Product innovations, from cell phones to commercial jet airliners, follow a pattern. Initially, firms compete with quite different designs. Eventually, some combination of form, features, and technologies become preferred and widely accepted as the dominant design, pushing alternate designs out of the market and changing the basis of product design competition. This paper explains the development of the dominant functional architecture that both underpins and precedes a dominant design. A dominant functional architecture refers to the specific technologies and technical know-how behind a dominant design. Based upon key innovations in sewing machines from the 1800s to the present time, the paper shows how to find recurrent functions across successive generations of designs as the basis for detecting the convergence toward a dominant functional architecture. The research findings have strong relevance to products such as autonomous vehicles and legged robots, where a dominant design has yet to appear. It is in the interest of firms to pay attention to convergence toward a dominant functional architecture even if physical designs appear divergent and can mislead firms into believing that a dominant design is a long way off. Tweet. When and what will be the dominant design for radical innovations such as autonomous vehicles or legged robots? This article recommends monitoring for the emergence of a dominant functional architecture even if physically observable designs look different.
