Leveraging Constraints for Innovation

This PDMA Essentials Book, the third in this series, provides a framework of individual, organizational, and market and societal constraints that guides managers in identifying specific constraints related to their innovation activities and provides them with corresponding tools and practices to overcome and leverage those constraints.

Written by a team of international innovation experts, Leveraging Constraints for Innovation: New Product Development Essentials from the PDMA is presented in three parts. The first part, Individual Constraints, provides insights into how to: simultaneously solve social and commercial needs for greater creativity; apply a multi-stage approach to overcome knowledge sharing in teams; and anticipate and account for psychographic differences among customers during product launch. In the second part, Organizational Constraints, insights emerge that provide guidance on how to: identify and solve for sources of innovation constraints within the company; implement and manage virtual NPD teams; and effectively organize new service development in professional services. The last part, Market Constraints, examines how to: adapt firm capabilities to overcome constraints preventing consumers in low-end and under-resourced markets from purchasing new products; implement inclusive innovation strategies to address markets constrained by underdeveloped infrastructures; develop solutions for women and other disadvantaged market traders in emerging markets.