.{bstract. This article presents a study that eramines multiple effects of using different means of computer-mediated comlllunicatior.r and knowledge elicitation nrethods during a prodr.rct design process. The experinrental task involved a typical scenario in product design. in which a knowledge engineer' consults two experts to generate knowledge about a design issue. Employing a 3x2 between-subjects design, three conference types (face-to-face. computer. multimedia) and two knowledge elicitation methods (structured interview, network technique) were compared. One hundred and eight participants took part in the study. The1,'were assigned to 36 groups of three. Quantitative and qualitative performance data were collected and the group processes u,ith the IPA method analysed. The results showed that the couipr-rter conference -qroup rvas generally more productive than the two other gror.rps durin-e the conference. However. participants were unable to nraintirin their higher performance levels in a later task where the conference results had to be edited before being fed into an expelt system. As expected. the computer conference group showed the lowest socio-emotional content durir-rg interaction. The network technique was largely more productive than structured interviewing, though it was more time-consuming. Furthermore, the findings suggested that both the network rechnique and computer conferencing achieved their higher productivity in knowledge generation onlv at the cost of inlormation processing depths, resulting in poorer performance fbr subsequent transfer activities. The results are discussed rvith legard to organizational choice in managing conferences ofthis kind.