MBM428 Product Development and Design

• Topics

  To succeed over time, companies need to innovate and develop their products and services. The course includes relevant topics for product development activities - to improve the chance of product success over time. Examples of topics are Product development processes, Success factors for product development teams, Product platforms and -modules, Management of product development processes, Visual design (Product form and aesthetics), Open innovation, Customer involvement, Green innovation and design, AI in product development.

  The course also has a particular focus on product development as part of a business model innovation logic.

• Learning outcome

  Upon course completion, the candidate can:

  Knowledge

  • Explain theoretical perspectives relevant for product development.
  • Discuss and apply theories relevant for product development.
  • Demonstrate a critical and reflective understanding of product development theories.

  Skills

  • Write a course paper based on product development theories and relate to a product development process.
  • Competently work with product development topics and theories in groups.
  • Make a presentation of (parts of) the product development course paper.

  General competence

  • Apply product development theories for managerial purposes.
  • Plan and manage product development projects.
  • Discuss product development issues with other product developers.

• Teaching

  Lectures: The opening lecture will be physical in an auditorium. Thereafter, student groups will be supervised. You work in a group in this course (same group throughout the course). Please note that student groups will be supervised physically only.

  Flipped classroom: The course is organized as a flipped classroom. I expect students to prepare for each of the group sessions (lectures) on the specified curriculum. This means that the students read a few articles on a topic. In addition, full text lecture notes will be available to clarify and explain the main topics in the articles.

  Course paper: You will be working on the course paper (in group) - guided by the course responsible - throughout the course. The course responsible will meet with each of the groups once a week to supervise the course paper. Also, the groups will get written feed-back three times on the course paper during the course. The course paper should be written in English.

• Recommended prerequisites

  Basic course in marketing.

• Compulsory Activity

  • It is mandatory to be physically present in the first lecture
  • Students are required to participate in groups of 4-6 students. Groups of other sizes may be allowed with permission from the course responsible. Groups are formed during the first lecture, and it will not be possible to join a group after this session.
  • The students must be physically present at least 7 of the 11 course lectures/meetings. 
  • Presentation of course paper (Approved / Not approved).

  The course approval and mandatory activities are only valid for the specific semester in which it was obtained.

• Assessment

  Course paper (in Groups): 100% 

  The students will work on the course paper from January until  April. The course paper should be written in English.

  Group size between 4 - 6 students (exceptions can be made).

• Grading Scale

  Grading scale A - F.

• Computer tools

  None.

• Literature

  A complete list of readings (articles, book chapters and lecture notes) will be available in due time prior to the course.