Timing and Targeting of PSS Methods and Tools: An Empirical Study amongst Academic Contributors

Abstract

The emergence of product/service-systems has meant that development methods for such systems have emerged from academia. This paper investigates existing methods that are aimed at developing product/service-systems. Two aspects are determined for each examined method. The first aspect that has been surveyed is when a given method is meant to be used in the development of a product/service-system. This aspect has been determined through a qualitative assessment of each method. The second aspect surveyed is which persons in an organisation who are seen as the main drivers in the use of the methods. To gain this insight a questionnaire for each method has been conducted with the authors of the methods as participants. The main finding indicates that current PSS methods cannot thoroughly support the development of product/service-systems as their specificity is too low and that the methods need strong intra-organisational collaboration or even roles that do not yet exist.