GBUS 813 - Developing New Products and Services

This action-oriented course covers the basic steps in developing a new product or service. The early part of the course focuses on the issue of how to identify unmet customer needs and generate new product ideas. Next, students will learn how firms convert such “cool ideas” into actual products or services and actually do so themselves via a hands-on team project. Each team of students will identify an unmet need, develop alternative product or service concepts to meet that need, flesh out product concepts through a powerful communicative process of iterative prototyping, and examine product economics. Every student will be provided with a budget to spend towards their project on a reimbursement basis. Final working prototypes will be presented at a design fair attended by a panel of product-development practitioners and members of the University community. Class time is geared to help students discover and manage the challenges and opportunities in new product development while moving their team projects toward completion. A number of practicing product developers, creativity consultants, and industrial designers will share their wisdom on the product-development process while providing students with specific feedback and direction on their team projects. Classes are devoted to project work with practitioner input, product-development exercises, cases, and guest speakers to help students develop a thorough understanding of the development function.

Credits: 1.5