Approach for Identifying and Initially Assessing Radical Product Ideas

Framework of an Ambidextrous Process of Idea Management Supporting the Downstream Product Development Process

“…Nonetheless, all recommendations for handling and acting with regard to radical product ideas stipulate one requirement, namely the awareness of the degree of novelty: in other words, which product ideas are radical and which are incremental in nature. The fact that this status can change throughout the idea and design process endorses this statement (Herrmann et al, 2017b;Herrmann et al, 2018).…”

“…Measuring the degree of novelty makes it possible to separate innovative projects from routine activities and create a systematic innovation portfolio tailored to this classification (Hauschildt et al, 2016). Furthermore, approaches and methods can be chosen in accordance with the degree of novelty (Herrmann et al, 2018). Determining the degree of novelty plays a particularly important role in terms of technical uncertainties and the effects on innovation implementation (Pahl and Beitz, 2007).…”

“…This was compiled by means of expert interviews and recommendations from literature. "customer," "technology," and "company organization" (see Herrmann et al, 2018). It lists suggestions for methods, indicating whether there is a radical degree of novelty for the respective dimension.…”

“…After the two initial stepsirrespective of whether there are many problem ideas or only onethe first evaluation step is to be carried out. Before this, it is necessary to measure the degree of novelty in order to, firstly, adapt evaluation criteria to the degree of novelty of the problem idea (e.g., according to Herrmann et al, 2018; this is not an explicit part of this paper) and, secondly, obtain possible methodological recommendations for the further course of the process. As indicated in Figure 1, the degree of novelty can change during the course of the process, meaning that a radical idea can develop into an incremental one and vice versa.…”

“…The table should therefore show the conceptual idea behind the methodology. The table was subdivided in accordance with the four dimensions of "market," "customer," "technology," and "company organization" (see Herrmann et al, 2018). It lists suggestions for methods, indicating whether there is a radical degree of novelty for the respective dimension.…”