15.356 | Spring 2004 | Graduate

How to Develop "Breakthrough" Products and Services

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”

Course Info

As Taught In
Spring 2004
Level
Learning Resource Types
Lecture Videos
Lecture Notes
Written Assignments