Eling et al. (2014) - Using Intuition in Fuzzy Front-End Decision-Making: A Conceptual Framework Flashcards
What is the paper about?
The theorizing leads the authors to postulate that intuition use may be beneficial to making generation and evaluation decisions during FFE execution because of the capabilities of the unconscious mind from which intuition results. However, the framework acknowledges that, due to the shortcomings of the unconscious mind, intuition may not be as beneficial to FFE decision-making in some situations
What are the major Fuzzy Front End tasks?
(1) problem definition, consisting of basic market and technology analysis and opportunity identification activities;
(2) idea generation, further information gathering and analysis and idea or solution generation and selection activities; and
(3) concept development, the refining of the idea into a concrete new product concept, planning of the NPD project, and development of a new product business case
The decisions made during FFE execution determine the content, tasks, timing, and cost of the entire NPD project
Why is the FFE important?
The decisions made during FFE execution determine the content, tasks, timing, and cost of the entire NPD project
NPD teams decide what new product will be developed by determining which ideas and concepts managers will see at the gates
What is intuition?
Intuition: a seemingly unsubstantiated attitude toward a decision alternative or course of action that communicates the result of unconscious processing to the conscious mind of the decision-maker.
The capabilities of unconscious processing can be separated into:
Traits:
(1) Higher capacity: Taking the large amounts of information and requirements relevant for FFE decision-making simultaneously into account.
(2) Access to implicit & tacit knowledge: Taking FFE relevant implicit and tacit knowledge, e.g., from previous NPD projects into account.
(3) Openness: Reconsidering decisions without bias when, e.g., market requirements, technological possibilities, regulations, or FFE outcome change
Processes
(4) Precise weighting: Taking information and requirements, such as approximate market size information or qualitative interview
data, with their precise relevance and importance into account
(5) Making new associations: Recognizing opportunities or generating ideas by newly combining new information on, e.g., the market or technologies, with stored knowledge and patterns
(6) Matching complex patterns: Recognizing current FFE decision situations based on (implicitly) stored patterns and schemas from
previous FFE decision situations.
What are the two steps of using intuition?
Step 1: only at individual level:
- process: unconscious process
- outcome: intuition = attitude towards certain action
Step 2: individual or team level
- process: making decision based on intuition
- outcome: decision = commitment to action
Shortcomings of Unconscious processing
Individual decision making:
(1) Not universally applicable: The danger of having and, therefore, applying an inaccurate intuition in individual FFE execution
decision-making may be higher for incremental product development projects because more of the decision problems for such projects during FFE execution may be organized according to precise rules
(2) No process awareness: When FFE team members are inexperienced in NPD or pursue multiple goals, chances are higher
that their intuition is inaccurate because the unconscious may lack the information relevant to develop a successful new product or the unconscious may pursue a different goal than to develop a creative new product concept
team decision making:
(3) Reasons supporting an intuition not delivered:The danger of applying an inaccurate intuition in team FFE execution decision-making may especially be high when a rational decision culture is in place or when hierarchical or democratic decision rules are applied. The reasons are, first, that individuals may require the freedom to follow their intuition without justifying each decision in order to develop out of the box solutions and, second, that the intuition of the most knowledgeable team member may be more accurate than the intuitions of the majority or of the team leader.
What characteristics that may create inaccurate intuitions for individuals making FFE execution decisions leading to less successful FFE outcomes:
the incremental nature of the project (P2), FFE team member inexperience (P3), and the existence of multiple goals (P4).
intuition may lead to incorrect decisions when arithmetic and logic are required, when decision criteria consist of exact numbers, or when one decision criterion prevails over all others for incremental projects and the information available is more precise and complete rules for decision-making in FFE execution for incremental projects are usually stricter incremental projects are more likely to have one decision criterion that prevails over all others in FFE decision-making
What does the paper propose?
P1: The use of intuition in making FFE execution decisions increases new product concept creativity
P2: The positive effect of the use of intuition in making FFE execution decisions on the creativity of the new product concept is weaker for more incremental product development projects.
P3: The positive effect of the use of intuition in making FFE execution decisions on the creativity of the new product concept is weaker the less relevant experience the individual decision-maker has
- FFE decision-making requires experience in the marketing and R&D domains and a good understanding of the company’s strategy - and capabilities FFE team member inexperience. FFE team member experience is defined by the amount of explicit, implicit, and - - tacit knowledge a person possesses that is relevant for developing this particular new product concept. The less relevant
- knowledge an FFE decision-maker has, the less accurate may the decision-maker’s intuition be
P4: The positive effect of the use of intuition in making FFE execution decisions on the creativity of the new product concept is weaker when FFE team members pursue multiple goals simultaneously during FFE execution.
- Having just one clear goal moti vates team members and provides them with clear direc tion, supporting intuition use in decision-making However, if a decision-maker has multiple goals, the unconscious mind might use the “wrong” goal for the decision problem at hand
P5: The positive effect of the use of intuition in making FFE execution decisions on the creativity of the new product concept is weaker when a rational decision culture is in place.
- a rational decision culture is one in which every FFE execution decision and resulting activity needs to be justified. Since support for an intuition is difficult to articulate, a team member with a correct intuition may be prevented from using it because the other team members have different intuitions and request justification
P6: The positive effect of the use of intuition in making FFE execution decisions on the creativity of the new product concept is weaker when hierarchical or democratic decision-making rules are applied in team decision-making.
- Democratic or hierarchical decision-making works best when the reasons for decision-making can be dis cussed
The reasons for an intuition, however, cannot be articulated (Dane and Pratt, 2009). Others often do not understand the unsubstantiated attitude of an FFE team member even though it could lead to a more creative new product concept
