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Developing an innovation strategy - Technology: The Capability Ceiling - An alternative perspective: Dominant design

4 important questions on Developing an innovation strategy - Technology: The Capability Ceiling - An alternative perspective: Dominant design

How does the dominant design model work?

When a new type of product is launched there usually follows a period of ferment and experimentation during which many different designs are tried out, often by many different companies. Eventually a preferred, or dominant, design arises that becomes an actual or de facto standard and is eventually adopted by all serious players.

How can the dominant design emergence be described using the Kano model?

One would say when the dominant design emerges competition on the core Performance features is much curtailed and the competitive focus must move elsewhere: typically to cost, quality and brand value, but also to new Excitement features.

What are threshold effects?

A threshold effects operates when a dominant design is held in place simply by the high cost of making a change.

What happens when threshold and/or network effects are in place?

The effects both serve to make an established dominant design very difficult to shift. Together they can make an almost insuperable barrier, as people who tried to persuade the world to adopt an artificial new language have found.