Developing
products is not simply an engineering problem, a design problem, a
marketing problem or a research problem alone. It is a multi-faceted
problem that requires the single-minded cooperation of all of the
involved core disciplines.
It is essential that four core competencies and the many disciplines of which they are comprised work in an uncommonly close collaboration during the Front End of NPD. The core competencies are:
Marketing
- Product Marketing
- Marketing Communications
- Product Management
Design
- Industrial Design
- User Interface Design
- User Experience Design
- Graphic Design
- Packaging Design
Engineering
- Information Architecture
- Software Engineering
- Industrial Engineering
- Electrical Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering
Research
- Marketing Research
- Operations Research & Logistics
- Consumer Research (sometime called ‘Consumer Insights’)
- Human Factors & Ergonomics
- Usability Testing
- Ethnography (a.k.a. Observational Field Research)
Other Specialty Disciplines
It is often necessary to bring in, as needed, experts from specialty disciplines or sub- disciplines, such as—
- Traditional Anthropology/Ethnography
- Acoustics
- Architecture
- Medical Devices
- Affective Human Factors
- RF Engineering
- etc.
The cultural change to make collaboration rather than competition among the core competency areas the norm is challenging but critical!
