Question 1

Companies such as Edison Nation and the Big Idea Group have sprung up to tap into ________ possibilities, often combining its own design, branding, engineering, and sales teams with online participants, forming a community for devising new products.

Accepted Answer

The sentence mentions companies that combine their teams with online participants to devise new products, forming a community. This is an example of crowdsourcing, which is the practice of obtaining ideas or content by soliciting contributions from a large number of people, especially from the online community.

Question 2

In an attempt to improve the product, a company that manufactures screwdrivers discusses the modification of each attribute, such as replacing the wooden handle with plastic, providing torque power, adding different screw heads, and so on. This creativity technique is called ________.

Accepted Answer

Morphological analysis is a creativity technique that involves systematically combining different attributes of a product or service to generate new ideas. In this case, the company is discussing modifying different attributes of their screwdrivers, such as the handle material, torque power, and screw heads.

Question 3

Interno Computers Inc., together with subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets personal computers and mobile communication and media devices, as well as sells related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions, and applications worldwide. The company is planning to launch a high-end portable digital music player worldwide. What is the best way to organize this product launch?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Interno Computers Inc., together with subsidiaries, designs,...

Question 4

________ means inviting the Internet community to help create content or software, often with prize money or a moment of glory involved.

Accepted Answer

Crowdsourcing is the process of inviting the internet community to participate in creating content or software, often with incentives such as prize money or recognition. This allows companies or individuals to leverage the collective intelligence and creativity of a diverse group of people, resulting in a diverse range of ideas and solutions.

Question 5

What is a spiral development process?

Accepted Answer

The answer of What is a spiral development process?...

Question 6

________ works by listing all the normal assumptions about an entity and then turning them around.

Accepted Answer

Reverse assumption analysis works by taking all of the typical assumptions about an entity and then reversing them in order to generate new and innovative ideas. This technique is often used in brainstorming and creative problem-solving sessions.

Question 7

The ________ technique used for stimulating creativity identifies a problem and then considers the dimension, the medium, and the power source.

Accepted Answer

The technique described in the question is morphological analysis, which involves breaking down a problem into smaller parts and identifying all of the possible combinations of those parts based on various dimensions, mediums, and power sources. This is different from attribute listing, which focuses on identifying and listing attributes or characteristics of a product or idea, reverse assumption analysis, which involves questioning and challenging assumptions about a problem, mind mapping, which is a visual brainstorming technique, and lateral marketing, which involves applying marketing strategies from other industries or disciplines to solve a problem.

Question 8

A spiral development process recognizes the value of returning to an earlier stage to make improvements before moving forward.

Accepted Answer

In a spiral development process, each iteration of development includes the possibility of revisiting earlier stages to make improvements based on feedback and new information. This allows for continuous refinement and improvement throughout the development process.

Question 9

Explain how stage-gate systems are used by companies to manage innovation and new product launches.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Explain how stage-gate systems are used by...

Question 10

Electro Locomotors (EL) Inc. engages in the manufacture, distribution, and marketing of custom vehicles in Brazil. Bono, a hybrid car brand that the company produces, is a market leader in the hybrid vehicles segment. With the increased global focus on nature-friendly vehicles and governmental subsidies for companies that manufacture hybrid vehicles, competition has increased for flex-fuel cars like Bono. The heads of the R&D team at EL are in a creative session to generate ideas for improvements to Bono. They consider each part of the car and discuss the possibilities of improvements in each of them. Identify the creativity technique used here.

Accepted Answer

The creativity technique used here is attribute listing, where the team considers each part of the car individually and discusses possible improvements for each part. This method focuses on breaking down the object (in this case, the car) into its individual attributes or components to explore improvements or changes.

Question 11

Angell Healthcare, the world's largest manufacturer of protective gloves and clothing, adopted a spiral development process, which divided the innovation process into stages with checkpoints at the end of each stage, to develop products that increased overall sales from 4.6 percent to 13 percent in a little over two years.

Accepted Answer

The description provided aligns more with a stage-gate or phased development process rather than a spiral development process, which is iterative and focuses on risk management and refinement through multiple iterations.

Question 12

Dormentor Inc. produces, converts, and markets packaging products including boxboard, container board, and numerous other specialty packaging products. In an attempt to increase its organic growth, the company decides to introduce new products. It asks the managers and employees to send in ideas for new products. Before launching products based on any of these ideas, what are the stages that the company has to go through?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Dormentor Inc. produces, converts, and markets packaging...

Question 13

What are the benefits of brainstorming? How would one run an effective brainstorming session?

Accepted Answer

The answer of What are the benefits of brainstorming? How...

Question 14

The ________ technique for stimulating creativity lists all the characteristics of an object and then modifies each to try to arrive at a new idea.

Accepted Answer

The technique described is known as attribute listing, where one lists all the characteristics of an object and then modifies each to try to arrive at a new idea. Reverse assumption analysis involves taking the opposite assumption of a situation to generate new ideas. Lateral marketing involves applying marketing techniques from one industry to another. Forced relationship involves forcing connections between unrelated items. Morphological analysis involves breaking down a problem into smaller parts and then exploring their various combinations.

Question 15

How do companies organize new product development?

Accepted Answer

The answer of How do companies organize new product development?...

Question 16

Surgeons and ER nurses would be considered ________ for surgical equipment.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Surgeons and ER nurses would be considered...

Question 17

A group of college graduates decides to start a business. Though they are knowledgeable in various business domains, they are unable to arrive at a valuable business idea. They decide to search for ideas in a structured manner. They meet and start discussing everyone's ideas. Each idea is recorded and then the thoughts that come up in relation to the ideas are written down and discussed. This process helps them to finalize a business plan. What technique is used here?

Accepted Answer

The technique used here is mind mapping, which involves brainstorming and organizing ideas in a visual way. The group is recording and discussing their ideas, which is a key aspect of mind mapping.

Question 18

Increasingly, new-product ideas arise from ________ that combines two product concepts or ideas to create a new offering.

Accepted Answer

Lateral marketing is a strategy that involves combining different product concepts or ideas to create a new offering, which is distinct from traditional vertical marketing strategies that focus on improving existing products.

Question 19

The ________ creativity technique begins with a thought that is written down, then proceeds to develop other thoughts that are linked to the first thought, and finally a new idea materializes by associating all of the thoughts.

Accepted Answer

The description matches the concept of mind mapping, where a central idea is mapped out with related ideas branching out from it.

Question 20

Many people believe that customer focus does not help to create better, or new, products. This belief rests on which of the following ideas?

Accepted Answer

The belief that customer focus does not help to create better, or new, products rests on the idea that customers are at times unaware of what they really want. This is because customers may not have the technical or specialized knowledge required to understand the design process or the potential capabilities of a product. However, despite this limitation, customer feedback and insights can still be valuable inputs into the product development process.

Quiz 15: Introducing New Market Offerings