The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development

25.6. Concept Generation and Development

Industrial designers' most identifiable activity, as well as admittedly the most fun, is brainstorming, or the conceptualization of product concepts (see Chapter 17). Concept generation commonly follows product definition and user needs gathering, but can occur at nearly any point in the product development process.

NOTE

With training and support, small groups can generate impressive numbers of ideas in a short amount of time.

In general, concept generation is the free-form exploration of new ideas, using various methodologies to rapidly generate a wide range of ideas in a short amount of time. This is often performed in a group setting, with all participants tossing in ideas and building on others' ideas. Brainstorming sessions have a few, inviolable rules, including "no idea is a bad idea." To allow new ideas to surface, participants have to let go of the instinctive process of prejudgment, to the extent that their ideas won't be judged until they have been developed, dissected, and discussed, and later evaluated. Industrial designers use brainstorming sessions to develop multiple configurations of a design, conceptualize different aesthetic approaches, dream up new product solutions, and work out small details.

Outputs of brainstorming might be words, diagrams, sketches, and even crude models. The focus is on methods that quickly convey an idea and let the creator move on to think of more ideas. "Covering the walls" is the goal and ...