Design team processes that contribute to innovative outcomes: a mixed methods approach

• Autores: Nur Ozge Ozaltin, Mary Besterfield Sacre, Renee M Clark
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 31, no. 6 (Parte A), 2015, págs. 1537-1553
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • It is critical to focus on the foundations of innovative design in preparing today’s engineers. An understanding of the relationshipof design team processes to product innovativeness can be used to mentor teams in producing innovative designs. Our objectivewas to measure process-level differences between engineering teams that produced innovative versus non-innovative designs byexamining the behaviors and characteristics of team members from problem definition to working prototype. To do this, a mixedmethods analysis was conducted on reflections made by design students. Reflective journal entries were coded using a frameworktool developed in a grounded fashion from the student data. Hypotheses about the prominent themes that emerged from thecontent analysis were then evaluated using statistical testing to determine if process-level differences existed between teams withinnovative versus non-innovative artifacts. We found that innovative teams solved problems significantly more than non-innovativeteams and were proactive, reworking items early and believing in working hard initially. Innovative teams also critically assessedtheir skillsets and sought expertise when necessary significantly more. Many of the characteristics that innovative teams exhibitedsignificantly more are characteristics of high performing teams as well as the entrepreneurial mindset currently advocated withinengineering education. This type of design process data can be used by engineering educators to mentor teams in developinginnovative outcomes. Having demonstrated that process-level behavioral characteristics of design teams can be measured, ourframework tool can be used by other educators to further assess process-level data and continue to establish additional connectionsto innovative designs.