No abstract

IN EDITH WILSON'S ANALYSIS, designers in the 1990s face new challenges that make them key players in the critical product‐definition stage of high‐tech projects. They must help keep the multidisciplined development team focused on customer needs. They must exploit their visualization skills to translate input from areas as diverse as marketing and manufacturing into viable product concepts. And they must work to unite a company's line into a family of aesthetically and functionally related products.

Details research which shows that product definition is crucial to increasing overall success. Reports research undertaken within Hewlett‐Packard that uncovered ten product definition factors preprequisite to successful product development. Further research across Fortune 100 companies expanded the list to include an eleventh essential factor. Concludes that each of the 11 factors have to be completed adequately, prior to exiting the product definition phase; and these can be completed only through a multidisciplinary product development team.