This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Summary
OXO is one of almost two dozen case studies in Creating Breakthrough Products. Breakthrough products, services, and companies merge style and technology in a way that creates strong customer value and promotes a positive user experience. Strong brand, corporate values, and connection to customer values lead to both short-term and long-term customer satisfaction. In Creating Breakthrough Products, we introduce state-of-the-art tools and methods to identify and understand product opportunities, and develop those opportunities into successful, breakthrough products. We help companies do the following:
Find the right opportunities for new products and appropriate innovation to improve existing products
Design products and services that customers perceive as truly valuable by appropriate integration of style and technology
Maximize front-end decisions to minimize downstream corrections
Reduce cycle times without reducing innovation and quality
Build and maintain brand equity through a strong product
Integrate design, marketing, and engineering by reducing "perceptual gaps" and produce products that are considered useful, usable, and desirable by the customer
Appropriately position the role of technology in product development
Recognize the significance of industrial and interaction design in the product development process
Attract, prepare, and retain the best people
To be successful in meeting these challenges, a shared vision must flow from top management through middle and lower management down to individual members of product development teams. While an opportunity for new products can be identified at any level, the vision of the product potential must be shared and championed at all levels. Not only do successful products help customers create maximum experiences in their everyday lives, but the process of developing the products themselves must be an equally powerful and rewarding experience for the product team. Developing products should be a form of serious fun. If everyone on the team is enjoying the process, it usually means that everyone in the company profits from the experience. The bottom line result will be satisfied customers and greater profits to shareholders.