Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 1996. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the World Wide Web.

Doctor of Philosophy / Startups can and do fail. For an entrepreneur, product developer, or researcher with a physical and capital-intensive product idea, this dissertation can serve as a resource to bridge the gaps between business, engineering, and design and reduce the risk of failure when trying to create a startup. The process described in this dissertation describes how to evaluate the key elements of an idea and conduct a series of interviews with potential customers to find evidence that supports pursing that idea further, challenge the startup team to change some aspect of the idea, or drop it altogether. Once the startup team has found a problem, as well as a solution to that problem, this dissertation describes an approach creating that solution. Then this dissertation describes an approach for critically evaluating the foundational elements of the problem and the solution. The goal for a critical evaluation is to identify additional foundational elements which relate to the product that may increase its value or decrease the risk of product failure.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1996.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1996.