The Spread of Product Development Methodology: Exploring Drivers and Barriers in Swedish Industry
DS 81: Proceedings of NordDesign 2014, Espoo, Finland 27-29th August 2014
Year: 2014
Editor: Miko Laakso, Kalevi Ekman
Author: Hiort Af Ornas, Viktor; Warell, Anders; Larsson, Andreas; Motte, Damien; Jagtap, Santosh
Series: NordDESIGN
Institution: 1: Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden; 2: Lund University, Sweden
Section: Design theory and practices
Page(s): 540-549
ISBN: 978-1-904670-58-2
Abstract
The outcome of Design, Innovation and Product development research is often manifested as recommendations in the form of methods, but these do not always find their way into industrial application. This paper elaborates on drivers and barriers for the spread of product development methodology based on 41 interviews with managers, designers, developers and knowledge brokers. Results indicate a range of motives for adopting methods including e.g. coordination of different actors, generation of documentation, methods serving as tools for various design tasks etc. However; the value of tools must be seen in relation to local conditions and practices. The spread of methods occurs between and within organisations and may be actively supported while ideally “good tools spread themselves”. Participants call for methods to be scalable or malleable, guiding, informing and enabling without constraining or enforcing too rigid procedures.
Keywords: Product development methods, knowledge diffusion, design, innovation