Concept Generation 1.Preparation and Alternatives

Finding the right people

Management’s role in making creative people productive

The New Product Concept

The Concept Statement Summary

Outline

Today’s lecture would take us through several topics

below:

First, to managers comes the task of preparing the firm

for ideation i.e. the first step in (figure1). This means

getting the right people, putting them in right

environment and generally getting them ready for the

ideation process.

Second, a creative person needs to know what is being

searched for – that is, what is a concept and how it is

typically found and identified?

Outlines:

Third, We will explore a specific system of concept

generation. One part of the system-using employees and

non employees in a search for ready made ideas will

also be discussed.

Outlines:

Outlines:

Figure 1: Concept generation

Finding the right people :

Organizations known for their “innovative product programs” are also known for being “staffed with highly creative people”.

“Unconventional Individuals”: Those with diverse experiences, great enthusiasm for innovation and more foreign experience are better bets to come up with successful innovations.

“Thinking Reproductively”: Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Feynman called it inventing new ways to think.

Example : What is the half of 13?

But by redefining the problems we can identify other solutions

o One half of “thirteen” is “thir”.o One half of “1-3” is “1”.o Cutting “XIII” horizontally through the middle

gives “VIII”

Finding the right people :

Genius Thinking Strategies:o Genius finds many different ways to find a problem.o Genius make their thoughts visible.o Genius reproduce.o Genius make novel combinations.o Genius focus relationships.o Genius thinks in opposites.o Genius thinks metaphorically.o Genius prepare themselves for chance.

Finding the right people :

Forms of Human Creativity

Finding the right people :

Figure 2: Forms of human creativity

Forms of Human Creativity

Finding the right people :

Research reports suggest two different types of “creative people” o Those with artistic creativity o Those with scientific creativityo But new product creative types (inventors) need both as

depicted in the “Figure 2”.

Engineers without the touch of artist and artists without scientific strength are probably less successful in the new product ideation.

Creativity can be measured using the standard MBTI®(Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator).

TrainingsCreative people can benefit from training. Training programs range from introductory classes in traditional brain storming to elaborate sessions, but often overlooked, training includes company’s products, its market, competition, technologies used, and so forth.

Activities o Encourage the creative functiono Removal of road blocks

Management’s role in making creative people productive :

o Encourage the creative function

1) Accommodative2) Free time3) Need for novelty

o Removal of road blocks

“It simply won’t work” “I believe we tried that once before”“Its against our policy” “ Its good but impractical”“That won’t work in our market” “Production won’t accept that”“Where are you going to get the “OK, but let’s slow down a bit” money for that”

Killer phrases : road blocks to creativity in the generation of new product concepts

Management’s role in making creative people productive :

Some organizations use a technique called “itemized response”. All client trainees must practice it personally. When an idea comes up, listeners must first cite all of its advantages .Then they can address the negatives, but only in the positive mode.

Special Rewards

1) Group rewards2) Dinner3) Cash4) Promotions

Management’s role in making creative people productive :o Removal of road blocks

The Concept: A new product comes into being when it is successful- that is when it meets the goals/objectives assigned to the project. When launched, it is still in the tentative form, because the changes are quite apt to be necessary to make it successful. Therefore, we say it is still a concept, an idea that is not fulfilled.

Back before technical work was finished, the product was even more of a concept. To understand this, and see how it relates to the “ideation process”

We have to look at three inputs required by the creation process. 1) Form

2) Technology3) Benefit

Form: This is the physical thing created, or in the case of a service, it is the sequence of steps by which the service will be created.

Example 1: With a new steel alloy, form is the actual bar or rod of material.

Example 2: On a new mobile phone service it includes the hardware, software , people, procedure and so on by which calls are made and received.

The Concept:

Technology: This is the source by which the form was attained.

Example : For the steel alloy, it included the steel or other chemicals used for the alloy, the science of metallurgy, product forming machines, cutting machines and more.

Benefit: The product has value only as it provides some benefit to the customer that a customer sees a need or desire for.

If any of those three is missing, there cannot be “product innovation”.

The Concept

Figure 3 : The new product concept

The Concept

The innovation process can start with any one of the three dimensions, and can vary what happen second (Figure 3). Here are the primary statements.

Customer has a NEED, which a firm find out about. It calls on its TECHNOLOGY to produce a FORM that is then sold to the customers.

A firm has a TECHNOLOGY that it matches with a given market group, and then finds out a NEED that group has, which is then met by a particular FORM of product.

A firm envisions a FORM of product, which is then created

by use of a TECHNOLOGY and then given to customers to see if it has any BENEFIT.

The Concept

Figure 3 showed that any two of the three (form,

benefit, technology) can come together to make a

concept, a potential product.

All three together produce a new product that

may or may not be successful.

Once a concept appears with two of the three

dimensions (technology, form, benefit) before

under taking development and it requires what we

call a “product concept statement”.

The Concept Statement:

Technical people and intended customers must tell us the concept is worthy of development.

In short we can say that:

“ A concept then is a verbal and /or prototype expression that tells what is going to be changed and how the customer stands to gain (and lose). Early on the information is quite incomplete, but when marketed the concept is (hopefully) complete. Anything that does not communicate gain and lose to the intended buyer, is still just an idea that needs work.

The Concept Statement:

Two Basic Approaches

How should we go about generating new product concepts? We can make this concept clear by taking an example of getting a new garment. We can buy one readymade or make it ourselves.Here we will discuss the ready made source.

Example 1: Food ManufacturerIt usually will not even read new product suggestions sent in by consumers. They have more than enough concepts of their own. Consumer suggestions are very repetitive or old ideas.Glancing at hundreds of thousands of ideas every year would be almost impossible.

The Concept Statement:

Example 2 : Toy Inventor’s thriveIn some other industries (e.g toy) inventor’s thrive. There are even inventor’s fair, where inventors are invited to display their creations. Haystack Toy Inc. periodically holds a Great American Toy Hunt, inviting toy inventors from all over the US. To present their prototype products, each inventor gets 15 minutes to present his product before haystack judges. About 100 make the final judging and of these Haystack will select most 10 to develop and market.

The Concept Statement:

Gathering concepts already created

Experience in the field of product innovation has, that 40-50 percent of new product ideas are ready made.

Figure 4 : Sources of ready –made new product concept

In some industries end user plays a quiet different role.Example1: Manufacturers of scientific instruments report the majority of their successful new products came originally from customers.Example 2: Manufacturers of Engineering polymers and of chemical additives for plastics reports no projects coming from customers.

Gathering concepts already created

Summary

Introduction of concept generation for new products. The role of management to prepare an organization for concept generation. Finding and training creative people, and then creating an environment for them to work in where they can be motivated to produce.

Next came a look at concept itself that what is it and how it comes into existence. The concept is build around the ideas of technology, form and benefit, and is tested whether it can communicate to an intended buyer what the proposed product is all about and whether it appears useful.

After noticing that there are two broad categories of approaches to get good new concepts, we explored the one that involves looking for ready made concepts and most of the firms use this approach heavily.