PDD Advice
I'll follow Ilana's lead and add another advice.
The product innovation process must start with a need. A product that doesn't address a pressing need (whether obvious or hidden) is doomed to fail. Engineers like us love to solve problems and oftentimes we jump to solutions (innovations) without really understaning the problem (the need). We get excited about possible solutions and then try to fit the needs to them. That's completely backwards!
This is one the reasons we're having such a hard time quantifying the needs for our PDD project. We have to force ourselves to stay in the problem space, analyze the needs and then, only then, come up with a solution.
The product innovation process must start with a need. A product that doesn't address a pressing need (whether obvious or hidden) is doomed to fail. Engineers like us love to solve problems and oftentimes we jump to solutions (innovations) without really understaning the problem (the need). We get excited about possible solutions and then try to fit the needs to them. That's completely backwards!
This is one the reasons we're having such a hard time quantifying the needs for our PDD project. We have to force ourselves to stay in the problem space, analyze the needs and then, only then, come up with a solution.
posted by sorinescu at 2:27 PM
2 Comments:
I think the PDD class stresses the need too much, to the point where futuristic, market-creating products are overlooked. It's beyond the scope of the class, but other classes (like Disruptive Tech) talk about this a lot.
I agree. It's a lot harder to create a market (a need), but it's not impossible. I guess my new perspective is that a product shouldn't be built just because it's cool, or it would be a nice feature to add, or it would be a good challenge to take on... I used to think like that before. Now I think it should always start with a need even if that need is a visionary one that nobody has thought about before.
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