RETHINK ENGINEERING – Breakthroughs in Design & Product Development – 2016

Advances in design thinking, user interface, user experience, materials, manufacturing and overall quality provides unprecedented opportunities to create and launch products that delight consumers and establish new markets. Breakthrough products result from a mesmerizing convergence of form, function, style, technology, and emotional appeal that brings unique experiences to its users. In the last half century, consumer demand for products of superior design has continuously increased. During the last quarter of the 20th century, the industries focused on quality development, reengineering and concurrent design to constantly improve products have reflected this growth. Since the beginning of 21st century, the emphasis has shifted from the back end to the front end of the product development, and design thinking is playing the central role in leading innovation at successful organizations.

New product success is vital to the growth and longevity of the modern corporation. However, developing a steady stream of new successful products is no easy task. According to C.M. Crawford, the new product launch failure rate is around 40%, whereas, several other studies suggest a failure rate from 80-90%. Another study concluded that only 3% of the consumer products earned above $5M in annual revenues and 44% of product development projects fail to achieve their profit targets. Irrespective of the new product failure rate, it is increasingly difficult to create breakthrough products and near impossible to maintain the category leadership. Consider the mobile handset market in the past decade, where the iPhone in 9 years has rendered seven well-established companies with all their classic advantages, helpless. iPhone claimed 92% of the total market profits in 2015. Essentially, in the Digital Age, every organization and its products are an open target for disruption.

Stellar product development is no accident. It is the result of a disciplined, systematic approach. This program explores the latest breakthroughs and trends in the overall process of innovation, design thinking, product and platform development by presenting the intricate details of lifecycle of three different products in five distinct phases of development cycles.