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Generative AI can bring tangible benefits to companies' innovation and development processes. Managers considering how to use it will need a clear understanding of realistic expectations and desired outcomes and an appreciation that different innovation tasks require different approaches. Publicly available generative AI tools like ChatGPT or Midjourney are well suited for creativity and ideation. For more focused applications, like validating a concept with synthetic personas, a pretrained model must be enhanced with training data on the particular context. The amount, diversity, and quality of training data defines trust and significantly impacts GenAI output quality in terms of addressing a specific context or market segment.

Information technology (IT) is the cornerstone of the modern new product development (NPD) process. A new generation of communication and collaboration tools has propagated into nearly all aspects of NPD. To better understand how these collaborative tools, such as wikis, cloud-based file sharing, social networking, blogs, and microblogging platforms like Twitter, are being used in NPD and what influence they have on NPD outcomes, we undertook a global study of collaborative IT tool use in 443 firms. We found that the usage frequency of these collaborative tools is currently low, but it is positively correlated with project performance. Our results also show that the best-performing projects use all of these tools more intensively than poorer-performing projects. In addition, the usage frequency of these tools differentiated the best from the rest in smaller and medium-sized firms but not in larger firms. Our findings suggest that NPD managers should encourage the use of new forms of communication and collaboration and should embolden and empower the migration toward these collaborative tools. Author Tucker J. Marion will host an IRI-sponsored webinar on this subject on April 1, 2016 at 12 pm EDT. Register to attend at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6567583436205158658.

A key to effective and efficient R&D is the ability to commercialize new products quickly and effectively while leveraging the advantages of global outsourcing. The growing role of global outsourcing in new product development (NPD) represents a paradigm shift that has had a large impact on innovation and commercialization. In this article the use of outside innovation and commercialization resources, from contract employees to short-run manufacturers, is explored. We synthesize our research into four areas where R&D managers can most effectively leverage outsourcing throughout the innovation continuum. Opportunities include developing strong strategic partnerships with outside vendors, using rapid prototyping resources to support agile development, using short-run manufacturers to test products and markets before building to volume, and using expert contractors to reduce fixed personnel costs.

Information technology (IT) is the cornerstone of the modern new product development (NPD) process. A new generation of communication and collaboration tools has propagated into nearly all aspects of NPD. To better understand how these collaborative tools, such as wikis, cloud-based file sharing, social networking, blogs, and microblogging platforms like Twitter, are being used in NPD and what influence they have on NPD outcomes, we undertook a global study of collaborative IT tool use in 443 firms. We found that the usage frequency of these collaborative tools is currently low, but it is positively correlated with project performance. Our results also show that the best-performing projects use all of these tools more intensively than poorer-performing projects. In addition, the usage frequency of these tools differentiated the best from the rest in smaller and medium-sized firms but not in larger firms. Our findings suggest that NPD managers should encourage the use of new forms of communication and collaboration and should embolden and empower the migration toward these collaborative tools. Author Tucker J. Marion will host an IRI-sponsored webinar on this subject on April 1, 2016 at 12 pm EDT. Register to attend at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6567583436205158658 .

Product and business innovation are integral to corporate growth. Insights into improving the design and development process can help achieve better innovation outcomes. We report the findings of a study of design firms-including IDEO and Continuum-that are recognized as standard bearers for innovation. We found that these firms use special approaches to innovation that include team structure, governance, and milestone planning processes. We synthesize the findings into five lessons for the R&D manager: apply user-centered design, define the innovation opportunity space strategically, use agile prototyping, establish communities of practice, and avoid rigorously gated management processes. We offer strategies for implementing these lessons in the R&D organization.

OVERVIEW: A key to effective and efficient R&D is the ability to commercialize new products quickly and effectively while leveraging the advantages of global outsourcing. The growing role of global outsourcing in new product development (NPD) represents a paradigm shift that has had a large impact on innovation and commercialization. In this article the use of outside innovation and commercialization resources, from contract employees to short-run manufacturers, is explored. We synthesize our research into four areas where R&D managers can most effectively leverage outsourcing throughout the innovation continuum. Opportunities include developing strong strategic partnerships with outside vendors, using rapid prototyping resources to support agile development, using short-run manufacturers to test products and markets before building to volume, and using expert contractors to reduce fixed personnel costs.

OVERVIEW: Product and business innovation are integral to corporate growth. Insights into improving the design and development process can help achieve better innovation outcomes. We report the findings of a study of design firms--including IDEO and Continuum--that are recognized as standard bearers for innovation. We found that these firms use special approaches to innovation that include team structure, governance, and milestone planning processes. We synthesize the findings into five lessons for the R&D manager: apply user-centered design, define the innovation opportunity space strategically, use agile prototyping, establish communities of practice, and avoid rigorously gated management processes. We offer strategies for implementing these lessons in the R&D organization.

Most organizations now place a major emphasis on innovation as a pathway to corporate growth. The R&D manager is a central player in that effort, and not just to supervise the development of new products; increasingly, he or she is expected to help direct the role technology plays in enabling new services or business models and building closer integration with channel partners. To develop internal marketing skills, R&D managers can look to successful independent innovation companies -- design firms -- for lessons on how they engage client C-suite members to get more deeply involved in innovation initiatives. In this article, the authors take a look at the practices of these design firms in the hope of better equipping the R&D manager to bring innovation into his or her own C-suite. The most successful design firms in the authors' study make executive immersion a systematic practice. Successful design firms assess the competitive position and culture of a client company before even starting an innovation initiative.

Throughout history, new technologies have demanded step shifts in the skills that companies need. Like the First Industrial Revolution's steam-powered factories, the Second Industrial Revolution's mass-production tools and techniques, and the Third Industrial Revolution's Internet-based technologies, the Fourth Industrial Revolution--currently being driven by the convergence of new digital, biological, and physical technologies--is changing the nature of work as we know it. Now the challenge is to hire and develop the next generation of workers who will use artificial intelligence, robotics, quantum computing, genetic engineering, 3D printing, virtual reality, and the like in their jobs. The problem, strangely enough, appears to be two-sided. People at all levels complain bitterly about being either underqualified or overqualified for the jobs that companies advertise. In addition, local and regional imbalances among the kinds of people companies want and the skills available in labor pools are resulting in unfilled vacancies, slowing down the adoption of new technologies. Here, Marion et al discuss the impact of digital design and product development tools on organizations, their people, and their project.