Project: Product Development/Market Research, In-depth

Entry requirements

Alternative 1: 150 credits, including 90 credits in technology and 15 credits at Master's level in industrial engineering and management. Participation in Marketing for the Industrial Company and also Customer Focused Product Development or Designing Health Innovations. Proficiency in English equivalent to the Swedish upper secondary course English 6.

Alternative 2: 150 credits within Master's Programme in Industrial Engineering and Management, including Industrial Engineering and Management II: Organising, Production and Markets and Industrial Management III: Project in Business and Technology Development. Participation in 5 credits at Master's level in Technology or Industrial Engineering and Management. Proficiency in English equivalent to the Swedish upper secondary course English 6.

Learning outcomes

On completion of the course, the student should be able to:

• plan and execute independently projects aimed at collecting, systematize and analyse information about markets and customer contexts as fundamental supporting elements for product development in specific sectors and industrial fields,
• apply the most important models for organising and managing product development and its implementation in concrete commercial setting,
• analyse complex product development situations and, based on such analysis, suggest relevant strategies, plans and action programs for various types of companies and organisations,
• identify the need of further knowledge and tools (both analytics and computer-based) to conduct product development tasks,
• evaluate critically the result of a product development project and, based on such an evaluation, reflect on uncertainty and risks in execution, so to be able to suggest alternative conclusions.

Content

The course aims to train students in the use of previously acquired knowledge, concepts, models and tools, especially from the courses "Ledning av produktutveckling" and "Marknadsföring för det industriella företaget".

Instruction

The course is organised as an independent project conducted in teams of 4-5 students with the aim of developing an idea all the way to a product ready for launch for a specific firm. This work is supported by methodological lectures. The project work is presented during a series of seminars with oppositions acting as "control gates" and leading to a final seminar where a decision on launching or not the product is taken by an opponent group.

Assessment

Group-based evaluation of the handed-in reports at each specific seminar and the respective classroom presentations. For approved marks also oppositions to another project group are required.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding targeted pedagogical support from the disability coordinator of the university.