Design or product development? The questioning in relation to the employment of such terminology dates back to possible misconceptions regarding interpretation and approach them. Therefore, it can be stated that there are differences between these two terms? In this context, we highlight two views concerning the origin of the design. The first character creative and based on pre-industrial revolution, based on projective and methodologies directed towards the practice of designing products. And second, where design is understood as an industrial process: the development of new products includes, besides a creative procedure are developed, and symbolic formal solutions for products, but also a technical procedure based on the definition of the requirements concerning the product engineering. Is this the most widely accepted interpretation? Theoretical studies were conducted from interpretations of the concept of the design proposed by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design - ICSDI (2012), and for the characterization of the process of product development, we sought to develop an analogy between these two terminologies and can be proved that the use of one of terminology will not cause deviations of interpretation, since both deal with the life cycle of the product. The main results obtained until now the definition of design proposed by the ICSID where it is characterized as a creative activity focused on the complete life cycle of products is the more approaches of the concept of product development. From the perspective of product development, it can be noted that this is characterized as a set of activities that, from the identification of market opportunities, execute seek planning products adequately to technological limitation sand strategy of the organization to ensure the productive capacity, the insert also on the market with the discontinuity of the product. This is configured as a single process, where design and engineering participating in the same process, making it more sustainable.
