Aspects of consideration in product development research

Abstract

One reason for conducting research on product development processes is to improve the usability in methods and tools for companies to be more competitive and efficient. However, the transfer of research findings over to industry has been shown to be slow and incremental, which could be seen as a result of bad usability and/or low acceptability in research findings from studies on industrial product development processes. According to our research and practice experience, we have found that, to grasp what really happens on a daily basis in a development project, to get the opportunity to reflect upon it, and to understand the complex nature of a development process, it is necessary to conduct insider action research (IAR), which is a qualitative approach. So far, the traditional outsider perspective using a quantitative research approach has been dominant. Conducting IAR means that the researcher is present and intervenes most of the time in a development project either as project leader, team member or observer. To improve the opportunities for implementation of research findings (which is an important issue for society as a whole) and to guarantee trust in presented research findings, IAR has proved to be efficient in the studied projects. As the research situation becomes unique for each product development process, trust in the research findings is strongly related to the presence of the researcher in the development process. Reliability and credibility in terms of provable data can be filed in diaries, email communications, and so on, and saved to be available if required.