The Feature Selection Methodology (FSM): an approach for automotive companies to face a new paradigm in the Front End of Innovation

Feature development is about conceiving a set of functionalities prior to the products that embody them. Established automotive companies have numerous features in their portfolios, so, notwithstanding the challenge of creating new features, this study focused on the following problem that emerges in the Front End of Innovation of these companies: from the portfolio of available features, which ones to select for each new product specification? As a response, we propose the Feature Selection Methodology (FSM), designed over a 7-month action-research program conducted along with a global automotive company. Finally, general implications of FSM and Featuredriven development are discussed.