Design Thinking

Chapter 17Optimal Design for Radically New Products

Steve Hoeffler

Vanderbilt University

Michal Herzenstein

University of Delaware

Tamar Ginzburg

Vanderbilt University

Introduction

In this chapter, we provide prescriptive advice for new product development professionals who are interested in designing and creating radically new products. Radically new products are defined as products that allow us to do something we could not have done before (Hoeffler, 2003). Examples include 3D printers, TiVo, and more recently, Google Glass. While the topic of design and the domain of radically new products are both relatively new and emerging topics in marketing, crossing the desire to create radically new products with emphasizing the role of design in the success of these novel products requires altering many of the approaches that are currently used.

This chapter contains a series of processes design professionals should use in order to create an independent process that results in novel ideas. We offer six processes for firms that are seeking to improve their ability to come up with breakthrough products:

1. Communicate the challenge goal toward radically new products.
2. Shift time frames to future and past.
3. Promote emerging technology focus across the consumption chain.
4. Promote the use of analogical thinking.
5. Look for novel ways to solve simple problems.
6. Leverage more ideators via crowdsourcing.

Table 17.1 gives specific examples of how these processes translate into action and supplies ...