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Product Design & Development Tools

Product Design & Development Tools

Product design is a strategic capability that allows firms to create, develop, and maintain competitive offering to customers and markets. It involves the creation of value from ideation though concept design, embodiment, specification, and assembly. Product managers need a thorough understanding of the development tools and techniques to bring successful and meaningful design to the consumer. Ideation requires the use of empathy analysis, the design of personas, and journey maps while concept design involves the application of the Kano method, morphological analysis, and Triz creative processes. Product concepts need to be refined through conjoint analysis, functional analysis, and Fast technical and commercial diagrams. As product managers visualize the complete product experience, functionality and assembly design are imperative. The integration of design with manufacturing and operations requires the application of design for Six Sigma and production tools. In today’s environmental conscious markets, the application of tools for sustainability are critical. A well-rounded product and design manager is required to master this portfolio of methods and tools.

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Creativity - TEDTalks with Practitioner Insights

kHUB Article | December 12, 2023

Creativity - TEDTalks with Practitioner Insights
Carlos M Rodriguez

THE POWER OF IMAGINATION - Designing products and services involves deeply understanding consumers’ beliefs, attitudes, and inner selves as product managers; the journey to a fine and... [Read more]

Function Analysis: Foundation to Concept Development

Viewpoint Blog | NOVEMBER 13, 2023

Function Analysis: Foundation to Concept Development
Carlos Rodriguez

Consumers purchase products because they can perform specific functions. For example, a consumer will buy a cellular phone because it accomplishes the “facilitates communication” function. A customer will... [Read more]

Pixar’s Rules of Storytelling Applied to Product Managers & UX Designers

kHUB Article | September 14, 2023

Pixar’s Rules of Storytelling Applied to Product Managers & UX Designers
Shahed Khalili

When I meet people at social gatherings and I’m asked what I do for a living, my response is: “I’m a storyteller.” It makes for a way better conversation than leading with “product management... [Read more]

Design Studio Workshops: Ideation, Problem-Solving, and the MVP

Viewpoint Blog | July 25, 2023

Design Studio Workshops: Ideation, Problem-Solving, and the MVP
Carlos Rodriguez

A design studio is a UX workshop combining divergent and convergent thinking in an ideation process, focusing on finding solutions to a problem, and providing the platform to aid prototyping efforts. It combines... [Read more]

TED Talks Related to Product Design & Development Tools

Viewpoint Blog | May 11, 2023

TED Talks Related to Product Design & Development Tools
Carlos Rodriguez

Have you heard the statement: Forms follow function? When designing products, we often identify the consumer needs to solve, translate them to functions, identify clusters, and build an architecture that... [Read more]

Transforming Products into Experiences

Podcast | April 19, 2023

Transforming Products into Experiences
Geoff Thatcher

Geoff Thatcher is the Founder & Chief Creative Officer at Creative Principals. As an experienced creative director, he excels at leading projects from concept to reality. These projects are most often about creating world-class experiences in corporate visitor centers... [Read more]

ChatGPT for Product Development and Product Management

Viewpoint Blog | March 2, 2023

ChatGPT for Product Development and Product Management
Rose Klimovich

Lots of people are talking about ChatGPT and its use in schools and businesses. Can this technology be useful to Product Developers and Product Managers? What is ChatGPT? ChatGPT, is a large language... [Read more]

Best Practices in New Product Development and Innovation: Results From PDMA's 2021 Global Survey

JPIM Article | January 27, 2023

Best Practices in New Product Development and Innovation: Results From PDMA's 2021 Global Survey
Mette Praest Knudsen, Max von Zedtwitz, Abbie Griffin, & Gloria Barczak

Extending 30 years of NPD best practice studies, this paper presents the results of the most recent 2021 global best... [Read more]

Usability Testing in Services: Delivering the Right Experience

kHUB Article | January 26, 2023

Usability Testing in Services: Delivering the Right Experience
Carlos Rodriguez

Good services provide unique, efficient, and consistent user experiences. As designers, we avoid users filling gaps when this consistency breaks and the degree of reorientation is high. Usability evaluates efficiency, task... [Read more]

10 Ways to Reduce the Cost of Prototyping

Viewpoint Blog | August 26, 2022

10 Ways to Reduce the Cost of Prototyping
Konstantin Dolgan

Prototyping is an essential phase in the new product development process. This is where craft, sciences, and technology meet to bring an idea into existence. It allows you to test the feasibility of your product idea and gather feedback from... [Read more]

Rapid Validity Testing at the Front End of Innovation

JPIM Article | June 10, 2022

Rapid Validity Testing at the Front End of Innovation
Birgit Peña Häufler, Dietfried Globocnik, Paola Landaeta Saldías, and Søren Salomo

To efficiently and effectively reduce the uncertainty inherent in the front-end of innovation processes, recent literature emphasizes new approaches that facilitate... [Read more]

10 Ways to Reduce the Cost of Prototyping

Viewpoint Blog | September 7, 2022

Product Design & Development Tools TEDTalks with Practitioner Insights
Carlos M. Rodriguez

Designing products and services involve a deep understanding of consumers’ beliefs, attitudes, and their inner selves. As product managers the journey to a fine and competitive product if a function of user’s insights... [Read more]

Service Design Part I: The Concept

Viewpoint Blog | March 25, 2022

Service Design Part I: The Concept
Carlos M. Rodriguez

Service design entails designing the “experience of service”. This experience includes processes, touch points, user interfaces, and multiple interactions within an omni-channel approach. Service design must include business processes, infrastructure, and supporting... [Read more]

New Product Ideation: Technology Platforms, AI, and Data Driven Methods

Viewpoint Blog | December 31, 2021

New Product Ideation: Technology Platforms, AI, and Data Driven Methods
Carlos M. Rodriguez

Ideation is essential in new product development initiatives. Being a critical stage, ideation implies the use of different methods to generate ideas, evaluate their potential as formal new concepts... [Read more]

Design Thinking: Critical Analysis and Future Evolution

JPIM Article | December 12, 2021

Design Thinking: Critical Analysis and Future Evolution
Roberto Verganti, Claudio Dell’Era, and Kenneth Scott Swan

The importance of design as a source of value creation has been studied for decades. In the late 90s, however, a specific approach in the practice of design achieved...[Read more]

The Design Space: SCAMPER Ideation in Product Design

Viewpoint Blog | October 1, 2021

The Design Space: SCAMPER Ideation in Product Design
Carlos M. Rodriguez

A recent study by KPMG and the Innovation Leader (June, 2021) states a slight growth around incremental innovations compared to radical or transformational ones from 2019 to date. [Read more]

Digital Reframing: The Design Thinking of Redesigning Traditional Products Into Innovative Digital Products

JPIM Article | September 29, 2021

Digital Reframing: The Design Thinking of Redesigning Traditional Products Into Innovative Digital Products
Gongtai Wang

The redesign of traditional products into innovative digital products is a profound form of digital innovation. It is imperative for both digitally native and traditional firms...[Read more]

Design Thinking as Sensemaking: Developing a Pragmatist Theory of Practice to (Re)Introduce Sensibility

JPIM Article | September 29, 2021

Design Thinking as Sensemaking: Developing a Pragmatist Theory of Practice to (Re)Introduce Sensibility
Anna Rylander Eklund, Ulises Navarro Aguiar, and Ariana Amacker

Design thinking is based on designers’ creative ways of working and is defined as a formal method for creative...[Read more]

Innovative Idea Generation in Problem Finding: Abductive Reasoning, Cognitive Impediments, and the Promise of Artificial Intelligence

JPIM Article | September 28, 2021

Innovative Idea Generation in Problem Finding: Abductive Reasoning, Cognitive Impediments, and the Promise of Artificial Intelligence
Massimo Garbuio and Nidthida Lin

This article addresses gaps about abductive reasoning—widely considered key to design-thinking but rarely detailed in design-thinking and innovation literatures...[Read more]

Design Thinking Implementation for Innovation: An Organization’s Journey to Ambidexterity

JPIM Article | September 12, 2021

Design Thinking Implementation for Innovation: An Organization’s Journey to Ambidexterity
Krithika Randhawa, Natalia Nikolova, Sumati Ahuja, and Jochen Schweitzer

Implementing design thinking for innovation (DTI) is seen as a way to balance exploration and exploitation, and thus attain an ambidextrous innovation portfolio...[Read more]

Microfoundations of Dynamic Design Capabilities: An Empirical Analysis of “Excellent” Italian Design Firms

JPIM Article | July 28, 2021

Microfoundations of Dynamic Design Capabilities: An Empirical Analysis of “Excellent” Italian Design Firms
Cabirio Cautela, Michele Simoni, and Peter Moran

This article investigates how managers of firms awarded for their design excellence build organizational-level design-related dynamic capabilities by selecting...[Read more]

The Creative Process: Ideation and Divergence Methods

Viewpoint Blog | June 23, 2021

The Creative Process: Ideation and Divergence Methods
Carlos M. Rodriguez

New ideas come from an evolutionary process. The creativity may be incremental, evolutionary, and sometimes revolutionary. Overall, the evolutionary process should have diversity and structure... [Read more]

Entrepreneurial Ways of Designing and Designerly Ways of Entrepreneuring: Exploring the Relationship Between Design Thinking and Effectuation Theory

JPIM Article | June 07, 2021

Entrepreneurial Ways of Designing and Designerly Ways of Entrepreneuring: Exploring the Relationship Between Design Thinking and Effectuation Theory
Nico Florian Klenner, Gerda Gemser, and Ingo Oswald Karpen

Scholars have suggested that design thinking and effectuation theory may...[Read more]

The Best Vs. the Rest

PDMA Webcast | May 24, 2021

The Best vs. the Rest
Gloria Barczak and Abbie Griffin

The results of the global PDMA best practices survey are in.  This 5-month effort gathered best practices data from firms throughout the world. Learn the practices of those who are outperforming the competition directly from the researchers... [Read more]

Customer Voices Are Evolving: Capture Them With the Kano Method

Viewpoint Blog | May 18, 2021

Customer Voices Are Evolving: Capture Them With the Kano Method
Carlos M. Rodriguez

Solid up-front customer exploration and sharp early product definition are critical to any successful new-product-development process. There are two critical “front-end” stages in this process labeled... [Read more]

Digital Machines, Space, and Time

JPIM Article | March 12, 2021

Digital Machines, Space, and Time
Paolo Aversa, Marco Formentini, Daniela Iubatti and Gianni Lorenzoni

Recently, the diffusion of digital machines has further enhanced firms’ manufacturing flexibility, but also opened questions on potential challenges and implications in the production process... [Read more]

Big Data for Creating and Capturing Value in the Digitalized Environment

JPIM Article | March 5, 2021

Big Data for Creating and Capturing Value in the Digitalized Environment
Francesco Cappa, Raffaele Oriani, Enzo Peruffo and Ian Mccarthy

Despite significant academic and managerial interest in big data, there is a dearth of research on how big data impacts the long‐term firm performance... [Read more]

Ideation Techniques: Conceptualizing New Products and Services

Viewpoint Blog | February 7, 2021

Ideation Techniques: Conceptualizing New Products and Services
Carlos M. Rodriguez

In today’s competitive and challenging environment, the management of ideation and developing ideation capabilities in organizations is an imperative. Finding ideas aligned with the firm’s strategy... [Read more]

TEI 315: Product Design and Development Tools with Carlos Rodriguez

Podcast | January 18, 2021

TEI 315: Product Design and Development Tools with Carlos Rodriguez
Chad McAllister

This is fourth in the series on a product management body of knowledge I’m doing every-other-week. We are exploring the Product Development and Management Association’s (PDMA) guide to... [Read more]

Design and Measurement of Emotions in Product Design

Viewpoint Blog | October 22, 2020

Design and Measurement of Emotions in Product Design
Carlos M. Rodriguez

When consumers interact with products or services, a connection is built from the very first moment. Consumers immediately process the sensory information that emanates from the product, which they use... [Read more]

Developing Innovations Based on Analogies

JPIM Article | October 7, 2020

Developing Innovations Based on Analogies
Katharina Kalogerakis, Christian Lüthje and Cornelius Herstatt

This study explores how specialized design and engineering companies offering services to clients in diverse industries use inventive analogies in the product design process. Inventive analogical... [Read more]

Key Factors That Drive Improved Performance on Product Teams

PDMA Webcast | August 6, 2020

Key Factors That Drive Improved Performance on Product Teams
Greg Geracie

Successful product development is complex. It relies upon purposefully melding people, processes, and tools to deliver results. Given the complexities organizations often lack data about what leads to... [Read more]

Designing the Future: Past and Future Trajectories for Design Innovation Research

JPIM Article | August 2, 2020

Designing the Future: Past and Future Trajectories for Design Innovation Research
Gerda Gemser and Gloria Barczak

In this article, we focus on design innovation, that is, innovation in the external appearance of a product. Design has become an important competitive tool for managers and a fruitful area of research for... [Read more]

Team Design Thinking, Product Innovativeness, and the Moderating Role of Problem Unfamiliarity

JPIM Article | May 14, 2020

Team Design Thinking, Product Innovativeness, and the Moderating Role of Problem Unfamiliarity
Varun Nagaraj, Nicholas Berente, Kalle Lyytinen and James Gaskin

Team design thinking in new product development (NPD) refers to a set of design‐oriented principles that... [Read more]

The Study of Product Team Performance 2019

Whitepaper | May 2020

The Study of Product Team Performance 2019
Actuation Consulting

Actuation Consulting conducted the sixth global study* of product teams with the goal of continuously improving our understanding of why some product teams excel while others struggle... [Read more]

Beyond Stage-Gate

PDMA Webcast | March 19, 2020

How To Win With Services
Patrick McGowan

How To Win With Services! Let’s face it, services are different! While some aspects of service design and development have matured, firms struggle to produce winning services -- services that produce revenue and drive actual business outcomes... [Read more]

Standardization Alliance Networks, Standard‐Setting Influence, and New Product Outcomes

JPIM Article | February 4, 2020

Standardization Alliance Networks, Standard‐Setting Influence, and New Product Outcomes
Jinyan Wen, William J. Qualls and Deming Zeng

Standardization alliances evolve through collaborations among firms for developing and implementing industry technical standards. Cooperative standard setting can help allied firms to gain access to external... [Read more]

The Impact of Failure and Success Experience on Drug Development

JPIM Article | October 12, 2019

The Impact of Failure and Success Experience on Drug Development
Antonio Garzón‐Vico, Jan Rosier, Patrick Gibbons and Peter McNamara

It is unclear whether the common belief that experience benefits new product development is driven by decision‐makers allocating more attention to success... [Read more]

Can Innovation be Standardised?

Viewpoint Blog | September 27, 2019

Can Innovation be Standardised?
Charlie Tuxworth

Innovation is becoming mainstream, and few would doubt the benefits it can bring to a business (growing revenues, improving efficiencies, & increasing employee engagement, to name a few). It encourages creativity; thinking differently... [Read more]

Signaling Strategies for Innovative Design: A Study on Design Tradition and Expert Attention

JPIM Article | January 12, 2016

Signaling Strategies for Innovative Design
Pietro Micheli and Gerda Gemser

There is increasing acknowledgement that innovative product design has a positive effect on financial performance. However, innovative design may require specific efforts to aid interpretation and appreciation by the market. So far, little is known... [Read more]

The Back of the Envelope: The Science, Art, and Magic of Idea Generation

kHUB Article | 2016

The Back of the Envelope: The Science, Art, and Magic of Idea Generation
Peter Duggan

Ideas are the lifeblood of product development. And product managers need more and more blood on a regular basis. There are many ways to get ideas for the next product breakthrough, but you need to know how... [Read more]

IoT for the Rest of Us

kHUB Article | 2016

IoT for the Rest of Us: Effective Design Strategies For Wirelessly Connected Devices
Mike Roberts

It seems every day another Internet of Things (IoT) expert is making an even bolder prediction about how big the market will be for smart products that use wireless connectivity to provide users with exciting... [Read more]

Technology versus Design Innovation's Effects on Sales and Tobin's Q

JPIM Article | April 2, 2013

Technology vs. Design Innovation's Effects on Sales and Tobin's Q
Gaia Rubera and Cornelia Droge

This research investigates the impacts on firm performance of (1) technology versus design innovation and (2) their potentially synergistic interaction. Synergies could arise from complementarities... [Read more]

Little Data Provides a More Accurate Basis for Sound Corporate Decision Making

kHUB article | 2013

Little Data Provides a More Accurate Basis for Sound Corporate Decision Making
Jerry W. Thomas

You are not feeling well, so you visit your family doctor. He puts you in a new, electronic scanner and generates 28 trillion measurements of your temperature all over the surface of your body. He then saves these... [Read more]

Social Technology

kHUB article | 2013

Social Technology
John Carter and Jeanne Bradford

Never has it been more important to innovate on an accelerated timeline. The era of expansion by increasing distribution in new markets is over, and now companies must expand by coming up with new categories at Internet speeds. Yet many companies are... [Read more]

The Best vs. the Rest: Key Findings from PDMA's 2012 Comparative Performance Assessment Study

kHUB Article | 2013

The Best vs. the Rest: Key Findings from PDMA's 2012 Comparative Performance Assessment Study
Stephen K. Markham and Hyungjung Lee

Companies have faced incredible global competition over the past few years. The boundaries between firms and the environment have become more permeable... [Read more]

HP Strategic and Economic Value Analysis Drives Innovation

PDMA Webcast | March 10, 2011

HP Strategic and Economic Value Analysis Drives Innovation
Rich Duncombe and David Matheson

Rich Duncombe, Innovation Catalyst, and his colleagues at Hewlett-Packard have developed a value driven process for evaluating innovative new products and businesses... [Read more]

Beyond Stage-Gate: A Modified Approach to the Development of Products in an Environment of High Uncertainty

PDMA Webcast | September 23, 2010

Beyond Stage-Gate: A Modified Approach to the Development of Products in an Environment of High Uncertainty
José A. Briones

Product innovation has been described as the way out of today’s difficult business environment. However, the rate of success of development projects, in particular... [Read more]