DESIGN RESEARCH FOR INNOVATION: INTEGRATING CREATIVITY AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES

This paper is to define the role of the Product Design Research Unit of the Politecnico di Milano within new products development processes. We illustrate the phases that make up the design research activity conducted by the Research Unit. Our aim is to show how product innovation can be reached starting from a clear definition and analysis of the context surrounding the product and using the design activity as a creativity tool. We provide two examples of our research activity showing how the RU leads the product innovation process. We suggest that Design and Creativity Management inside companies should deal not only with internal resources, but also with external resources and tools that can be found into academic research prerogatives.