Social Product Development: Introduction, Overview, and Current Status

Social Product Development is a relatively new concept in the world of product development. While the word means different things to different people, it can generally be described as the use of social computing technologies, tools, and
media, influencing the product life cycle at any stage through the use of a defined and qualified crowd with the goal of enhancing the value of communication. Some of the tenants of Social Product Development are crowdsourcing, mass collaboration, open innovation, and cloud-based design and manufacturing. Social Product Development can be categorized into Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 technologies, the distinction being whether the technologies are used to interface with internal (Web 2.0) or external (Enterprise 2.0) entities from the product development enterprise. While the extent of use of these technologies has not been fully characterized yet, there are many examples of their use in industry and their successful results. From these examples, we are able to draw some conclusions about how to successfully implement these technologies into a product development venture. Even as we try to understand how to utilize Social Product Development in its current state, it is important to look toward the future and analyze how the Internet, which makes Social Product Development possible, is changing as to determine how Social Product Development principles will change with it.