Peer-graded Assignment: Reflection

CHALLENGE

One challenge within an organization is to develop new innovative products and services and  present them to the market. These products must be developed in an economical and  sustainable way. They must also answer a desire or need on the market, be technologically  and organizationally feasible and financially viable. A typical design process includes generic  steps such as the identification of needs, idea generation and conceptual design, detailed  product design, the preparation of production and design of production system, production,  marketing and delivery. Defined generic design phases include Idea and Concept Design,  Product Design and System Design. These phases often differ from each other in objectives  and approaches but have the design concept in common. Another aspect these phases share is  the use and need of visual communication.

SELECTION

Visualization is about using images. It’s not about drawing; it’s about visual thinking.  It pushes us beyond using words or language alone. It is a way of unlocking a different  part of our brains that allows us to think nonverbally and that managers might not  normally use. When you explain an idea using words, the rest of us will form our own  mental pictures, usually informed by our training. When you say, “We need a new  growth platform,” the IT specialist sees servers and code and the marketing guru sees  an advertising campaign. If instead you present your idea to us by drawing a picture of  it, you reduce the possibility of unmatched mental models. The use of visualization has  always been very close to me. The first time I used it in a way that could be considered a  product realization was when I did my first art. Improvement in product development  execution involves the better use of the creative ability among the individuals involved in the  process. It is vital for those individuals to understand new approaches, tools, and methods and  to then be able to adopt them for practical use in their own model of product development.  When developing any model, good knowledge about the current situation and the best  practice in organizations is needed.

APPLICATION

In order to develop support for addressing the factors most suitable within different  development activities, it is important to investigate what a model using visualization as a  support could look like. The aim is to develop a supportive model addressing the criteria  identified in order to improve the success factors in product. The focus is on team members  involved in the process and the management level in the organization. To facilitate the  process of developing new products and services, management needs to have access to the  process and understand each meaning of the phases in the process. The expected result of this  is to explain why visualization is an important part of the product development process. It is

expected to deliver a series of results with a focus on the impact visualization has on the  performance of the product realization execution. It should explain and map a visualization  process for the product realization process in order to deliver value and benefits to the project  partners, the research community and industry. The expected result is a conceptual  framework regarding how visualization can be used within a product development project.  The model should look into the existing situation and highlight the problem that is relevant in  industry, focusing on SMEs. The model should also look into the factors most suitable to take  into consideration when improving the situation.

INSIGHT

To gain an understanding of how and why visualization is used, the demo illuminates the  subjective experience of the situation is a possibility to reconstruct the significant part of the  experience. The directed open demo creates an open climate where insight is gained in a  natural way. Visualization supports different steps in an NPD process. The main goal should  be the possibility to use visualization in every part of the process (for example, in  communicating ideas between different parts in an implementation process). It saves time and  brings thoughts into a structured and supportive shape. Being aware of shape and function of  the visualization during the product realization processing time, and in every step of an  innovative progression, will surely improve the final result in every sense. These  communicative processes are not strictly in the explicit product development process. They  also exist in phases effecting the process, such as scenario planning, observing the user,  understanding the user, explaining the gathered information and communicating this to the  members of the team. The understanding that comes with the visual communication of all this  information improves the overall performance of the design process and conveys information  to the entire group. To make this happen, the team members must understand each other´s  information needs. These insights drive further exploration.

APPROACH

As observed, the sketch is useful but it may get neglected in NDP projects. Therefore, further  research is necessary regarding image theory within design processes to systematically study how  sketches and models effect the mental image in the NPD processes and to what extent they effect  the result concerning efficiency and effectiveness in the product realization process. This could be  done in the following way:

Visualization efficiency, step 1. Implementing the model in more projects.

Visualization efficiency, step 2. Implementing and executing the model in new product development  projects, starting with seminars for both management and project teams and continuing with the  execution of projects.

Visualization management, step 3. Designing and conducting a dialog seminar for analyzing and  evaluating the result of the visualization efficiency study.

