Innovation, creativity and new product development: a human central design case study

Abstract

Innovation as been changing through the years and companies are continuously seeking for enhanced processes to achieve competitive advantage. Innovation is now seen as an open and collaborative process with the entering of different players in the ecosystem. Universities are relevant candidates to change innovation landscape and contribute to the reality of a learning economy. The present work explores a university-industry collaboration based on a case study of an innovation project under the ME310 program. Porto Design Factory (P.Porto) and IKEA Industry joined forces to tackle a problem using the Human-Centred Design (HCD) approach. The case study methodology provides an understanding the outcomes that revealed the potential of the HCD to solve a technical problem while enhancing the customer experience. Also, it’s possible to recognize the benefits that each institution had by collaborating. Research, prototypes and comprehensive documentation with all the knowledge generated through the process, were some of the results that contributed to the company’s innovation effort. PDF also benefited by providing differentiating learning conditions and employment opportunities to its students. The outcomes show that companies do benefit from building interfaces with external partners and that universities are relevant players in the innovation ecosystem satisfying its third mission. Further investigation may look for the level of implementation of the concepts coming from this kind of partnerships as well as it impacts in company’s culture and work process in the long term.