CREATIVE PROCESSES IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: UTILITY AND APPLICABILITY

To survive in competitive environments, companies must be able to deliver new products and services to the market. Creativity is a key element in this product development process. This paper is a case study of the use and application of a creative methodology and creativity techniques in six Norwegian SMEs. The study found that the SMEs could quickly learn and use specific techniques and the techniques were deemed useful because they were relevant and powerful tools, easy to adjust to specific needs and made the companies able to identify possible solutions to real-life problems. Further, the study revealed the importance of integrating creativity and business processes to fully exploit the potential of creativity techniques. This creativity integration process was found to be affected by four factors: focus, consciousness, implementation and flexibility and full integration can only be obtained through a focused approach supported by managers responsible for relevant business processes.