Written Case Analysis – IDEO Product Development IDEO faces the decision of whether it should shortcut its product development process to meet a client’s time frame, or request a product launch extension so that IDEO has enough time to carry out a complete development process. IDEO’s client, Handspring, has requested that IDEO create a competitor to the Palm V, which IDEO helped to develop. IDEO faces the task of reconfiguring a palm-like product that meets Handspring’s desire to provide a lower-cost palm product with interchangeable cards and an enhanced design aesthetic that will appeal to a larger customer base. Dennis Boyle, former team leader on the Palm V project and soon-to-be leader on the Visor project, must decide whether or not to commit to Handspring’s short development timespan, which would inevitably lead to development shortcuts. IDEO’s culture stresses expressing individuality within a team-based setting. Employees are encouraged to decorate personal office areas, move around while working, and communicate with other employees. This clan-like culture plays a significant role on the innovation process. IDEO’s competitive advantage of its unique approach towards innovation and development cannot be sustained without the efforts of the entire team working together. The decision-making process must therefore reflect the overall company culture and incorporate the inputs of the entire team (Christensen, 4). Therefore, Boyle’s decision regarding whether to create the Visor in a short amount of time should also include the inputs of the team to align with the firm’s overall culture. IDEO’s approach to the product design process is through a collective group effort that encourages suggestions, multiple prototypes, and... ... middle of paper ... ...dependent on not only Boyle, but also his team. It is crucial that Boyle consult his team before making this decision, as the entire team will be impacted if IDEO decides to take on the Visor project. Works Cited Christensen, Clayton M. "What Is an Organization’s Culture?" PRIMIS MNO 6202: Managing Organizations. 2006. Reprint. McGraw-Hill Education, 2013. 31. Print. McShane, Steven, and Mary Ann Von Glinow. "Chapter 8: Decision Making and Creativity." PRIMIS MNO 6202: Managing Organizations. 2004. Reprint. McGraw-Hill Education, 2013. 64-79. Print. Noonan, Bill. "The Learning Circle."Productive Business Dialogue. NA: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation, 2002. 1-7. Print. Thomke, Stefan and Ashok Nimgade. “IDEO Product Development.” PRIMIS MNO 6202: Managing Organizations. 2007. Reprint. McGraw-Hill Education, 2013. 94-114. Print.
Lawson, Bryan. How Designers Think: The Design Process Demystified. 4th ed. Oxford: Architectural Press, 2006.
The organizational culture of Lowe’s facilitates trust between the company and its partners. The company has a history of collaborating with external teams, which has been key to its success. Unfortunately, the Lowe’s culture relies too much on meetings to reach team consensus and that slows down decision-making and is sometimes counter-productive to virtual team
Jeff Hawkins a graduate of Cornell Universityis best known as “the inventor who, in 1994, took blocks of mahogany and plywood into his garage and emerged with a prototype for the PalmPilot” (PC Magazine, 2000). Joining forces with friend Donna Dubinsky, Jeff “pulled off one of the most successful new-product launches in consumer electronics history, selling 400,000 units when they debuted in 1996. Now Palm Computing owns 80% of the handheld market” (PC Magazine, 2000).
Employees are companies’ wealth of ideas when it comes to innovation. Several companies have recognized the importance of including innovation within their business model. In fact Google allows employees to spend about 20% of their time to create, design and innovate. Hoarty, Gurram & Laurence, E. (2013) recognize that employees play an integral role in innovation. This is because innovation goes beyond new product or service creation; it is the ‘generation, acceptance and implementation of new ideas, processes, products or services Hoarty, Gurram & Laurence, E. (2013).’ Therefore, companies must strive to introduce innovation as part of their culture.
IDEO is an international design and innovation consulting firm founded in 1991 by David Kelley Design. The organization has undergone significant expansion in the past two decades. It employs over 700 people and generates approximately $150 millions in revenues. IDEO’s motto depends on creative people who can innovate design within the context of human needs (founded by Stanford University, Professor David Kelley). It has offices in Chicago, New York City, Palo Alto, and San Francisco), it has recently been ranked 10th on Fast Company’s list of the Top 25 Most Innovative Companies, has won 181 Industrial design excellence awards, has won 41 Red Dot awards, 28iF Hannover awards, 18 Medical design excellence awards and more IDEA awards
Lawson, Bryan. How Designers Think: The Design Process Demystified. NY: Architectural Press, 1980, 2007. Massachusetts: NECSI Knowledge Press, 2004.
While profits from semiconductor sales are keeping stakeholders happy, Samsung is pursuing a differentiation strategy in the smartphone market. The managers are committing more resources to researching something they think will revolutionize phones. author name writes, “All smartphone makers face the issue of stagnancy in hardware innovation. Samsung is currently working on developing a smartphone with foldable displays…” (Tanner). There has not been a ground-breaking development in smart phones in the last few years, so the managers believe
In addition to urgency, Gustavsson could not create a powerful guiding coalition. He established a cross-functional team to develop a new moisture-resistant product. But the team did not include a sales manager who knows customers' needs and eventually sells the product. Although the team developed a commercially-viable product, their efforts, at least in the short term, were unsatisfactory, because with sales people's own doubts about the new product, they were afraid of jeopardizing the reputation of current product. Moreover, these cross functional teams operated within the established organization maintained the company's dominate culture and past norms. We know that structurally independent teams that are tightly integrated into the existing hierarchy with different cultures and processes are often more successful.
Within these eight stages, problems can be framed, the right questions can be asked, more idea can be created, and the best answers can be chosen. The steps aren’t linear; they occur simultaneously and can be repeated. Although design is always subject to personal taste, design thinkers share a common set of value the drive innovation: these value are meanly creativity, ambidextrous thinking, teamwork, and user focus curiosity (Owen, 1993).
With a near total saturation of the consumer electronics market, companies need to look beyond their boundaries and add value to their offerings, and sometimes it means total reinvention of the company.
Now IDEO has to re-think how they have to modify their innovation process to develop the VISOR product. Now they have to plan how their project leads and other stakeholders will manage the creativity and innovation particularly for the completion of this project.
Samsung’s product development includes all three approaches. Samsung invested in a Customer-centered new-product development. The new-product development focuses on finding new ways to solve customer problems and create more customers satisfying experiences. The “new management” is a top to...
9 Apr. 2014. The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-onbusiness/the- inside-story-of-why-blackberry-is-failing/article14563602/?page=all>. Thomke, Stefan and Ashok Nimgade. “IDEO Product Development.”
In the beginning lectures, I had no idea that brainstorming and conceptualizing an idea was part of an elaborate process to generate good product ideas. Great inspiration and a creative idea require deep thinking. I have learned that opportunity identification involves looking into the problems first rather than diving headfirst into the solution. Identifying and analyzing customer’s needs, market size, sustainability and scalability allows easy identification of low and high potential concepts. As stated in the article by Tim Brown (Brown, 2008), human-centric approach of innovation should be part of the design process as it gives insights into the life of an everyday person.
...he organization. The output of the design group’s efforts is detailed drawing and other specifications, which assist the succeeding groups for effective usage of the raw materials into a finished product. This information is also important for the product