Entrepreneurship

Chapter 6

New Product Design Overview

• Intensifying competition and the increasing importance of innovation boost the importance of:

o Product and service development

o Protecting developed products and services

• New products and services

o Are reconfigurations of what already exists

o Often are extensions of existing platforms

o Should be unique in multiple ways

o Have increasingly short life cycles

• The timing, price, and costs of new products and services are all important

• Entrepreneurs typically must engage in new product development several times (often continually)

• Once a product is a concept it must still be validated through:

o Technical and market feasibility analysis: preliminary research to determine if the product exists and its potential application to solve a problem

o Intellectual property and regulatory requirements: determine potential for property rights and plan for patent protection. How regulation will affect the process

Product Development Processes

• Product development processes are iterative and may not occur sequentially

o Multiple versions may be necessary ( but entrepreneurs should try to minimize reworks and delays)

o Ideas are discarded or nurtured as the process unfolds

o Steps include concept development, feasibility analysis, prototype development and testing, and launch

• Have pipelines: develops multiple ideas at same time.

• Innovation pipelines can address the uncertainty and reduce risk

• Innovation pipelines also dilute resources, perhaps:

o Hindering execution and slowing development

o Leading to less innovative and reliable product offerings

o Limiting market research and increasing failure rates

• Lack of resources can lead to 5 very common problems

o...