Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Final Project Use the process, tools, and techniques we cover in this course to develop an innovative new product or service concept to bring to market. –Phases 1-3 in detail, ‘lightweight’ phase 4 Group project, 3-5 people in each group Written proposal due during finals week (exact date TBD) –8-12 pages, single spaced, plus appendices Proposal presentation on last day of class –~20 minutes per group for your presentation Choose your own topic/area from: –Any of the challenge problem scenarios –The vacation image capture scenario (or a variation thereof) –A company and market of your groups choosing This option requires professor’s review and approval More details will be forthcoming on the wiki

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Conceptualizing The Opportunity Robert Monroe Innovative Product Development March 8, 2011

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course By The End Of Class Today, You Should: Understand the major steps and goals of the conceptualizing the opportunity phase Be able to generate a wide variety of potential products and services to address identified value opportunities with an offering that has specific product attributes Understand the importance of prototyping, market analysis, and technology analysis in creating a compelling product concept

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Phase 3 Overview: Conceptualizing The Opportunity Phase 3 Product Concepts Gate 2 Gate 3 Phase 2 outputs: Prioritized value opportunities Detailed scenarios Prioritized product attributes Prioritized stakeholder list Phase 3 activities: Generating and screening product concepts Prototyping Paper and pencil Shape and form Technological Packaging decisions Detailed market research Phase 3 outputs: Single product concept with which to build detailed business case Prototype(s) that illustrate path forward for this product or service Detailed market analysis

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Phase III Process Overview Value Opportunity Assessment Refined POG Product Attributes Brainstorm lots of concepts Quick eval Select 3-10 most promising concepts Select one concept for Phase IV Detailed Eval: Define Test Refine, Repeat

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Concept Generation Goals: –Generate a wide variety of product concepts –Explore many different approaches to solving the problem –Narrow list to 3-10 concepts for detailed evaluation Tasks: –Brainstorming - encourage wacky, ‘out-there’ ideas The crazy ideas often hold nuggets of opportunity to build on Sometimes what has historically been crazy is becoming more feasible due to SET factor trends –Try to come up with different concepts that could address the identified value opportunities and product attributes –Capture and build on ideas that came up during the first two phases –Draw on your observations of how customers interact with the world and their current tools/solutions

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Concept Generation Example: Paper Fastening Identified product attributes: Fasten related pieces of paper together –Inexpensively –Quickly –Reversibly –In order –Holds for an arbitrarily long time –In such a way that a person can flip through the papers Allow ad-hoc disassembly, reordering, and re-assembly Identify concepts to address this opportunity

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Paper Fastening Example: Initial Concepts Images source:

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Paper Fastening Example: Further Concepts What did you observe about these concepts? Have I generated enough product concepts yet? Further ideas? Images source:

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Technology Analysis In Phase III Technical feasibility –What needs to be done (technically) to realize product? –How big a job is it to realize this technically? Is it straightforward? theoretically impossible? practical? … –Convince yourself that the concept is technically feasible Where do your product concepts fit in your customers’ current [technology] ecosystems? Should your concept be packaged as: –A stand-alone product? –A component to be incorporated into other products/systems? –A service?

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Technology Analysis Detail Changes At Each Stage Understand the primary technology products, systems, and platforms used by target customers Purpose is to help identify opportunities Realize Conceptualize UnderstandIdentify

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Technology Analysis Detail Changes At Each Stage Repeat the exercise, hopefully with more data gained from observations and interviews Move beyond broad generalizations to identify specific techs and issues Focus on understanding Realize Conceptualize UnderstandIdentify

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Technology Analysis Detail Changes At Each Stage Identify specific systems, standards, and products with which your product will interact Understand the key platform decisions you will need to make Identify key platform candidates Realize Conceptualize UnderstandIdentify

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Technology Analysis Detail Changes At Each Stage Bind key platform decisions Prototype to insure feasibility Commit to specific systems and standards when and as needed Realize Conceptualize UnderstandIdentify

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Concept Filtering In Phase III VOA Refined POG Product Attributes Brainstorm lots of concepts Quick eval Select 3-10 most promising concepts Select one concept for Phase IV Detailed Eval: Define Test Refine, Repeat

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Concept Filtering In Phase III Initial filtering criteria: –How well does each product concept address the key value opportunities identified in phase II? –How well does each product concept meet the product attributes identified in phase II? Secondary filtering criteria: –Basic sanity checks –Technical feasability –Market sizing, readiness, likelihood of acceptance –Competitive landscape –… others?

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Market Analysis In Phase III Goals: –Determine business potential for concepts –Confirm that there is still a significant market opportunity –Evaluate customer acceptance of concept Tasks: –Market research –Surveys –Focus groups and interviews –Brand analysis –Customer/consumer sessions showing prototypes and observing customer reactions to and interactions with the prototypes

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Prototyping In Phase III Prototyping begins in this phase –Simple visual and functional representations Focus is on evaluating: –Customer reactions - desirability and utility –Technical and production feasibility (and difficulty) –Fit in customer’s technology ecosystems –Identifying early ‘gotchas’ Tasks: –Create storyboards to illustrate and refine concepts –Sketch out pencil-and-paper concepts –Identify key technical challenges, figure out a way to convince yourselves that they can be addressed –Do necessary prototyping to understand key technical challenges

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Some General Thoughts On Phase III Process Iterate, Iterate, Iterate! Refine, Refine, Refine! Customer feedback good Fail quickly and move on Believe in your concept by the end of the phase

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Conceptualization Exercise

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Product Opportunity Gap Over the past decade consumers have become more dependent on web-based retailers and service providers. To prevent fraud, web retailers and service providers need to authenticate that the customer making a purchase is who he or she claims to be. The standard way that web providers authenticate customers is requiring a userid and password to login. Consumers now need to manage many different passwords for many different sites, creating a hassle for consumers and a security problem for both consumers and web-based businesses.

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Identified Value Opportunities Legend Current: Desired:

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Identified Product Attributes Simplifies authentication process for consumers –Process of authenticating to a specific website or mobile service –Process of managing authentication information across sites and services Provides robust authentication – not easily spoofed Reduces security threats from consumer confusion, inattention, and inability to remember numerous pwd’s Simple to use with little or no training Difficult to use incorrectly Provides customers clear feedback that it is working Standard usage across most websites and mobile services Integrates with existing web and 3G technology infrastructure

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Conceptualization Exercise Form teams Brainstorm product concepts to address opportunity Develop a wide range of ideas Prepare a brief presentation to the class: –Quickly present a list of 8-10 solutions that illustrate a range of ideas your group generated –Present the 2 or 3 concepts that your group believes are the most promising

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Exercise Discussion How should we proceed from here? What else do we need to know in order to convert these ideas into a detailed product concept? –How can you get this information? What else do we need to do to develop the concept to the point that we can realize it as a prototype with a business plan and strategy behind it in phase 4?

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course Challenge Problem 4 Work in the same groups as for challenge problem #3 Part A (50 points): Use the results of challenge problem #3 to write a revised and refined: –Product Opportunity Statement –List of value opportunities that you have identified as most important for your target customers –Prioritized list of product attributes –Hand in a written summary of these three items Part B (50 points): Generate product concepts –Generate a list of at least 50 product/service concepts –Use the initial filtering ideas discussed to narrow to the 3 most promising product concepts for further investigation –Present those three top concepts, along with examples of other concepts you came up with but rejected, to the class next Tuesday in ~15 minutes Further details to follow on the wiki

Carnegie Mellon Qatar © Robert T. Monroe Course References [CE09] Robert G. Cooper and Scott Edgett, Successful Product Innovation, Product Development Institute, 2009, ISBN: [CV02] Jonathan Cagan and Craig M. Vogel, Creating Breakthrough Products, Prentice Hall, 2002, ISBN: [KL01] Tom Kelly with Jonathan Littman, The Art of Innovation, Doubleday, 2001 ISBN: [SSD09] David Silverstein, Philip Samuel, Neil DeCarlo, The Innovator’s Toolkit, John Wiley and Sons, 2009, ISBN: