Queensland University of Technology Product Ecosystems Extrinsic Value in Product Design Timothy Williams Bachelor of Design (Industrial Design) School of Design Creative Industries Faculty 2019 Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Timothy Product Ecosystems Page 1 Williams Product Ecosystems Extrinsic Value in Product Design Timothy Williams Historically, an Industrial Designer’s job was often little more than adding an aesthetically pleasing shell to a product. The contemporary Industrial Designer role has expanded significantly. Now the value of design thinking is acknowledged throughout the product development process from initial user insights through marketing and manufacture to business strategy (T. Brown, 2008, 2019; Conway et al., 2017; Evans, 2012; Rowe, 1994). The wide acceptance of the value of Design Thinking provides the designer with a unique perspective as well as the skills to imagine future scenarios and solutions: this is, of course, the essence of design. In this thesis, I document the development of a more holistic way of thinking about design: Product Ecosystem Thinking. I propose that this is a way to improve the value proposition of a product, thereby improving the chance of success. I demonstrate that products gain value from their ecosystems and develop a design method to apply that thinking. I then show that the new Product Ecosystem Design Method is easy to use, easy to learn and effective. Page 2 Product Ecosystems Timothy Williams The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where duly referenced. QUT Verified Signature 18/7/19 --------------------------- -------------------- Tim Williams Date A PhD project is a long journey, and I would like to acknowledge the people who were with me on that journey. Firstly, I would like to thank my wife Angela for her never-ending support and encouragement and for keeping me grounded during the journey. Secondly, I would like to thank my ever-changing supervisory team. My first Principle Supervisor, Marianella, who guided me through the early stages when I had no idea what I was doing and is the only one to have “stayed the distance”. Simon, who opened my eyes to quantitative research. Moreover, Evonne’s whose enthusiasm and positivity have been invaluable. Associate supervisors Sam and Rob both contributed unique perspectives. This PhD journey started at QUT in the Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering in 2011 with the following supervisory team Timothy Product Ecosystems Page 3 Williams Principal Supervisor: Marianella Chamorro-Koc Associate Supervisor: Professor Simon Washington Associate Supervisor: Sam Bucolo In 2012 the faculty of BEE changed to the faculty of SEF In 2013, Sam Bucolo left QUT, and Robert Perrons joined the supervisory team. At this stage, Simon Washington took over the principal supervisor role from Marianella. The team was now: Principal Supervisor: Professor Simon Washington Associate Supervisor: Marianella Chamorro-Koc Associate Supervisor: Robert Perrons In 2016, Simon Washington left QUT, forcing another supervisory change. Associate Professor Evonne Miller took the role of Principle supervisor. This also required a change to the Creative industries faculty. Principal Supervisor: Associate Professor Evonne Miller Associate Supervisor: Marianella Chamorro-Koc Associate Supervisor: Robert Perrons In 2017, Robert Perrons left the supervisory team and it now stands as: Principal Supervisor: Associate Professor Evonne Miller Associate Supervisor: Marianella Chamorro-Koc Page 4 Product Ecosystems Timothy Williams Research Paper 1 Williams, T. (2015) Using the evolution of consumer products to inform design. In Proceedings of the 6th IASDR (The International Association of Societies of Design Research Congress), IASDR (The International Association of Societies of Design Research), Brisbane, Australia, pp. 2222-2235. Research Paper 2 Williams, T. & Chamorro-Koc, M. (2013) Product Ecosystems: an emerging methodological approach to study the implementation of disruptive innovation: the case of the CityCar. In Sugiyama, Kuzuo (Ed.) Consilience and Innovation in Design Proceedings and Program vol. 1, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan, pp. 1286-1295. Research Paper 3 Williams, T. & Chamorro-Koc, M. (2019) Identifying Extrinsic Value in a Product Ecosystem. To be submitted to the International Journal of Art and Design Education Currently unpublished. Research Paper 4 Williams, T & Chamorro-Koc, M. (2016) Future Product Ecosystems: Discovering the value of connections. In Lloyd, Peter & Bohemia, Erik (Eds.) Proceedings of DRS2016: Design + Research + Society - Future-Focused Thinking, Design Research Society, Brighton, United Kingdom, pp. 1643- 1658. Research Paper 5 Williams, T. & Miller, E. (2019) Creating the Product Ecosystem Design Method. Submitted to The Journal of Design Strategies. April 2019 Currently under review. Research Paper 6 Williams, T., Chamorro-Koc, M. & Miller, E (2019) Product Ecosystem Thinking: A New Design Method To be submitted to the International Journal of Art and Design Education. Currently unpublished Research 7 - Appendix 4 Williams, T (2014) Developing a transdisciplinary approach to improve urban traffic congestion based on Product Ecosystem theory. In Marchetti, N., Brebbia, C.A., Pulselli, R., & Bastianoni, S. (Eds.) The Sustainable City IX: Proceedings of 9th International Conference on Urban Regeneration and Sustainability, WITpress, Siena, Italy, pp. 723-733. Timothy Product Ecosystems Page 5 Williams Figure 1 - First generation Hills Hoist 1967. ................................................................ 16 Figure 2 - Third generation Hills Hoist 2017 ................................................................ 16 Figure 3 - Relationship of research question and sub-questions ................................. 20 Figure 4 - Thesis structure ........................................................................................... 21 Figure 5 - A sample Business Model Canvas - (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010) .......... 30 Figure 6 - Sample UX definitions ................................................................................. 36 Figure 7 - Innovation Ecosystems as a subset of Business Ecosystems .................... 40 Figure 8 - Innovation Ecosystems relation to Product Ecosystems ............................. 41 Figure 9 - A generic value blueprint maps the ecosystem actors and links. ................ 41 Figure 10 - The three risks of innovation. .................................................................... 42 Figure 11 - The ecosystem pie model ......................................................................... 44 Figure 12 - Actor network Theory’s relation to Product Ecosystems ........................... 51 Figure 13 - ANT diagram for a television ..................................................................... 52 Figure 14 - The Double Diamond ................................................................................ 56 Figure 15 - Innovation Ecosystems relation to Product Ecosystems ........................... 58 Figure 16 - The system test ......................................................................................... 60 Figure 17 - A linear model of innovation ...................................................................... 64 Figure 18 - System Immune response ......................................................................... 65 Figure 19 - The gap between Design Thinking and Systems Thinking ........................ 67 Figure 20 - Product Ecosystems: a blend of Design Thinking and Systems Thinking . 67 Figure 21 - Typical product lifecycle ............................................................................ 76 Figure 22 - Superseding existing models .................................................................... 77 Figure 23 - The evolution of the five series BMW ........................................................ 78 Figure 24 - Phyletic Gradualism .................................................................................. 80 Figure 25 - Human Evolution – The march of progress ............................................... 80 Figure 26 - The wristwatch family tree ......................................................................... 86 Figure 27 - Examples of a SWOT analysis using evolutionary branch analysis ..... 87 Figure 28 - The product evolution model to evaluate Design-Driven Innovation .... 90 Figure 29 - Examples of incremental and Disruptive innovation. ................................. 96 Figure 30 - MIT CityCar ............................................................................................. 103 Page 6 Product Ecosystems Timothy Williams Figure 31 - Renault Twizy .......................................................................................... 103 Figure 32 - Diagrammatic representation of a car network. ....................................... 110 Figure 33 - Sebring-Vanguard’s Citicar ..................................................................... 123 Figure 34 - MIT CityCar ............................................................................................. 124 Figure 35 - Renault Twizy .........................................................................................