Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Product Opportunity Gaps Robert Monroe Innovative Product Development January 20, 2011

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course By The End Of Class Today, You Should: Be able to use the SET factor model to identify and understand opportunities created by Product Opportunity Gaps (POGs) Be able to articulate a Product Opportunity Gap with a concise statement that identifies who the target market/consumer is and what the gap is between consumers’ needs and offerings on the market, without specifying how you plan to fill that gap.

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Phase 1: Identify The Opportunity Goals: –Identify and evaluate a set of promising Product Opportunity Gap (POG’s) –Choose the most appropriate POG to move forward with Primary results: –Product opportunity statement (hypothesis) –Initial scenario that illustrates the opportunity Methods –Brainstorming, observing, researching Social, Economic, and Technology (SET) factors –Generating POGs based on SET factors –Evaluating and filtering POG ideas generated –Scenario generation, feedback, and refinement Source: Cagan and Vogel, Creating Breakthrough Products, [CV02] Chapter 5. Launch * Realize Conceptualize UnderstandIdentify

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course SET Factors and Product Opportunity Gaps

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Social, Economic, and Technology (SET) Factors Identifying and observing broad Social and Economic changes in a society can help you discover gaps that current products and services are not meeting. Likewise, Technological advances can create opportunities to create products and services that would have been previously technically impossible –Technological advances often also create new (and different) problems for people or societies, which can also be fertile ground for product opportunities In general, you are looking for broad, enduring changes to use as a basis for new product opportunities

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course SET Factors Social Social and cultural trends Reviving historic trends Technical Introduction of new technologies Re-evaluating existing technologies Economic State of the economy Change in focus on where to spend money Levels of disposable income Product Opportunity Gap Source: [CV02] page 9

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course SET Factor Exercise Divide into three groups (one S, one E, one T) Work as a group to come up with a list of at least 20 broad forces / changes / trends in the GCC and/or the full Arab League nations for your assigned topic (S, E, or T) Write them down and be prepared to present them for discussion using the whiteboards around the room.

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course SET Factor Discussion Do you see some common themes emerging? Which of these SET factors are mostly the same throughout the GCC nations? Throughout the Arab League nations? Which of these SET factors vary considerably throughout the GCC nations? Throughout the Arab League nations?

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Product Opportunity Gaps (POG’s) The next step is to identify Product Opportunity Gaps, or POGs based on your SET factor analysis. A Product Opportunity Gap is the gap between what is currently on the market and the possibility for new, or significantly improved, products that result from emerging trends. –Source: [CV02] page xxxi (glossary)

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Examples of Product Opportunity Gaps A vegetable peeler that is easily used by people suffering from arthritis in their hands A light source that can be pointed and held focused on a specific point in cramped or difficult locations without requiring the use of the person’s hands to hold it A financial instrument that allows young people to move out of their families homes to live on their own before they are married Training tools and materials that help working adults without deep technical expertise develop skills with fast-changing information technologies

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course POG Exercise Form groups of 3-4 people Pick one of the following industries: –Fashion, personal transportation (on land), restaurants, international shipping, real estate, financial services Based on the SET factors identified, where should the leading companies in that industry be looking for gaps to fill with innovative new products or services? –Are they doing so currently? –If not, why not? Come up with a list of at least 20 POGs for this industry that your group thinks that companies in this industry should be exploring Be prepared to share the top 5 POGs with the class

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Wrap Up

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course References [CV02] Jonathan Cagan and Craig M. Vogel, Creating Breakthrough Products, Prentice Hall, 2002, ISBN: [SSD09] David Silverstein, Philip Samuel, Neil DeCarlo, The Innovator’s Toolkit, John Wiley and Sons, 2009, ISBN: