Orchestrating Human-Machine Designer Ensembles during Product Innovation

What is it about?

Product innovation increasingly involves both human designers (engineers, developers, lead users, creative geniuses, and other innovators) and machine designers (algorithmically organized software tools that autonomously collect and interpret data to make innovative design decisions). This article provides practical guidance about how firms can leverage different forms of machine designers in tandem with human designers to fundamentally change the way they engage in product innovation. It describes how successful companies have managed to optimally orchestrate the capabilities of human and machine designers to create both effective and ethical product innovations that were previously unthinkable.

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Why is it important?

------------------------------------------------------- Contribution to Academic Scholarship ------------------------------------------------------- We study emerging product innovations that were created not only by human designers (engineers, developers, lead users, creative geniuses, or other innovators) but also machine designers (algorithmically organized software tools that autonomously collect and interpret data to make innovative design decisions). We focus on the challenge of orchestrating the different capabilities of human and machine designers in tandem during product innovation in both effective and ethically responsible ways. ------------------------------------------------------- Contribution to Management Practice ------------------------------------------------------- We provide practical guidance on how firms can leverage different forms of machine designers in tandem with human designers to fundamentally change the way they engage in product innovation. We describe how successful companies have managed to choose appropriate forms of machine designers, optimally orchestrate the capabilities of human and machine designers successfully, and managed to create both effective and ethical product innovations. ---------------------------- Author Perspective ---------------------------- Several years ago we started to learn about a number of truly innovative projects where algorithms instead of humans seemed to be the main source of a product innovation. Cases such as the Hack Rod, Ubisoft, or Moderna's mRNA technology fascinated us so we decided to learn more about how these pioneering companies managed to integrate "machines" into their innovation processes.