Developing Breakthrough Products and Services

 

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Lessons

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Lesson 1  video01.jpg (433 bytes) 56K 80K 220K PDF
Who Develops Breakthrough New Products and Services--Users or Manufacturers?
Before thinking about how to do concept development, we will explore who does this activity. Specifically, is the concept developer really a manufacturer -- or is it a product or service user?
 
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Systematic Generation of Ideas for "Breakthrough" New Products and Services - the "Lead User Method"
Users innovate when it is in their interest to do so. But not all user innovations will make a good product from a product manufacturer's standpoint. Therefore, manufacturers must identify and learn from "lead" users. 3M and other firms have learned to network their way to lead users and then combine lead user ideas with their own to create "breakthrough" new products and services.

 

Lesson 3 PDF
Finding out What Users Really Need: The "Sticky Information" and "Learning by Doing"
It's hard to know what users really want, because much user need information is "sticky," and also because users learn by trying out prototype solutions - and then change their views of what they want.

 

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Systematic Generation of Incremental Improvements to Existing Products and Services
Traditional market research techniques are most advanced in consumer products fields. Here, user needs are analyzed via multiattribute techniques, marketing and R&D personnel then use this data to develop new product concepts. Finally, the market potential of these ideas is explored via "focus groups" of representative consumers, questionnaires, etc.
 
 
Lesson 5 PDF
Why Users Share Innovations with Each Other and with Manufacturers:
People will share all sorts of information with you that is important for developing great new products and services. When and why will they do this? Sometimes it pays to simply give things away (as open source software developers do). Sometimes it has a lot to do with reciprocity

 

Lesson 6 PDF
Toolkits for User Innovation
Sometimes the most efficient way to develop custom products and services is to give users the tools to do it themselves. This "toolkit" method has been pioneered in software, ASICs and other advanced fields.

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About This Course

This course covers modern tools and methods for product design and development. The cornerstone is a project in which teams of management, engineering, and industrial design students conceive, design, and prototype a physical product.

This material was adapted from a course created by MIT faculty member, Prof. Eric von Hippel , 2004. Copyright © 2004 Eric von Hippel


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