Product+development+process+case+study

Product Development Case Study
Wednesday, April 4, 2012 <>

Topic overview:
In class today we will carefully analyze the case study of the MediSys corporation and their efforts to develop the IntenSys product and bring it to market. You must come prepared to discuss the case in detail, share your analysis with your classmates, and take positions on what you recommend various participants in the case study should do. Be prepared to defend your positions and challenge your classmates positions. The goal of the session is to explore alternatives and consider the implications of those alternatives. Learning from case studies requires careful preparation prior to class and active participation in the discussion during class.

Preparation for class:
Prior to today's class you need to read and carefully analyze the MediSys case study distributed in class previously. If you need to purchase an electronic version of the case, you may do so by searching for the following case on the Harvard Business School Publishing website (www.hbsp.harvard.edu)

Anne Donnellon and Joshua D. Margolis, Medisys Corp.: The IntensCare Product Development Team, Harvard Business Publishing case #4059-PDF-ENG. (link )

Challenge Problem 7:
If you choose to do your case analysis for Challenge Problem 7 on the MediSys case, you need to submit a 2-3 page, single-spaced case analysis at the beginning of class on Wednesday. If you do not choose to do the MediSys case for your challenge problem 7, you should still come to class on Wednesday prepared to present your answers to the following questions.

Your case analysis should explicitly address the following questions:


 * What are the key challenges that the IntenSys project team is facing to delivering a working product to market by their target release date?
 * What affect does the structure of the project team have on the difficulties that the team is facing?
 * Should the IntenSys team be organized differently to insure the projects success? Why or why not?
 * Are the team's challenges fundamentally technical challenges, product and marketing challenges, or organizational / personnel challenges?
 * Which of these specific challenges do you believe are the most critical for the team to address in order to successfully ship the product on time?

Your analysis should end with a specific recommendation for what __**one**__ of the following people should do to try to get the IntenSys project back on track: Art Beaumont, Valerie Merz, or Jack Fogel. Please be explicit regarding which steps you believe that this person should take. Which of these three people you select to make the recommendation for is up to you.