How to develop breakthrough products and services

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session for 8 weeks

Firms must develop major innovations to prosper, but they don't know how to. However, recent research into the innovation process has made it possible to develop breakthroughs systematically. 15.356 How to Develop Breakthrough Products and Services explores several practical idea generation development methods. To convey the art required to implement each of these methodologies, experts are invited to present real cases to the class.

Your course grade will be determined primarily on the basis of the quality of two 7-page papers that each build on one course-related topic that especially interests you. We can discuss good paper topics for each of you as the term progresses. In addition you are, of course, expected to prepare for classes by doing the assigned readings and participating in class discussions!

Lecturer: Prof. Andrew Torrance

It was once assumed that patents were obviously good for innovation. Now research is showing that the net effect of patents is often to discourage and block innovation. Professor Andrew Torrance of the University of Kansas Law School explains the situation, and considers what to do about it.

Lecturer: Prof. Glen Urban

Interactive, web-based methods are being developed to enable companies to explore new combinations of customer needs online. Prof. Glen Urban and colleagues are leading in this field. After reviewing existing market research tools for need identification, he will describe "listening in" procedures and an application to autos.

Lecturer: Dr. Harry West, CEO, Design Continuum

Harry West teaches his firm to carefully and creatively study what users do. Sometimes the user behaviors studied contain user-developed prototypes of desired solutions that Design Continuum can evolve further. Sometimes the users' activities suggest a related need to the observers—"The user is doing something really inconvenient here. There must be a better way!"—and Design Continuum then invents the new solution from scratch.

Lecturer: Joe Paradiso, MIT Media Lab

The Media Lab houses very creative people (some of them leading-edge users) who build prototypes of new ideas and potential products based upon their own interests and needs. Lab sponsor firms are then invited in to look at the prototypes and see if they can identify links to their own markets and production capabilities. Often, a creative link results.

Lecturer: Christiana Raasch

Firms can benefit from opening some things—but not everything—to user innovation and modification. How do they choose what to open and what to keep closed?

Lecturer: Benjamin Mako Hill

This lecture is a sampling of recent user hacks.

Lecturer: Alph Bingham, COB, Innocentive

People have a range of "process value" incentives like fun and learning that can be tapped to induce them to join in on contests or collaborative problem-solving work that addresses a sponsor's problems rather than their own. Innocentive is a major participant in providing crowdsourced solutions for difficult industrial and social problems. Alph will talk about general principles, and then give a case application for the pharma industry.

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