Configuring the development space for conceptualization
Year: 2013
Editor: Udo Lindemann, Srinivasan V, Yong Se Kim, Sang Won Lee, John Clarkson, Gaetano Cascini
Author: Broennum, Louise; Clausen, Christian
Series: ICED
Institution: Aalborg University - Copenhagen, Denmark
Page(s): 171-180
ISBN: 978-1-904670-46-9
ISSN: 2220-4334
Abstract
This paper addresses issues of conceptualization in the early stages of concept development noted as the Front End of Innovation [FEI]. We examine this particular development space as a socio technical space where a diversity of technological knowledge, user perspectives and organizational agendas meet and interact. Based on a case study from an industrial medical company, the paper addresses and analyses the configuration of the development space in a number of projects aiming to take up user oriented perspectives in their activities. It presents insights on how the FEI was orchestrated and staged and how different elements and objects contributed to the configuration of the space in order to make it perform in a certain way. The analysis points at the importance of the configuration processes and indicate how these configurations often may act as more or less hidden limitations on concept development making it difficult to bring forth new concept ideas.
Keywords: Early design phases, front end innovation, organisation of product development, project management, development space