ME 517: Product Development

Spring 2016
Section I: Introduction to Product Development
# Date Subject
Text
Other Reading
1 1/20
Course
Chapter 1
"The 50 Smartest Companies 2015, MIT
Introduction
Technology Review, 2015.

1/25

1/27

2/1

2/3

Development
Process and
Organizations
Strategy /
Product and
Portfolio
Planning
Strategy /
Product and
Portfolio
Planning
Disruptive
Technology

Chapter 2

The Guts of a New Machine, New York

Times Magazine, 2003.
Sputtering R&D Machine, HBS R0208XPDF-ENG, 2002.

Chapters 3 4
Vertex Pharmaceuticals: R&D Portfolio
Management (A), HBS 604101-PDF-ENG,
2006.
Disruptive Innovation Explained at
http://hbr.org/video/2226808799001/disruptiveinnovation-explained , posted 2012.
3D Printing Scales Up, The Economist, 2013.
"The Ultimate Entrepreneur: How DEC Passed
Up the PC Boom", Computerworld, 1988.

Before IPhone and Android Came Simon, the

First Smartphone, Bloomberg Business Week,
2012.
Section II: The Process of Product Development
# Date Subject
Text
Other Reading
6 2/8
Project
Chapter 18
Top Ten Reasons Why Darth Vader was an
Management
Amazing Project Manager,
www.geekwire.com, Posted 2011.

2/10

Project
Management
(continued)

What Great Projects Have in Common, MIT

Sloan Management Review, 2011.
Medisys Corp.: The IntensCare Product
Development Team, HBS 4059-PDF-ENG,
2009.

2/16

2/17

10 2/22

11 2/24
12 2/29
13 3/2
14 3/14

15 3/16
16 3/21

Marketing
Strategy
Identifying
Customer Need
Homework #1
Due
Product Design:
Concept
Generation and
Selection
Concept Testing

Chapter 5

Chapters 68
Chapter 9

TruEarth Healthy Foods: Market Research for a

New Product Introduction, HBS 4065-PDFENG, 2009.
Atlantic Computer: A Bundle of Pricing
Options, HBS 2078-PDF-ENG, 2007.

Chapters 10
- 11

Design Thinking and Innovation at Apple,

HBS 609066-PDF-ENG, 2009.

Chapters
12-13

Cradle-to-Cradle Design at Herman Miller:

Moving Toward Environmental Sustainability,
HBS 607003-PDF-ENG, 2009.
"The Growth of Intel and the Learning Curve",
HBS OIT27, 1999.

Value
Propositions
Mid-Term
Product
Architecture /
Industrial
Design
Design For
Sustainability /
Manufacturing
Manufacturing,
Outsourcing
and Learning
Curves

Note on Marketing Strategy, HBS 598061PDF-ENG, 2000.

The Cyclone Grinder", Corporate Design
Foundation, 1991.

How Solar and Wind Got So Cheap, So Fast.

Atlantic Monthly, 2015.
The Insourcing Boom, Atlantic Monthly,
2012.

17 3/23

Principles of
Agile Product
Development
(Guest Lecture)

Homework #2
Due
Section III: New Product Finance
# Date Subject
Text
18 3/28
Project
Chapter 17
Economics
19 3/30
Project
Economics

Other Reading
http://www.studyfinance.com/lessons/finstmt/
"Investment Analysis and Lockheed Tri Star",
HBS 9-291-031, 1993.

20 3/30

Writing
Business Plans

Section IV: Special Topics

# Date Subject
20 4/4
Crowdsourcing
and Open
Innovation
21 4/6
Standards and
Standards Wars

" Sahlman, "How to Write a Great Business

Plan", Harvard Business Review, 1997.
Text

Other Reading

The Coming War Over Wireless Charging,

Bloomberg Business Week, 2012.
"Strategic Maneuvering and Mass Market
Dynamics: The Triumph of VHS over Beta",
Business History Review, 1992.

22 4/11
23 4/13
24 4/20
25 4/25
26 4/27

Intellectual
Property
Prototyping and
Simulation
Technology
Start-Ups
Technology
Start-Ups
Wrap-Up
Homework #3
Due

Chapter 16
Chapter 14

Dethroning an Established Platform MIT

Sloan Management Review, 2012.
The Great Smartphone War: Apple vs.
Samsung, Vanity Fair, 2014.
"Team New Zealand (A)", HBS 9-697-040,
1997.
LinkAmerica: The 18th Time Was the Charm,
Fortune, 2014.
Feed Resource Recovery, HBS BAB156PDF-ENG, 2009.