Teamwork is one of the most significant characteristics which influence on a new product success as well as on the speed-to-market. However, due to the more complex management of product development teams, problems which result in a decrease of team performances might occur. Analysis of the communication patterns in the working phases of design process supports in the identification of such problems and in finding ways and strategies for overcoming them. In this work, using the ASE (analysis-synthesis-evaluation) activities in the problem and solution space, protocol analysis of the two teams in the two design phases (idea generation and final concept decision and development) has been carried out. Basic statistics (mean value and standard deviation) of the activities' number and duration has been analyzed as well as timeshare of the ASE activities and team members. Transition in communication between the ASE activities as well as between the team members has also been analyzed. Results of the ASE activities time share showed that, with respect to the team focus during idea generation, two types of team exists: a team which is solution focused and a team which is both problem and solution focused. Same analysis gave one more conclusion – time share of the solution synthesis in idea generation activity depends on the team members' work experience. Observing the team member's timeshare of the verbal communication as well as observing the communication transition among them resulted in few more conclusions and hypothesis about transition probabilities and dependence of the team member's personality and it's role in the team to the teamwork' performance. Analysis of the communication transition among team members showed that during both observed phases, patterns about communication sequence between team members exist. Results from this work contribute to the teamwork management and they could be used to improve team performances.
