Supporting company decision-making to transition from project to product platform: A case study to determine minimum product platform functionalities

Several high-tech companies that develop creative new technological products fail to enter the market. For entering the market, some companies aim to use a transition from a customer engineering project to a so-called product platform. A product platform is a technological design that meets the needs of a core group of customers and can be modified by the addition and substitution of features. Scaling to a product platform enables a company to receive a higher profit margin on sold products then possible when performing projects. However, companies that seek to transition from a project to a product platform experience challenges in their decision-making of the functionalities of the product platform. So far, there is no literature on how companies should approach a transition from project to product platform. Furthermore, this research tries to answer a scientific follow-up question of a literature review on technology-push (TP) and demand-pull (DP) mechanisms (Di Stefano et al., 2012, p. 1291): "How can firms capitalize both technology and demand in the process of innovation development and commercialization?" Successfully capturing both demand and state-of-the-art technology in the product platform could enable the company to let the technology diffuse into the market. This research aims to help high-tech companies and contribute to scientific research. Therefore, this explorative research executes a single case study and delivers a framework to communicate the captured knowledge. The formal research objective is: "Design a framework to support companies decide on the minimum functionalities for a product platform when the company wants to transition from project to product platform." This study delivers a framework that helps companies decide on the minimum functionalities for the product platform. The framework structures the process and ensures that all employees can find a balance between knowledge of technology and knowledge of customers. The result can be a product platform that contains unique selling points and meets the shared actual needs of the customers of a so-called unique selling market (USM). In this way, a company can find a balance between TP and DP mechanisms, which enables the company to diffuse its technology into the market. This research was conducted through multi-method research. A single case study at a high-tech company developing an unmanned surface vessel (USV) enabled the research to discover and define the empirical problem. The literature study on TP and DP mechanisms discovered the applicability of the factors ’technology adaption and diffusion’ and ’organizational competences’. Both provided input for a first framework design. Interviews validated the framework 1.0 and a set of functionalities were developed for the product platform of the USV, which enabled the development of framework 2.0. Finally, a workshop delivered the results of the interviews to the employees and validated framework 2.0. The framework provides valuable knowledge to high-tech companies that want to transition from project to product platform. Implementing the decision-making process can enable the company to select the minimum functionalities that capture both technology and demand in the product platform. Framework 2.0 contributes to the scientific literature by elaborating on the discussion how companies can balance both TP and DP mechanisms (Di Stefano et al., 2012; Lubik et al., 2013) by the use of existing literature (Ortt and Schoormans, 2004; Ortt et al., 2013;Moore, 2014; Lubik et al., 2013; Gawer, 2014).Management of Technology (MoT