Design products, services, business models
Developing new networked products, services and smart systems can be very challenging.
Do you know how to create empathy with users and customers? Which technologies, applications, and use-cases to focus on? Which business models to pursue? Which relationships to create?
Understanding the customer experience through the user’s eyes enables a much deeper human-centered appreciation of how solutions align with needs and customer experiences. Engaging customers and partners in participatory design fosters an acute understanding of the impacts of compelling user experience and a deeper appreciation of the underlying technologies and systems that inform new distinct solutions.
Smart systems design needs to transcend discrete product or service innovation. Business designers and developers need to creatively imagine fully developed systems and whole marketplaces.
REPRESENTATIVE CLIENTS






CLIENT CASES
NEW PRODUCTS, SERVICES & BUSINESS MODELS
CAPABILITIES
As much as we would like to say there is a simple process and recipe to design and develop new smart systems solutions, the nature and complexity of the Internet of Things makes that impossible. There is no one best way to move through an innovation process to design new systems. There are useful starting points and milestones along the way, but the innovation continuum for smart systems is best thought of as a group of overlapping stages of innovation rather than a sequence of orderly steps.
Our methods and processes for designing and developing new products, services and solutions include:
- User Journey Mapping
- Customer & User Field Research
- UI-UX Design
- Industrial Design
- Software Development
- Innovation & Design Workshops
Embracing intuitive, iterative, and nonlinear product and services development processes is not an excuse to be undisciplined. Rather, it is an approach that is focused on exploration, discovery and creative human-centered design. Done right, the process should lead to unexpected concepts and ideas whose directions would be foolish not to explore.
REPRESENTATIVE ARTICLES
^
SECTORS
For 30+ years, Harbor Research has worked with clients on growth strategy and new business creation. At the core of Harbor’s approach is a deep understanding of core technologies, markets and business characteristics. We strive to generate deep insight into how emergent technologies drive value creation and competitive advantage in our clients’ businesses.
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPERS AND SUPPLIERS
PRODUCTS MANUFACTURERS AND SERVICES
INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS