IDEO Product Development:
Case Analysis

The FAB 5
February 28, 2013

Adedeji Akindele-Alo
Lexi Artrip
Elizabeth Lowder
Morrell Turner Jessica Wright

PROBLEM DEFINITION The ideas of IDEO and Handspring were different from one another in terms of development and time frame. Additionally, IDEO was working on products directly competitive to one another with the projects assigned by 3com and Handspring. The primary issue in the IDEO Product Development case is the question of whether Boyle and Kelley should persuade Handspring to postpone the launch of “Visor.” The option of postponement would allow the team to follow all of the steps of IDEO’s legendary innovation process (see Appendix for a flow chart of this process). …show more content…

Conflict of interest is a major concern for the company because of the secrecy between the two products, one of which licensed its OS from the other. Should IDEO accept client demands and adapt its system, or stay true to its values and request more time for the project?

RECOMMENDATIONS
Handspring should be made aware of the importance of following the design process. They should be reminded of the importance of providing a quality product over just being the first product. IDEO should reassure them that the process is tried-and-true, and that they will not regret taking the time to truly understand the wants and needs of their target market. IDEO can definitely compromise a bit on the limited time frame, but the design phases must not be neglected entirely.

* Spending a longer amount of time on a quality product is better than having the first product on the market with faults. Therefore, it would be best to decrease the time allocated for each phase, and spend more time on the insights and innovation portion to ensure accurate data on the target market is gathered.

* To reduce the issue of conflict of interest in the workspace, it is necessary to keep IDEO employees together. Splitting them up to work on separate projects with respectively different and competing clients can cause animosity in the workplace.