Future Studies and the Value of Foresight in Product Development

In spite of the importance of knowing past and present situations, societies and therefore businesses are moving ever faster toward increasing uncertainty in the future. Our research and experience clearly indicates that there is limited integration between New Product Development and the tools and methodology of Future Study. Many researchers have stressed the importance of further research in the Pre-Active phase of Product Development, the Fuzzy Front End, in dealing with uncertainty faced by managers and designers. This has motivated us to study the aforementioned gap of integration in this phase, after having reached the conclusion that most of the tools and techniques used in the Fuzzy Front End of New Product Development deal with important but incremental issues of new product concepts. The research question is: How can the tool of scenario analysis and planning been added-value in reducing risk of failure in the Fuzzy Front End of New Product Development, and why are these methods not used more extensively in this phase of Product Development, especially when dealing with high risk products concepts? The research includes literature research and case studies. The findings will hopefully be a steppingstone for further research in this field