Development of product-service systems in the fuzzy front end of innovation

Product-service systems (PSS) are known as an interesting strategy for reaching sustainable differentiation. Migrating from a manufacturing company to a solution provider through PSS offerings raises different challenges, especially for the development stages. To reduce time in the innovation process the Fuzzy Front End (FFE) of innovation could be the optimal start for a combined development of products and services. This paper describes the advantages of the FFE approach in the context of a PSS development and gives a holistic overview of the current status of PSS development in the FFE, based on a structured, systematic literature review.