 |
 |
Session
17:
Product Strategy:
The Product Development Process
In these three sessions ,
we'll focus specifically on product development in the early stages of the technology life cycle. As with every other aspect of technology
marketing, we face immense uncertainties; the market cannot tell us what it wants in a
product because the market hasn't been established. In this session we will introduce
the concept of rapid prototyping, with a major emphasis on how the end-user
can be built into the product development cycle. In the second, we'll
discuss ways to build a proprietary position. In the third session, we'll be testing these concepts on one of the most
ambitious high-tech product development efforts of recent times, the development of
Microsoft's Windows NT operating system.
Readings: ® = required; scan = read
introduction and conclusions; scan inside pages; (o) = optional;  =
Adobe Acrobat File
Scan:
Von Hippel, Eric (1999), "Creating
Breakthroughs at 3M," Harvard Business Review, Sept.-Oct.,
1999, 47-57.
Leonard,
Dorothy and Jeffrey F. Rayport, "Spark Innovation Through Empathic
Design," Harvard
Business Review, Nov.-Dec., 1997.
Lecture References:
-
Nevens,
T. Michael, Gregory L. Summe, and Bro Uttal, "Commercializing Technology: What the
Best Companies Do," Harvard Business Review, May-June, 1990, 154-163.®
- Hamel, Gary and C. K. Prahalad, "Corporate Imagination and Expeditionary
Marketing," Harvard Business Review, vol. 69, no. 4, July-August, 1991 (filed
under Session 8). Read pp. 86-92.
-
Morris
and Ferguson, "How Architecture Wins Technology Wars," Harvard Business
Review, Mar.-Apr. 1993.
Heinzl, Mark, "NORTEL:
Buying Into the New Economy," Wall Street Journal, July
26, 2000, B1.- Souder, William E., "Improving Productivity Through Technology Push," Research
Technology Management, March-April, 1989, 19-24.
- Ayal, Igal and Joel Rabin, "Developing Hi-Tech Industrial Products for World
Markets," IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, vol. 37, no. 3, August,
1990, 177-184.
Required for class discussion (®):
- ® Zachary,
G. Pascal, "Agony and Ecstacy of 200 Code Writers Beget Windows NT," Wall
Street Journal, 5/26/93, A1, 12.
- ® Clark, Don,
"A Dud at Its Birth, Windows NT is Back as a Networking Force," Wall
Street Journal, July 29, 1996, A1, A4.
- ® Harmon, Amy,
"The Rebel Code," New York Times Magazine, 2/21/99, 34-37.
Optional reading for class discussion
- Mitchell, Russ, "Open
War,"
Wired; San Francisco; Oct. 2001, 135-139.
Discussion Question: Today there are two major Windows
NT-compatible operating systems, Windows NT itself and Linux. After reading the three
articles above, compare and contrast the processes used to develop the two systems. What
lessons can we learn from each?
Lecture Notes:
Product Strategy I: The
Product Development Process (product1.ppt)
Product
Strategy II:
Building the User into the Development Cycle (product2.ppt)
Market Plan:
- All: Complete through Section
8.
- This week's presenter:
Post to Prometheus
on Monday of this week.
- Others: comment on this week's
presentation.
|
