Product Upgradability: Towards a Medical Analogy

This paper explored the analogy between the medical area and product design. Many similarities, shared between the genetic mutation permitting human to ensure its survival and the product undergoing the introduction of new technologies to meet the market fluctuation, are found to propose this analogy. From creating genetic reference space to transplant technology into product, fundamental process of survival and evolution will be described and allows the parallel with a product, to understand how the evolution of product respond to future needs. It also ensures the durability of resources in an ecological perspective. We discuss the complexity of establishing the right diagnosis for directing the design to choose the right technology and to enable its future integration into a living product. This uncertainty in the technological maturity but also the integrability of this technology in the current product at first, then in the future will allow its product development. Conclusions for the use of this analogy and the justification to describe ``living product'' will be drawn.