In the field of industrial design engineering, research was until now concentrated on ergonomics, marketing, design methodology, etcetera. However, very little research has been undertaken studying the relationships between form giving and the following aspects: functionality, ergonomics, production and marketing. In this thesis, the phenomena that appear during the various phases of a product's life have been summarized. These phenomena apply amongst others to the market (is the product new to the market or are there a lot of competitors?), the functionality (is it possible to improve the functionality or has it reached a high degree of perfection?), and the ergonomics (has enough attention been paid to the product's ease of use, or is there scope for improvement?). The regularities that were found have been analysed and described. This has led to six product phases: performance, optimisation, itemisation, segmentation, individualisation, and awareness. The six phases are placed in a chronological order such that predictions about new or future products can be made. This can be done by positioning a product, based on its product characteristics, into one of the product phases. When developing a future product, a designer can add to the product characteristics of the next product phase, thus creating added value for the intended user. In this way, the product phases can help a designer in creating the next generation of a product.