Stéphane Brunel

Design products to learn and to use

The goal of this paper is to study the way in which a product generates knowledge throughout its lifecycle. In addition to their basic functional services, products provide complementary services and, especially, they can support learning processes throughout their lifecycle. The authors show how this amount of knowledge is generated and how it should be employed at various levels of decision making within the firm. A generic tool, strategic training positioning, is suggested to allow a clear definition of the firms’ needs in terms of learning and training. Some of the basic ideas have been already tested through a promising industrial case.

Products to Learn or Products to Be Used

The aim of this paper is to study how a product generates knowledge throughout its lifecycle. We show how the knowledge is generated and how it should be employed on various levels of decision making within the firm. Outside the form, learnings and trainings induced by the product throughout its lifecycle participate to the generation of an additional service which can be provided to customers and final users. Some of these ideas have been already tested through an industrial case but other prospective results are also proposed. These ideas may help the definition of a more efficient business strategy. A generic tool, a strategic training positioning, is suggested in order to allow a clear definition of the firm’s needs in terms of learning and training.