The mass production of aircrafts has been mainly led by the objective of both maximizing technological performances and minimizing the manufacturing costs. Within also the constraints of safety and security rules defined by certification organisms, the traditional innovation management has consisted above all in implementing a "technology-push" approach. New developed aircrafts have been then mostly driven by Research and Technology projects outputs. Nevertheless, current market competitiveness and complexity lead to change this approach. The needs of aeronautical customers evolve, change and become diversified, which raise multiple specific profiles to be taken into account as early as possible in today's development programs. In order to ensure high value and differentiation perception by all the stakeholders, the innovation policy has to shift from mass production to mass customization, and to integrate both "market-read" and 'technology-push" approaches in the preliminary phase of innovation. The goal of this PhD thesis is to provide the aircraft program managers with a methodological support, named Concept-to-Value, to steer by value the so called Fuzzy Front End of Innovation stage in the literature. At the bridge between the Product Planning and Conceptual Design research works, our contribution improves the existing methodologies on the Business and Engineering domains integration. Concept-to-Value brings a more agile and integrated collaboration of multidisciplinary players: a common language and value model represent their innovation Knowledge, Problems and Solutions. Finally, a convergence process is also defined to conduct the preliminary phase and to deliver high value aircraft concepts.

Innovation diffusion models have been studied extensively to forecast and explain the adoption process for new products or services. These models are often formulated using one of two approaches: The first, and most common is a macro-level approach that aggregates much of the market behaviour. An advantage of this method is that forecasts and other analyses may be performed with the necessity of estimating few parameters. The second is a micro-level approach that aims to utilize microeconomic information pertaining to the potential market and the innovation. The advantage of this methodology is that analyses allow for a direct understanding of how potential customers view the innovation. Nevertheless, when individuals are making adoption decisions, the reality of the situation is that the process consists of at least two stages: First, a potential adopter must become aware of the innovation; and second the aware individual must decide to adopt. Researchers, have studied multi-stage diffusion processes in the past, however a majority of these works employ a macro-level approach to model market flows. As a result, a direct understanding of how individuals value the innovation is lacking, making it impossible to utilize this information to model realistic word-of-mouth behaviour and other network dynamics. Thus, we propose a two-stage integrated model that utilizes the benefits of both the macro- and micro-level approaches. In the first stage, potential customers become aware of the innovation, which requires no decision making by the individual. As a result, we employ a macro-level diffusion process to describe the first stage. However, in the second stage potential customers decide whether to adopt the innovation or not, and we utilize a micro-level methodology to model this. We further extend the application to include forward looking behaviour, heterogeneous adopters and segmented Bayesian learning, and utilize the adopter's satisfaction levels to describe biasing and word-of-mouth behaviour. We apply the proposed model to Canadian colour-TV data, and cross-validation results suggest that the new model has excellent predictive capabilities. We also apply the two-stage model to early U.S. hybrid-electric vehicle data and results provide insightful managerial observations.

Innovation diffusion models have been studied extensively to forecast and explain the adoption process for new products or services. These models are often formulated using one of two approaches: The first, and most common is a macro-level approach that aggregates much of the market behaviour. An advantage of this method is that forecasts and other analyses may be performed with the necessity of estimating few parameters. The second is a micro-level approach that aims to utilize microeconomic information pertaining to the potential market and the innovation. The advantage of this methodology is that analyses allow for a direct understanding of how potential customers view the innovation. Nevertheless, when individuals are making adoption decisions, the reality of the situation is that the process consists of at least two stages: First, a potential adopter must become aware of the innovation; and second the aware individual must decide to adopt. Researchers, have studied multi-stage diffusion processes in the past, however a majority of these works employ a macro-level approach to model market flows. As a result, a direct understanding of how individuals value the innovation is lacking, making it impossible to utilize this information to model realistic word-of-mouth behaviour and other network dynamics. Thus, we propose a two-stage integrated model that utilizes the benefits of both the macro- and micro-level approaches. In the first stage, potential customers become aware of the innovation, which requires no decision making by the individual. As a result, we employ a macro-level diffusion process to describe the first stage. However, in the second stage potential customers decide whether to adopt the innovation or not, and we utilize a micro-level methodology to model this. We further extend the application to include forward looking behaviour, heterogeneous adopters and segmented Bayesian learning, and utilize the adopter's satisfaction levels to describe biasing and word-of-mouth behaviour. We apply the proposed model to Canadian colour-TV data, and cross-validation results suggest that the new model has excellent predictive capabilities. We also apply the two-stage model to early U.S. hybrid-electric vehicle data and results provide insightful managerial observations.

Developing successful new products in New Zealand Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is difficult due to several factors. These include greater expectations, new technology, reduced product lifecycles, high project failure rates, and the pressures from competition. This presents a significant challenge for a product development team as it leaves companies searching for opportunities to gain an advantage in the market place. The low level of research performed in relation to SMEs over the past number of years, especially in the field of New Product Development (NPD), has resulted in an increase in interest by practitioners and academics. This research was aimed at exploring the pre-development phase currently employed by SMEs within the New Zealand manufacturing industry. The purpose was to gauge the understanding and importance of this early stage in NPD amongst practitioners from these SMEs, as the literature highlighted this as an area of weakness requiring empirical research. Specifically, the objectives set for this research investigation were to survey manufacturing SMEs in New Zealand, compare the findings with past and current research on a national and international level, and make conclusions in relation to: • The nature and complexity of the pre-development activities performed by New Zealand manufacturing SMEs. • The difficulties and/or limitations New Zealand manufacturing SMEs encounter whilst implementing the pre-development activities. • The importance of and attitude towards the pre-development phase with regards to the overall NPD process and the company’s product development efforts. The study consisted of a questionnaire survey, run during June and July 2007 with twenty-two SMEs representing the light engineering/manufacturing, electronics, and food industry sectors. The questionnaire survey was followed up with one-on-one interviews with some of the participating companies allowing for both quantitative and qualitative data to be obtained. The research investigation found that the difficulties in carrying out the five predevelopment activities studied were common, compounded by the lack of skills inhouse to do so. Of the five pre-development activities studied, the preliminary technical analysis was found to be given the most attention by the companies with regard to overall project time, with lesser emphasis placed on the other four activities. Many of the companies developed ‘new to the world’ products or entered new markets with existing products where they primarily took part in the business-tobusiness market. Good relationships existed between the manufacturing SMEs and their suppliers, distributors and customers. Management were found to have a high level of involvement in product planning, as they tend to be involved in key decision making in NPD in SMEs. Many of the companies had difficulty when it came to identifying opportunities and customer needs, with the addition of numerous barriers limiting the implementation of NPD. The greatest difficulties arose during the practical implementation of tools and techniques due to several challenges, such as limited budgets, lack of time and resources as well as incompatibility within the existing company culture. Clearly, the pre-development phase is the basis for the remainder of the NPD process with essential development decisions being made here. This phase is therefore crucial in determining the likely outcome of NPD projects. The research findings suggested that greater consideration and effort should be placed on the pre-development phase, even more so with the cost increasing exponentially when mistakes are made later in development. The study highlighted the need to improve the tools and techniques available for use during the pre-development phase, as companies are aware of its importance but find it the most difficult to undertake. High new product failure rates; over-expenditure of project time; lack of awareness, commitment, and formality; and the high level of difficulty experienced by the New Zealand SMEs studied, suggests there is a need for the implementation of better tools and techniques during the predevelopment phase to aid successful NPD in New Zealand manufacturing SMEs.

La production de masse dans l’industrie aéronautique a été surtout poussée par l’objectif de maximiser les performances technologiques, et de minimiser les coûts de fabrication. Dans le respect des règles de sureté et de sécurité établies par les organismes de certification, le management traditionnel de l’innovation a consisté avant tout à mettre en œuvre une approche en « technology-push ». Le développement des avions a ainsi surtout été tiré par les résultats de projets de recherche technologique. Cependant, la compétitivité et la complexité du marché actuel tendent à modifier cette approche. Les besoins des clients évoluent, changent et se diversifient suivant de multiples profiles spécifiques, qui doivent être pris en compte très tôt dans les nouveaux programmes. Afin d’assurer une valeur et différentiation importantes à toutes les parties prenantes, la politique d’innovation doit passer de la production de masse à une production personnalisée. Cela nécessite d’intégrer les approches en « technology-push » et « market-read » dès la phase préliminaire d’innovation. Pour piloter cette phase par la valeur, ce travail de thèse a permis de fournir aux managers de programmes un support méthodologique, appelé Concept-to-Value. A la croisée entre les travaux sur la Planification Stratégique et la Conception Conceptuelle, notre contribution porte sur l’amélioration des méthodologies existantes pour l’intégration du Business et de l’Ingénierie. Concept-to-Value supporte une collaboration plus agile et intégrée entre des acteurs multidisciplinaires: un langage et un modèle de valeur communs représentent leurs Connaissances, Problèmes et Solutions d’innovation. Enfin, un processus de convergence est aussi défini pour amener la phase préliminaire à délivrer des concepts d’avions créateurs de valeur. / The mass production of aircrafts has been mainly led by the objective of both maximizing technological performances and minimizing the manufacturing costs. Within also the constraints of safety and security rules defined by certification organisms, the traditional innovation management has consisted above all in implementing a “technology-push” approach. New developed aircrafts have been then mostly driven by Research and Technology projects outputs. Nevertheless, current market competitiveness and complexity lead to change this approach. The needs of aeronautical customers evolve, change and become diversified, which raise multiple specific profiles to be taken into account as early as possible in today’s development programs. In order to ensure high value and differentiation perception by all the stakeholders, the innovation policy has to shift from mass production to mass customization, and to integrate both “market-read” and ‘technology-push” approaches in the preliminary phase of innovation. The goal of this PhD thesis is to provide the aircraft program managers with a methodological support, named Concept-to-Value, to steer by value the so called Fuzzy Front End of Innovation stage in the literature. At the bridge between the Product Planning and Conceptual Design research works, our contribution improves the existing methodologies on the Business and Engineering domains integration. Concept-to-Value brings a more agile and integrated collaboration of multidisciplinary players: a common language and value model represent their innovation Knowledge, Problems and Solutions. Finally, a convergence process is also defined to conduct the preliminary phase and to deliver high value aircraft concepts.

Context. Software product planning involves product lifecycle management, roadmapping, release planning and requirements engineering. Requirements are collected and used together with criteria to define short-term plans, release plans and long-term plans, roadmaps. The different stages of the product lifecycle determine whether a product is mainly evolved, extended, or simply maintained. When eliciting requirements and identifying criteria for software product planning, the product manager is confronted with statements about customer interests that do not correspond to their needs. Analytics summarize, filter, and transform measurements to obtain insights about what happened, how it happened, and why it happened. Analytics have been used for improving usability of software solutions, monitoring reliability of networks and for performance engineering. However, the concept of using analytics to determine the evolution of a software solution is unexplored. In a context where a misunderstanding of users’ need can easily lead the effective product design to failure, the support of analytics for software product planning can contribute to fostering the realization of which features of the product are useful for the users or customers. Objective. In observation of a lack of primary studies, the first step is to apply analytics of software product planning concept in the evolution of software solutions by having an understanding of the product usage measurement. For this reason, this research aims to understand relevant analytics of users’ interaction with SaaS applications. In addition, to identify an effective way to collect right analytics and measure feature usage with respect to page-based analytics and feature-based analytics to provide decision-support for software product planning. Methods. This research combines a literature review of the state-of-the-art to understand the research gap, related works and to find out relevant analytics for software product planning. A market research is conducted to compare the features of different analytics tools to identify an effective way to collect relevant analytics. Hence, a prototype analytics tool is developed to explore the way of measuring feature usage of a SaaS website to provide decision-support for software product planning. Finally, a software simulation is performed to understand the impact of page clutter, erroneous page presentation and feature spread with respect to page-based analytics and feature-based analytics. Results. The literature review reveals the studies which describe the related work on relevant categories of software analytics that are important for measuring software usage. A software-supported approach, developed from the feature comparison results of different analytics tools, ensures an effective way of collecting analytics for product planners. Moreover, the study results can be used to understand the impact of page clutter, erroneous page representation and feature spread with respect to page-based analytics and feature-based analytics. The study reveals that the page clutter, erroneous page presentation and feature spread exaggerate feature usage measurement with the page-based analytics, but not with the feature-based analytics. Conclusions. The research provided a wide set of evidence fostering the understanding of relevant analytics for software product planning. The results revealed the way of measuring the feature usage to SaaS product managers. Furthermore, feature usage measurement of SaaS websites can be recognized, which helps product managers to understand the impact of page clutter, erroneous page presentation and feature spread between page-based and feature-based analytics. Further case study can be performed to evaluate the solution proposals by tailoring the company needs. / +46739480254

No description available.

This study aims at exploring and developing an approach for user-centred product planning for product managers in multi-product tech companies. Applying the Design Thinking methodology in this research project allows for product managers to be involved in the design process as a whole. From research and interviews with product managers it can be seen that there is a global understanding of the importance of a shift in focus towards user experience rather than product features while planning, but that there are no clear means yet to facilitate this. Through co-design with product managers as well as individual prototyping, a lo-fi prototype of a planning tool is developed and tested. The results show that the prototype successfully facilitated multi-product planning and shifted the focus from features to experiences. The methodology used can be reproduced in analogous companies and the results can be used as a starting point to continue adapting and developing the approach. / Denna studie syftar till att utforska och utveckla ett tillvägagångssätt för användarcentrerad produktplanering för produktchefer inom tekniska produktutvecklingsbolag som utvecklar flera olika samverkande produkter. Metoden Design Thinking har använts i detta forskningsprojekt, vilket möjliggjort att produktchefer kunnat att vara involverade i designprocessen som helhet. Från initiala intervjuer med produktchefer framkom det att de förstod vikten av att ha fokus på användarupplevelse snarare än produktegenskaper under planering av flerproduktslösningar, men att de i dagsläget inte finns några tydliga verktyg för att underlätta detta. Genom samdesign med produktchefer formades ett antal prototyper av ett planeringsverktyg. En Lo-Fi-prototyp utvecklades och utvärderades av produktägare. Testerna visade att multiproduktplanering framgångsrikt underlättades och flyttade fokus från funktioner till användarupplevelser. Den metodik som använts här kan reproduceras i liknande företag och resultaten kan användas som utgångspunkt för att fortsätta anpassa och utveckla arbetssättet.

Context. Successful software product management concerns about developing right software products for right markets at the right time. The product manager, who carries responsibilities of planning, requires but does not always have access to high-quality information for making the best possible planning decisions. The following master thesis concentrates on proposing a solution that supports planning of a software product by means of analytics. Objectives. The aim of the master thesis is to understand potentials of analytics in product planning decisions in a SaaS context. This thesis focuses on SaaS based analytics used for portfolio management, product roadmapping, and release planning and specify how the analytics can be utilized for planning of a software product. Then the study devises an analytics-based method to enable software product planning. Methods. The current study was designed with a mixed methodology approach, which includes the literature review and survey researches as well as case study under the framework of the design science. Literature review was conducted to identify product planning decisions and the measurements that support them. A total of 17 interview based surveys were conducted to investigate the impact of analytics on product planning decisions in product roadmapping context. The result of the interviews ended in an analytics-based planning method provided under the framework of design science. The designed analytics-based method was validated by a case study in order to measure the effectiveness of the solution. Results. The identified product planning decisions were summarized and categorized into a taxonomy of decisions divided by portfolio management, roadmapping, and release planning. The identified SaaS-based measurements were categorized into six categories and made a taxonomy of measurements. The result of the survey illustrated that importance functions of the measurement- categories are not much different for planning-decisions. In the interviews 61.8% of interviewees selected “very important” for “Product”, 58.8% for “Feature”, and 64.7% for “Product healthiness” categories. For “Referral sources” category, 61.8% of responses have valuated as “not important”. Categories of “Technologies and Channels” and “Usage Pattern” have been rated majorly “important” by 47.1% and 32.4% of the corresponding responses. Also the results showed that product use, feature use, users of feature use, response time, product errors, and downtime are the first top measurement- attributes that a product manager prefers to use for product planning. Qualitative results identified “product specification, product maturity and goal” as the effected factors on analytics importance for product planning and in parallel specified strengths and weaknesses of analytical planning from product managers’ perspectives. Analytics-based product planning method was developed with eleven main process steps, using the measurements and measurement scores resulted from the interviews, and finally got validated in a case. The method can support all three assets of product planning (portfolio management, roadmapping, and release planning), however it was validated only for roadmapping decisions in the current study. SaaS-based analytics are enablers for the method, but there might be some other analytics that can assist to take planning decisions as well. Conclusion. The results of the interviews on the roadmapping decisions indicated that different planning decisions consider similar importance for measurement-categories to plan a software product. Statistics about feature use, product use, response time, users, error and downtime have been recognized as the most important measurements for planning. Analytics increase knowledge about product usability and functionality, and also can assist to improve problem handling and client-side technologies. But it has limitations regarding to receiving formed-based customer feedback, handling development technologies and also interpreting some measurements in practice. Immature products are not able to use analytics. To create, remove, or enhance a feature, the data trend provides a wide view of feature desirability in the current or even future time and clarifies how these changes can impact decision making. Prioritizing features can be performed for the features in the same context by comparing their measurement impacts. The analytics-based method covers both reactive and proactive planning.

Submitted by VALÉRIA RAMOS FRISO null (valeriafriso@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-04-23T13:07:48Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação VF rev.08.pdf: 6604615 bytes, checksum: 788a6fb6c268c81d14b2cad053f29b1f (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Juliano Benedito Ferreira (julianoferreira@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-04-26T19:37:41Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 friso_vr_me_bauru.pdf: 6604615 bytes, checksum: 788a6fb6c268c81d14b2cad053f29b1f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T19:37:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 friso_vr_me_bauru.pdf: 6604615 bytes, checksum: 788a6fb6c268c81d14b2cad053f29b1f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-25 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Este trabalho tem por objetivo analisar as relações sensoriais e funcionais estabelecidas entre as crianças e produtos cotidianos, divididos entre aqueles com características que privilegiam a função e outros que apresentem elementos diferenciadores, aplicados como brinquedos não estruturados. Correlacionar os resultados aos novos conceitos de design com enfoque sistêmico gerando discussões acerca do desenvolvimento de produtos. Material e Método: A pesquisa foi dividida em duas fases. A primeira consistiu em detectar brinquedos não estruturados em ambiente lúdico doméstico. Foram investigadas 8 casas, e a partir dos objetos encontrados entre os brinquedos determinou-se os materiais a serem utilizados na segunda fase. Na segunda fase, em ambiente lúdico controlado, foram usados como brinquedos não estruturados 60 artefatos de uso cotidiano estando divididos entre pentes, embalagens e recipientes vazios e colheres. Desses, 30 tinham características comuns e que identificavam a função e 30 continham elementos estéticos diferenciadores. Resultados: Foram perceptíveis a capacidade e a necessidade de adaptações das crianças à aplicação dos artefatos. As novas leituras sobre os artefatos se sobrepuseram a sua função explicita no ambiente lúdico. Os objetos com design diferenciado e com aspectos inusitados ofereceram maior estímulos criativos que os com aspecto explicitamente funcionais. / Objective: To analyze the sensory and functional relations between the children and everyday products, divided into those with features that emphasize the function and others presenting differentiating elements, applied as unstructured toys. Correlate the results to new design concepts with systemic approach generating discussions about product development. Material and Methods: The research was divided into two phases. The first was to detect unstructured toys in domestic playful environment. They were investigated eight houses, and from the objects found among the toys determined if the materials to be used in the second phase. In the second phase, in controlled playful environment, they were used as toys unstructured 60 articles of everyday use being divided between combs, packaging and empty containers and spoons. Of these, 30 had common characteristics that identify the function and 30 contained differentiating aesthetic elements. Results: There were noticeable capacity and the need for adaptations of children the application of artifacts. The new readings on the artifacts have overshadowed its function explicit in playful environment. Objects with different design and unusual aspects offered greater creative stimuli that with respect explicitly functional.