Teaching Chapter 3: Opportunity Identification
Timing
This session should be scheduled early, especially for a project-based course. The opportunity identification process is the foundation of any product design process, since success will largely depend on the team's ability to quickly generate and screen a large number of opportunities. Chapter 3 could be taught within the lesson for Chapter 4, since identifying opportunities is the first step of Project Planning.
Objectives and Strategy
The objective is to have a general understanding of the methods used by entrepreneurs and corporations to generate and screen product opportunities. The concept of risk is also introduced, since it is a central element of project planning. The opportunity identification process can be thought of as an “innovation tournament”, with only the exceptional ideas prevailing.
Session Outline
Defining "Opportunities"
Identifying an opportunity is about observing unmet needs, but not about generating full concepts or solutions. For example, an interview with a bicyclist might yield the following statement "It's difficult to stay dry in the rain." The opportunity is to develop a product that satisfies cyclists' need to stay dry in the rain, and does not include a solution (e.g. rain jacket). It is common for students to confuse Concept Generation (Chapter 7) with Defining Opportunities, thus it is important to make the distinction
Innovation Tournament
An innovation tournament is a term used to describe the process of generating, and filtering a large number of opportunities with only the few exceptional ones prevailing. It is useful to discuss various ways businesses perform opportunity identification (e.g. electronics, entertainment, automobile, pharmaceuticals, packaged foods, apparel, etc.).
Risk
Exhibit 3-3 can be used to introduce the concept of risk. In many ways a design firm has to base their final opportunity selection on the level of risk they can afford to take. To understand risk means to understand the uncertainties in both the market, and the technology/solution that might be required. An opportunity identification process is needed to identify risks, and will be summarized below.
Opportunity Identification Process
Step 1: Establish a Charter
States the overall goals and scope of the project. This prevents the team from wasting effort generating opportunities in areas that are unlikely to be pursued.
Step 2: Generate and Sense Many Opportunities
Many students will find it initially difficult to generate opportunities without structure. It is often useful to discuss each of the “Techniques for Generating Opportunities”, have the students focus on one or two techniques in class, and use them to generate a set of opportunities. This may be the first time the students experience the benefit of using a design process. Encourage them to generate a large/high:-Mean in the quality of the opportunity-Variance in the quality of the opportunity identification process-Number of “draws” from the opportunity identification process-Accuracy of discerning the best subset of opportunities generated
Step 3: Screen Opportunities
Students typically are not experienced with rapid screening, thus the emphasis should be placed on this concept. Time limits could be put on the discussion of each proposed opportunity. Also discuss methods such as anonymous voting. Multiple rounds could be done, using different levels of complexity in the screening process as the number of proposed opportunities is reduced/filtered.
Step 4: Develop Promising Opportunities
Once the opportunities have been filtered down to a manageable number, the team should invest a modest amount of resources to develop a few of them. In many consumer products, online searching, sketches and mockups are used to explore the most promising opportunities.
Step 5: Select Exceptional Opportunities
There are various methods that can be used to down-select from a small number to the final opportunity. This can serve as a good introduction to what will be used later in Chapter 8. The book “Innovation Tournaments” by Terwiesch and Ulrich (2009) could also be discussed.
Step 6: Reflect on the Results and the Process
Discuss the number, variety, and quality of the opportunities that were identified. Discuss how each of these metrics can be improved / increased. Are the best opportunities chosen good enough? Some times the process needs to be repeated, or ideas abandoned all together if the resulting opportunities are still unlikely to succeed.
In-Class Exercise
Before class, have each student generate a large number of opportunities, and combine all of them together. Use an innovation tournament method to screen through the opportunities (e.g. www.darwinator.com). During class discuss the number, variety, and quality of the opportunities that were identified. Also discuss how each of these metrics can be improved / increased. Are the best opportunities chosen good enough? Some times the process needs to be repeated, or ideas abandoned all together if the resulting opportunities are still unlikely to succeed.
An alternative exercise would be for the students to divide into small groups, and (fairly rapidly) go through the entire opportunity identification process (Steps 1 through 5). Have each group try different filtering methods. Afterwards discuss the number, variety, and quality of the opportunities that were identified. Also discuss how each of these metrics can be improved / increased. Are the best opportunities chosen good enough? Some times the process needs to be repeated, or ideas abandoned all together if the resulting opportunities are still unlikely to succeed.
This session should be scheduled early, especially for a project-based course. The opportunity identification process is the foundation of any product design process, since success will largely depend on the team's ability to quickly generate and screen a large number of opportunities. Chapter 3 could be taught within the lesson for Chapter 4, since identifying opportunities is the first step of Project Planning.
Objectives and Strategy
The objective is to have a general understanding of the methods used by entrepreneurs and corporations to generate and screen product opportunities. The concept of risk is also introduced, since it is a central element of project planning. The opportunity identification process can be thought of as an “innovation tournament”, with only the exceptional ideas prevailing.
Session Outline
Defining "Opportunities"
Identifying an opportunity is about observing unmet needs, but not about generating full concepts or solutions. For example, an interview with a bicyclist might yield the following statement "It's difficult to stay dry in the rain." The opportunity is to develop a product that satisfies cyclists' need to stay dry in the rain, and does not include a solution (e.g. rain jacket). It is common for students to confuse Concept Generation (Chapter 7) with Defining Opportunities, thus it is important to make the distinction
Innovation Tournament
An innovation tournament is a term used to describe the process of generating, and filtering a large number of opportunities with only the few exceptional ones prevailing. It is useful to discuss various ways businesses perform opportunity identification (e.g. electronics, entertainment, automobile, pharmaceuticals, packaged foods, apparel, etc.).
Risk
Exhibit 3-3 can be used to introduce the concept of risk. In many ways a design firm has to base their final opportunity selection on the level of risk they can afford to take. To understand risk means to understand the uncertainties in both the market, and the technology/solution that might be required. An opportunity identification process is needed to identify risks, and will be summarized below.
Opportunity Identification Process
Step 1: Establish a Charter
States the overall goals and scope of the project. This prevents the team from wasting effort generating opportunities in areas that are unlikely to be pursued.
Step 2: Generate and Sense Many Opportunities
Many students will find it initially difficult to generate opportunities without structure. It is often useful to discuss each of the “Techniques for Generating Opportunities”, have the students focus on one or two techniques in class, and use them to generate a set of opportunities. This may be the first time the students experience the benefit of using a design process. Encourage them to generate a large/high:-Mean in the quality of the opportunity-Variance in the quality of the opportunity identification process-Number of “draws” from the opportunity identification process-Accuracy of discerning the best subset of opportunities generated
Step 3: Screen Opportunities
Students typically are not experienced with rapid screening, thus the emphasis should be placed on this concept. Time limits could be put on the discussion of each proposed opportunity. Also discuss methods such as anonymous voting. Multiple rounds could be done, using different levels of complexity in the screening process as the number of proposed opportunities is reduced/filtered.
Step 4: Develop Promising Opportunities
Once the opportunities have been filtered down to a manageable number, the team should invest a modest amount of resources to develop a few of them. In many consumer products, online searching, sketches and mockups are used to explore the most promising opportunities.
Step 5: Select Exceptional Opportunities
There are various methods that can be used to down-select from a small number to the final opportunity. This can serve as a good introduction to what will be used later in Chapter 8. The book “Innovation Tournaments” by Terwiesch and Ulrich (2009) could also be discussed.
Step 6: Reflect on the Results and the Process
Discuss the number, variety, and quality of the opportunities that were identified. Discuss how each of these metrics can be improved / increased. Are the best opportunities chosen good enough? Some times the process needs to be repeated, or ideas abandoned all together if the resulting opportunities are still unlikely to succeed.
In-Class Exercise
Before class, have each student generate a large number of opportunities, and combine all of them together. Use an innovation tournament method to screen through the opportunities (e.g. www.darwinator.com). During class discuss the number, variety, and quality of the opportunities that were identified. Also discuss how each of these metrics can be improved / increased. Are the best opportunities chosen good enough? Some times the process needs to be repeated, or ideas abandoned all together if the resulting opportunities are still unlikely to succeed.
An alternative exercise would be for the students to divide into small groups, and (fairly rapidly) go through the entire opportunity identification process (Steps 1 through 5). Have each group try different filtering methods. Afterwards discuss the number, variety, and quality of the opportunities that were identified. Also discuss how each of these metrics can be improved / increased. Are the best opportunities chosen good enough? Some times the process needs to be repeated, or ideas abandoned all together if the resulting opportunities are still unlikely to succeed.