Chapter 8: Creativity and Product Development

Over the past 20 years, product life cycles have gotten shorter and shorter–in large part due to faster technological breakthroughs. To keep pace with this environment of rapid change, companies must establish a creative culture that strongly encourages spending time on new ideas, concepts, and solutions. Creative ideas, concepts, and solutions are turned into products and services through the product design and development process. This process is concerned with the concrete details that embody a new product or service. Prototypes are models of a product or service and can help a new technology venture to learn about the right form of the product for the customer. Scenarios are used to create a mental model of a possible sequence of future events or outcomes.

1. “Product Development Process: Observation” with David Kelley, IDEO

2. “Ideas Come From Everywhere” with Marissa Mayer, Yahoo

3. “Unlock Creativity with Motivation and Expertise” with Tina Seelig, Stanford University

Continue to Chapter 9

Tom Byers, Stanford University

Tom Byers is a Professor in the Department of Management Science & Engineering at Stanford University and a faculty director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP).

Andrew Nelson, University of Oregon

Andrew Nelson is Associate Vice President for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and an Associate Professor of Management at the University of Oregon.

Richard Dorf, University of California, Davis

Richard C. Dorf is a Professor Emeritus of Management and Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Davis.