Hetero Expert Innovation: New Product Development through Exploitation of Ideas from Other Industries

OVERVIEW:In order to compete effectively in the fast-moving consumer goods industry, companies must find untapped sources for new product ideas. Experts in other industries may provide a source of novel ideas, helping companies to overcome functional fixedness and not-invented-here syndrome, which can be obstacles in conventional new product development processes. Based on direct observation of participants in a new product development project at a fast-moving consumer goods company, we explore the process of hetero expert innovation, which incorporates input from expert users from other industries into the new product development process. The process described in this article may offer an effective alternative to traditional idea generation processes for new product development.