Interplay of styling, design and service performance in developing Product-Service Systems

New innovations are a decisive competitive advantage in today´s global markets. Besides technical improvements the extension of classical product centred offerings with services to a provider of individual solution offers tremendous benefits. Furthermore, an exceptional product styling enables emotionally added value. Developing these offerings requires a joint and structured collaboration among the stakeholders, e.g. stylists, designers and engineers, already in the early phases. In practice, this can evoke a number of difficulties due to differences in working processes and philosophies of the different stakeholders. In order to face this challenge, the design process of offering development needs to be investigated. Furthermore, new methods and processes have to be developed. This paper describes an investigation of the different methods in developing a product focusing on stylists and engineers. Additionally, it describes the investigation of the challenges that occur during the development of Product-Service Systems. Based on survey results a new approach is presented which is in turn validated with a use case. Eventually, an integrated offering development process is proposed.