ix, 99 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / Design briefs outline the business objectives, corresponding design strategies and target markets for a product development project. Research has demonstrated that a variety of attributes influence consumer impressions of a product, less attention has been given to the within-firm mechanisms that determine the optimal mix of attributes which to embed in an offering. The first essay of this dissertation examines the role of design briefs as knowledge-based assets that function as artifacts of this process within new product development (NPD). In a second essay, this dissertation examines design briefs as knowledge-based artifacts of cross-functional collaboration during NPD. NPD is often characterized as the process by which firms transform knowledge embedded in cross-functional teams into new products. However functional areas often differ in their evaluations of information and knowledge needed to successfully complete an NPD project. Based on an expert rating and survey questionnaire procedure, results provide a framework of eight factors of cross-functional knowledge present in design briefs and empirically describes differences in evaluation within each factor across functional area. / Committee in charge: Dennis Howard, Chairperson, Marketing; Lynn Kahle, Member, Marketing; Joan Giese, Member, Marketing; Keven Malkewitz, Member, Not from U of O; Gary Klug, Outside Member, Human Physiology

I here have been very few studies carried out on enhancing CFC (Cross-functional Collaboration) for the product design development. nevertheless there is a clear consensus among researchers that this issue is a critical one in ne product design development. Besides, almost all of the research work, which attempted to encourage CFC in NPD situations, was carried out focused on the cross-functional team which is the most effective organisation type to encourage collaboration between other functional groups, rather than the functional organisation, which is difficult organisation to facilitate collaboration between other functional groups. On the other hand, there is still no clear evidence which proves that CFC improves the performance of' design development. Nevertheless, this proof is essential premise to support the value of producing the information to improve CFC for product design development. This research attempts to fill in this gap in the deficiency of research. This longitudinal research has been conducted with complementary research methods: a qualitative research and a quantitative research in the field. As the main body of this research, 15 key -decision makers for new product design development were interviewed and 243 questionnaires from eight leading consumer electronics companies in three countries (Korea, Japan. UK) were analysed. In conclusion, firstly, this research has proved there is a plus correlation between the level of CFC and several dimensions of the design development performance of consumer electronics products. Furthermore, a new framework model is developed and proposed after compressing and combining all vital findings of this research work. This developed model presents three major findings of this research. Firstly, the factors affecting CF C for design development of consumer electronics products, secondly, the priority of importance of these factors, and finally, factors directly contributing to design development performance in several dimensions. Overall, the findings of this research help to people what are valuable factors for building CFC climate and what are prior factor in a quandary concerning, where to concentrate their efforts so as to successfully implement their (TV to improve their design development performance. In particular, the findings of this research could further help designers and design managers who lack the experience and knowledge of collaboration situations in the rigid functional organisational boundaries, which many consumer electronics companies face.

Lean Product Development is a knowledge-based business concept in order to maintain high quality, meetcustomer requirements and to make product development more efficient. An important part of the processis to add a lot of resources at an early stage and execute the development as an iterative process betweendepartments exploring many alternatives thoroughly. The work focuses on how Lean ProductDevelopment is carried out and explores how to manage interaction between different departments andexpertise with regard to cross-functional collaboration and knowledge sharing i.e. learning.The information for the studies was gathered at a major Swedish company from two projects. The projectswere carried out as cross-functional and possible key factors for cross-functional collaboration wasidentified.The results have been correlated with theories of Lean, Product development, Lean product developmentand Learning. The analysis shows that to carry out activities according to Lean product development willrequire more than to follow the concept’s framework for successful implementation. Factors that areidentified as important in cross-functional collaboration is also recognised in the Lean productdevelopment theory. However the theory does not indicate how the factors is implemented and carried outbut how it should be implemented. This will create opportunities and problems for companies that want towork and implement Lean product development.

Game development today is a complex process that differs from traditional software development by presenting unique challenges stemming from a multidisciplinary structured process, including teams from multiple fields, such as art, sound, programming, design, human factors and more. This, together with the growth of the industry during recent years has increased the need for a more efficient cross-functional collaboration and understanding between these teams. This study focuses on the collaboration and understanding between two distinct teams, User Research (UR) and Development in order to try and shed some light on an emerging challenge of a gap in understanding that exists between the two fields. A case study was conducted at an established game company in Sweden, where a UR team was closely observed and analyzed. The results of this study showed that the issues and practices could be grouped into three different areas, Process, Communication, and Understanding that affected each other differently. Where a majority of the issues found often related to Communication and Understanding problems. The findings provided a glimpse of the gap in understanding in a game development process and what problems it can entail and what the possible solutions could streamline the process. However, in order to fully understand and fill this gap more thorough observations during a longer period of time is required. / Spelutveckling idag är en komplex process, som skiljer sig från traditionell programutveckling genom att den presenterar unika utmaningar som härstammar från en multidisciplinär strukturerad process. Som inkluderar teams från många olika fält, såsom konst, ljud, programmering, design, mänskliga faktorer och många fler. Detta tillsammans med utvidgning av industrin de senaste åren har det skett ett behov av mer effektivt tvärfunktionellt samarbete och förståelse mellan dessa team. Denna studie fokuserar på samarbete och förståelsen mellan två specifika team, User Research (UR) och Development för att försöka belysa den uppkomna utmaningen av en klyfta i förståelsen som existerar mellan de två fälten. En fallstudie gjordes på ett etablerat spelföretag i Sverige, där ett UR team noggrant observerades and analyserades. Resultaten från studien visar att problem och praxis kunde grupperas i tre olika områden, Process, Kommunikation och Förståelse där var och en påverkade varandra olika, där majoriteten av de identifierade problemen ofta relaterade till Kommunikation och Förståelse problem. Upptäckterna gav en skymt av klyftan i förståelse som finns i en spelutvecklingsprocess och vilka problem den kan medföra samt vilka möjliga lösningar som skulle kunna effektivisera denna process. Dock, för att få full förståelse över denna klyfta och hur man kan skulle kunna fylla den så behövs en mer noggrannare studie över en längre tid.