Question

According to the harvard business review article titled, "the new new product development game", what does it mean to create built-in instability

Answer 1

The idea of “built-in instability” was first circulated in a 1986 Harvard Business Review paper, which started off the agile movement. The paper names built-in instability as a highest excellence of new product development at prominent companies such as Honda and Canon. The term ‘built-in instability’ means that when a company’s top management does the following:First, they establish a wide-ranging but tremendously thought-provoking goal.Second, they do not offer a product definition.Lastly, they offer the plan team sufficient room for mistakes and experimentation.

Answer 2

Creating built-in instability means that you are setting broad goals and providing broad direction while leaving complete freedom to the team in taking charge of the development process,setting very challenging requirements from the team which creates an element of tension, and pushing the development team to the extreme so that it emerges innovation.