Week 1 Starter Questions – Product Design Philosophy
Week 1 Starter Questions – Product Design Philosophy
Respond to the following in a minimum of 100 words:
- What are the product design philosophies behind industrial design and design for manufacture and assembly? Which one do you think is more important in customer-focused product development?
- Provide an example of customer focused product development in your organization or an organization you have researched
- Provide an example of a successful or unsuccessful introduction of a new product and an evaluation of its specific development process.
Reply to classmate in 100 word count
bY Richard
The product design philosophies behind industrial design focused on creating a product from the customer’s vision. This includes physical appeal, and ease of use of the product. Design for manufacture and assembly typically focuses on what’s best for the manufacturer to make. Is it a complicated design? How many parts does it include? How long will this take to make? These are common questions manufacturers may take into consideration. To me, I believe that industrial design is more important in customer-focused product development because at the end of the day, the customer/user is going to be vocal (via word of mouth, social media) about what the product looks like, how easy or difficult the product is to use.
An example of customer – focused product development would be Netflix. Netflix (like most educators) rely heavily on data to make customer-focused product decisions. “The company relies heavily on traditional market research, but wanted to augment it with social media insights…” With Netflix utilizing social media when making product decisions, they are able to get instant feedback based on exactly what the customer is feeling at that time. This approach allows them to make adjustments a lot faster than other companies.
An example of an unsuccessful introduction of a new product would be “New Coke” back in 1985. The development of this product nearly crushed The Coca-Cola Company. “It was one of the first ideas in our Season 3 brainstorm, the Duffer Brothers, as they are listed in the credits, said in a joint email interview. “It was the summer of ’85, and when you talk about pop culture moments, New Coke was a really big deal. It would have been more bizarre to not include it” (Koblin, 2019, para. 6). It was developed with the idea that it would make its product better and keep up with the times, but it was huge backlash from its customers. The product was a big failure. As a former employee, they still celebrate the change back to Coke from the New coke as Coca-Cola wouldn’t be here otherwise.
