In one line: Before choosing a design, deliberately widen the space of possibilities: break the problem into pieces, search broadly for ways to solve each, and combine them systematically.
Core idea
A product concept is an approximate description of the technology, working principles and form of the product: how it will satisfy the customer’s needs. Teams that pick the first workable idea rarely find the best one. Ulrich and Eppinger describe a five-step method that spends deliberate effort on generating alternatives before narrowing them [1]. It starts from the mission statement, the customer needs and the target specifications.
How it works
- Clarify the problem and decompose it. Break it down by function (energy, material and signal flows), by the sequence of user actions (for a coffee cup: pouring, drinking, washing and storing), or by key customer needs. Focus on the critical sub-problems first.
- Search externally:
- interview lead users and consult experts
- search patents and published literature
- benchmark related products, including ones from other industries
- Search internally, individually and in groups. Suspend judgment, generate many ideas, welcome ideas that seem infeasible, and use sketches and quick models.
- Explore systematically. Use a concept classification tree to prune and organize options, and a concept combination table to combine solutions to each sub-problem into complete concepts.
- Reflect on the solutions and the process: did we consider the full space?
In practice
Two classroom examples show the range. In one, a coffee cup’s needs (holds hot liquid, buffers heat, keeps the drink warm, prevents spills, looks good, washes easily) become sub-problems with many independent solutions. In the other, a team starts from an invented self-cleaning surface coating and asks what else could this do? That is concept generation run in reverse, from technology to applications. Breakthroughs often come from borrowing a solution from another field, which is why external search matters as much as brainstorming.
Questions to ask yourself
- How many genuinely different concepts did we consider before converging?
- Which sub-problem is critical, and have we searched outside our industry for it?
- Did anyone search the patent literature before we designed?
Connections
- Starts from: Product Specifications, Opportunity Identification. Next: Concept Selection.
- Mindset: Design Thinking. External search: Patents and Intellectual Property.
- Capabilities exercised: Vision, Resourcefulness, Inquiry.