This mini-lesson covers Topic 5 — Innovation & design: invention vs innovation, the technology push and market pull drivers, diffusion and adopter categories, and the product life cycle.
Work through each screen, answer the questions as you go (some are wordy, some are calculations) and collect ⭐ stars. Press Start when you are ready.
Invention is the creation of a genuinely new product or process for the first time — the first working idea. Innovation is the process of taking an invention and making it a commercial success in the market.
Many inventions never become innovations because they are too costly, ahead of their time, or lack a market. Innovation often means improving and re-launching an existing product, not inventing from scratch.
Key idea: invention is about the idea; innovation is about getting that idea adopted and sold at scale.
Two forces drive new products:
Watch out: technology push is riskier — the market may not want it yet. Market pull is safer but tends to produce incremental, not radical, change.
New products spread through a population in stages (Rogers' diffusion of innovation). Each adopter group is a share of the market:
Innovators + early adopters = 2.5% + 13.5% = 16% of the market — the group that adopts first.
Tap a clue, then tap the product life-cycle stage.
Most products pass through four sales stages: introduction (launch, low sales, heavy promotion), growth (rising sales, competitors arrive), maturity (peak sales, price competition) and decline (falling sales).
Firms use extension strategies to delay decline: new features, new markets, restyling, new packaging or price changes. These keep a mature product selling longer.
Key idea: innovation is continuous — a firm launches or updates products so a new one grows as an older one declines.
Tap a description on the left, then its term on the right.
Technologies often follow an S-curve: slow early progress, then rapid improvement, then a plateau as the approach matures. Recognising the plateau tells a firm when to jump to a new technology rather than keep refining an old one.
Key idea: disruptive innovation often starts a new S-curve that eventually overtakes the mature one.
The hardest step in diffusion is moving from early adopters to the early majority — a gap sometimes called the "chasm". Early adopters tolerate rough products; the majority want reliability, support and value before they buy.
Designers ease the crossing by improving usability, reducing risk and price, and building trust.
Firms innovate in different ways: incremental (steady improvement), radical (a leap in performance), architectural (rearranging existing parts) and disruptive (a simpler, cheaper product that redefines a market from below).
A healthy company usually runs several strategies at once to spread risk.
Innovation is shaped by many pressures: new technology, shifting market needs, cost and competition, sustainability demands, and changes in law or fashion. Designers scan these forces to spot opportunities before rivals do.
Watch out: being first is risky and costly; being a fast, well-timed follower can be more profitable.
Because every product eventually declines, firms manage a portfolio: launching new products as older ones mature, and using extension strategies to lengthen profitable life. This keeps overall sales steady even as individual products rise and fall.
Good portfolio timing means a growing product replaces the revenue of a declining one.
Invention: the first working version of a new idea. Innovation: making it a market success.
Drivers: technology push (new tech looks for a use) vs market pull (a customer need drives design).
Diffusion: innovators 2.5%, early adopters 13.5%, early majority 34%, late majority 34%, laggards 16%.
Product life cycle: introduction, growth, maturity, decline.
Strategies: incremental vs radical/disruptive innovation; extension strategies delay decline.
You have worked through Innovation & Design for IB Diploma Design Technology HL. Press Finish to see your score.
You have worked through Innovation & Design for IB Diploma Design Technology HL. 🎉
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