The world is currently in the middle of a digital revolution where digital platforms have become an important part of industrial engineering, management solutions and economic values. There is huge potential for digital platforms to contribute to various manufacturing processes such as physical product development. In this study we will be discussing the various stakeholders collaborating in the new product development process, their challenges and how digital platforms can ease those challenges. The aim of the study is to identify the challenges faced by the various stakeholders collaborating and engaging in various product development processes from product idea to mass production, and then suggest possible digital solutions to deal with those challenges. The theory used to discuss the results is the collaboration theory, “Five stage model of collaboration”. The study followed a qualitative study approach using semi-structured interview to gather data and thematic analysis for data analysis. Four stakeholders were identified, namely, idea owners, incubators, manufacturers, and financers. At least one participant from each category was interviewed and the data collected was coded into first order concepts, second order concepts and finally into themes. The challenges that were identified from data analysis were interaction problems, engagement challenges, time and work effectiveness problems, proficiency challenge, agreement challenges and endorsement problems and the theme communication was the major and most common challenge identified amongst the stakeholders. The digital solutions AI auto match technology, multi-flow communication channel, safe and encrypted file sharing and tracing of activities, planning, and monitoring progress, learning and equipment with a detailed product development guide, and collaboration on multiple projects through a digital platform have been suggested to overcome these challenges. The importance of stakeholder engagement on digital platforms and the role of digital platforms to provide an engaging and user-friendly experience have been discussed as well. We believe that digital platforms through digital solutions may encourage innovation and sustainable development in the future.

Background: During the last decades there has been a rapid increase in the desire of being more flexible and responsive, which has paved the way for Agile Project Management – APM. As a consequence of implementing APM into environments previously defined as traditional, it has opened up a discussion of merging APM with Traditional Project Management – TPM. This combination of methodologies is referred to as Hybrid Project Management – HPM, whose aim is to leverage benefits from both APM and TPM. Purpose: Prior research has failed to keep up with this trend. Those that have shed light on this phenomenon have failed to realize the differences between IT and non-IT sectors. With this in mind, and the call for including managers’ perspective on HPM, this study has investigated project managers’ experiences and perceptions of factors that influence hybrid project success in physical product development. In order to address this purpose this study has also investigated how project managers perceive project success. This was done since one must first determine what constitutes project success in order to identify what factors that could bear a potential influence on it. Method: From an interpretivist philosophical standpoint this, exploratory and inductive, study has been carried out through semi-structured interviews with experienced project managers within HPM. Inspired by Grounded Theory, this study has employed purposive sampling and analyzed the data through a grounded analysis technique. Conclusion: This research has successfully identified a range of various factors that influence hybrid projects’ success. Based upon this, a model exhibiting the factors influencing hybrid projects in physical product development could be constructed, as well as a model depicting how project managers perceive hybrid project success. It was found that there is a constant tension between the TPM and APM when merging the two. Instead of identifying one way to optimize the hybrid project, it is more or less about managing this balance between APM and TPM practices. It was also found that project success is a dynamic and subjective concept, rather than the static and additive concept that is often illustrated by contemporary research.