Advancing empirical evidence of iteration stereotypes in the fuzzy front end of product development processes

Abstract

In this paper we corroborate and advance insights about iteration characteristics in the fuzzy front end (FFE) of product development processes (PDPs). We captured the characteristics of 122 iterations embedded in design activities and found empirical evidence for several iteration stereotypes. We additionally identified the stereotypes of Ideation and Consolidation which were associated with divergence and convergence in design processes, leading to a proposed coding scheme for iterations on a working level. Moreover, we show that the approaches of describing iterations with either their elements or their appearance can be integrated and directly applied in the FFE of PDPs.