Design Thinking

Chapter 9The Role of Design in Early-Stage Ventures: How to Help Start-ups Understand and Apply Design Processes to New Product Development

J. D. Albert

Bresslergroup

Introduction: An Emerging Start-up Culture

The huge boom in hardware development is largely tied to an emerging entrepreneurial culture—a growing trend of inventors and professionals dedicated to making their own functional products. Just as, years ago, anyone with a website could launch a new business, today anyone with a 3D printer or a few electronic development boards can create a new product. The range and affordability of new production technology and access to funding has made creating new products cheaper than ever, and greater cultural acceptance of entrepreneurs and innovation has built public support for new devices.

Major corporate tech and innovation leaders have caught on to the culture of innovation and the appeal of new, physical products, too. They are setting up semisecret research and development (R&D) labs, where “intrapreneurs” are tasked with developing new innovations. Google, for instance, launched its GoogleX lab in 2010 to develop the self-driving car, and Amazon founded Lab126 in 2004. Lab126 has since produced hardware and software for devices including the Kindle Fire HDX, Kindle Paperwhite, Amazon Fire TV, and the Amazon Fire Phone. Even Nike has its own R&D product incubator—the Nike “Innovation Kitchen.”

With more products flooding the market, entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs need ...