Product Development as a Vehicle for Organizational Change

Introduction In its essence, product development is all about change. And yet product development has been ignored for its role in changing the organization. Why is this? Today’s organizations value product development for its ability to realign a business with its external environment, consumers, and markets. Product development has become synonymous with the creation and production of goods people want to buy. It has turned into the corporate response to challenges posed by social trends, economic forces, and technical advances.1 As a result, organizations think of product development when they think of external change. This essay explores how product development might be a way to think about internal organizational change.