Idea and Concept Generation

Some Patterns in Idea and Concept

Generation
1. Customer need firm develops technology
produces form
2. Firm develops technology finds match to
need in a customer segment produces
form
3. Firm envisions form develops
technology to product form tests with
customer to see what benefits are delivered
Note: the innovation process can start with any of the
three inputs.
What is a Product Concept?

A product concept is a verbal or prototype

statement of what is going to be changed
and how the customer stands to gain or lose.

Rule: You need at least two of the three inputs

to have a feasible new product concept, and
all three to have a new product.
Ideas, Concepts, and New Products

Need C Form

C
C

“C”= Technology New

Concepts Product
 Why Do You Need a Product Concept
and Not Just an Idea?

1. Needed to judge whether it is worthy of

development

2. Potential customers do not have enough

information to judge the worthiness of an
idea: the product concept gives them the
required information.
The Designer Decaf Example
 Benefit: “Consumers want decaffeinated espresso that
tastes identical to regular.”
 Form: “We should make a darker, thicker, Turkish-
coffee-like espresso.”
 Technology: “There’s a new chemical extraction
process that isolates and separates chemicals from
foods; maybe we can use that for decaffeinating
espresso coffee.”

Each of these taken individually

is not a product concept
Methods for Generating Product
Concepts

Two Broad Categories of Methods:

1. Gathering Ready-Made Product Concepts

2. Using a Managed Process Run by the
New Products Team
 Problem analysis
 Attribute Analysis Techniques
Best Sources of Ready-Made New
Product Concepts
Internal Sources:
 New Products Employees
 Technical: R&D, engineering, design
 Marketing and manufacturing
External Sources:
 End users, lead users
 Resellers, suppliers, vendors, advertising agencies
 Competitors, other manufacturers
 Inventors, technologists, product specialists, industrial
designers
 Idea exploration firms, consulting engineers, marketing
research firms
 Other miscellaneous and secondary sources (universities,
research laboratories, governments, printed sources, Internet)
Problem-based Ideation
Problem Analysis: General Procedure

1. Determine product or activity category for

study.
2. Identify heavy users.
3. Gather set of problems associated with product
category.
Note: Avoid “omniscient proximity” -- rate
importance of benefits and levels of
satisfaction.
4. Sort and rank the problems according to severity
or importance.
 Problem Analysis Applied to the Cell
Phone
 Keeping the unit clean.
 Breaks when I drop it.
 Battery doesn’t stay charged long
enough.
 Finding it in dark.
 Battery dies in mid-conversation.
 Who “out there” hears me?
 Dropped calls.
 Looking up numbers.
 Voice fades in and out.
 Hard to hold.
 Health risks?
 Can’t cradle between ear and
shoulder.
 Antenna breaks off.
 Flip cover breaks off.
 Disruptive instrument.
 Can’t see facial/body language.
 Rings too loud/too soft.
 Wrong numbers.
 Fear of what ringing might be
for.