Management > Business Administration > How to Develop "Breakthrough" Products and Service

How to Develop "Breakthrough" Products and Service posted by duggu on 12/27/2007

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Courseware/Lectures

Test/Tutorials

Course Highlights

15.356 offers videos of several course sessions, showing how this highly interactive class operates. The assignments page describes how students should approach writing their essays, which cover topics of their choosing.

Course Description

To prosper, firms must develop major product and service innovations. Often, though, they don't know how. Recent research into the innovation process has made it possible to develop "breakthroughs" systematically. 15.356 presents several practical concept development methods, such as the "Lead User Method," where manufacturers learn from innovative customers. Expert guest speakers present case studies that show the "art" required to implement a concept development method. 15.356 is a half-term subject.

Special Features

Sample video lectures

Technical Requirements

RealOne™ Player software is required to run the .rm files found on this course site.

Syllabus

Course Description

Firms must develop major innovations to prosper but they often don't know how. Recent research into the innovation process has made it possible to develop "breakthroughs" systematically. This subject presents several practical concept development methods, explaining how and why each works, and the conditions under which each is effective. Presentations of real cases by invited experts conveys the "art" required to implement each.

Course Readings

All assigned readings are available from the campus copy center. A list of readings with full citations is available online.

Assignments and Grading

Students' course grades will be determined primarily on the basis of the quality of two seven page papers or one 15 page paper that builds on one or more course-related topics that especially interest them. Professor von Hippel can discuss good paper topics for each student as the term progresses. In addition students are, of course, expected to prepare for classes by doing the assigned readings and participating in class discussions!

ACTIVITIES	PERCENTAGES
Class Attendance and Participation	50%
Two Mini-Papers (7 pages)	50%

Calendar

LEC #	TOPICS
1	Who Develops Breakthrough New Products and Services - Users or Manufacturers?
2	Systematic Generation of Ideas for "Breakthrough" New Products and Services - the "Lead User Method"
3	Finding out What Users Really Need: The "Sticky Information" and "Learning by Doing" Problems
4	Systematic Generation of Incremental Improvements to Existing Products and Services Traditional Marketing Research Concept Generation Techniques
5	"Brainstorming" and Creativity Training Techniques Lecturer: Jeff Mauzy, Principal, Synectics, Inc. Cambridge, MA
6	The MIT Media Lab Approach: "Build It and They Will Come." Lecturer: Joe Paradiso, MIT Media Lab
7	Determining Average Users' Needs Ethnographically and Then Developing Solutions Lecturer: Dr. Harry West, VP, Design Continuum
8	Why Users Share Innovations with Each Other and with Manufacturers: Informal Know-How Trading, Collective Invention and Voluntary Revealing
9	Toolkits for User Innovation Lecturer: John Wright, International Flavors and Fragrances
10	User Innovation Communities - No Manufacturer Required
11	Resistance to Adopting Radically New Innovations - Even in Firms that "Want To"

Further Reading:

LEC #	TOPICS	READINGS
1	Who Develops Breakthrough New Products and Services - Users or Manufacturers?	von Hippel, Eric. "Overview" and "Users as Innovators." Chapters 1 and 2 in The Sources of Innovation. Oxford University Press, 1988. ISBN: 0-19-504085-6.
2	Systematic Generation of Ideas for "Breakthrough" New Products and Services - the "Lead User Method"	Brief videos on the lead user method in practice, available to students on the Sloan class server. von Hippel, Eric, Stefan Thomke, and Mary Sonnack. "Creating Breakthroughs at 3M." Harvard Business Review (Sept-Oct 1999): 3-9. Reprint No. 99510.
3	Finding out What Users Really Need: The "Sticky Information" and "Learning by Doing" Problems	von Hippel, Eric. "Sticky Information and the Locus of Problem Solving: Implications for Innovation." Management Science 40, no. 4 (Apr 1994): 429-439. von Hippel, Eric, and Marcie Tyre. "How 'Learning by Doing' is Done: Problem Identification in Novel Process Equipment." Research Policy (Jan 1995): 1-12.
4	Systematic Generation of Incremental Improvements to Existing Products and Services Traditional Marketing Research Concept Generation Techniques	Dahan, Ely, and John Hauser. "Product Development - Managing a Dispersed Process." MIT Sloan School of Management working paper, 2003: 9-25.
5	"Brainstorming" and Creativity Training Techniques Lecturer: Jeff Mauzy, Principal, Synectics, Inc. Cambridge, MA	Gordon, William. "The Operational Mechanisms." Chapter 2 in Synectics, the Development of Creative Capacity. Collier Books, 1961: 34-56. ISBN: 0060324309.
6	The MIT Media Lab Approach: "Build It and They Will Come." Lecturer: Joe Paradiso, MIT Media Lab	Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. "The Flow of Creativity." Chapter 5 in Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. HarperCollins Publishers, 1996. ISBN: 0-06-017133-2.
7	Determining Average Users' Needs Ethnographically and Then Developing Solutions Lecturer: Dr. Harry West, VP, Design Continuum	Leonard, Dorothy, and Jeffrey F. Rayport. "Spark Innovation through Empathic Design." Harvard Business Review (Nov-Dec 1997). Reprint No. 97606.
8	Why Users Share Innovations with Each Other and with Manufacturers: Informal Know-How Trading, Collective Invention and Voluntary Revealing	Allen, Robert C. "Collective Invention." Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 4, no. 1 (Mar 1983): 1-24. Schrader, Stephan. "Informal Technology Transfer Between Firms: Cooperation Through Information Trading." Research Policy 20 (1991): 153-170.
9	Toolkits for User Innovation Lecturer: John Wright, International Flavors and Fragrances	Brand, Stewart. "'Nobody Cares What You Do In There': The Low Road." Chapter 3 in How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built. Viking Penguin, 1994: 24-33. ISBN: 0-670-83515-3. Thomke, Stefan, and Eric von Hippel. Customers as Innovators: A New Way to Create Value. Harvard Business Review (Apr 2002): 74-81. Reprint No. R0304F.
10	User Innovation Communities - No Manufacturer Required	Franke, Nik, and Sonali Shah. "How Communities Support Innovative Activities: An Exploration of Assistance and Sharing Among End-Users." Research Policy 32 (2003): 157-178. von Hippel, Eric. "Innovation by User Communities: Learning from Open Source Software." MIT Sloan Management Review 42, 4 (Summer 2001): 82-86. Reprint No. 4248.
11	Resistance to Adopting Radically New Innovations - Even in Firms that "Want To"	Groopman, Jerome. "Annals of Medicine: The Reeve Effect." The New Yorker, Nov 2003, 82-93. Morrison, Elting E. "Gunfire at Sea." Chapter 2 in Men, Machines and Modern Times. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1966. ISBN: 0-262-13025-4.