for both platform and derivative projects, as long as modest customization of the process is made for the given project type. Completely different management processes are not required.