Dave Peres and Rob Patterson (co-owners, Minalytix) discuss what product development is, the typical development process, development models and their experiences when building their company.

1. ENT101
Session #6 - Product Development
Presented On: Nov 5, 2014
Presented By: Dave Peres & Rob Patterson

2. Agenda
• Our background
• What is product development?
• The typical product development process
• What am I building?
• What and who are involved?
• How do I do it?
• What development model options are there?
• Our product development experiences – for better or for worse…

3. Our Background
• Dave Peres – Co-Founder of Minalytix
• Former VP at Century Systems Software and Manager of PMO & IT/IS at
BESTECH
• 15 years of experience in Mining Engineering and Software Product
Development
• Rob Patterson – Co-Founder of Minalytix
• Software product developer and implementation specialist at Century
Systems, Business Analyst and Project Manager at BESTECH
• 13 years of experience in developing and implementing software solutions

4. Our Company
• Minalytix Inc.
• Founded in 2013
• Privately owned.
• Located in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
• Software development and consulting focused on the Mining & Exploration
Industries
• Offering consulting services to help fund product development.
• Developing commercial products for clients and partners.
• All team members have experience in commercial software product
development.

5. Product Development
The process of taking an IDEA and turning it into a viable PRODUCT and
making sure that PRODUCT aligns with that original IDEA.

6. Typical Product Development Process
Idea Generation Business
Strategy
Idea Screening
&
Market Research
Feature Specification
& Product Design
Product & Process
Development
Testing
&
Verification
Launch Production
Support & Maintenance

7. Typical Product Team Roles
• Visionary
• Product Manager
• Analyst
• Designer
• Programmer / Engineer
• Quality Assurance
• Sales and Marketing
• Support and Maintenance

8. Idea Generation
Who?
• Visionary
• This could be anyone in or outside of
an organization that sees an
opportunity to create or improve
something
• Customers, market, product manager,
employee, suppliers, business
partners, etc.
What / How?
• Write out customer needs
• Brainstorm product issues
• Use R&D
• Review customer complaints
• Research your competition
• Know what`s out there
• Don’t limit possibilities at this point
• Continues through product
development process

9. Idea Screening & Market Research
Who?
• Visionary
• Customers
• Analyst
What / How?
• Talk to your customers and truly
understand their needs
• Develop & evaluate screening
criteria
• Market factors
• Production factors
• Development factors
• Financial factors
• Risk & Cost/Benefit Analysis

10. Who?
• Visionary
• Analyst
• Product Manager
• Understands the market
• Creates relevant documents
• Bridge between all team roles
What / How?
• Write a business plan
• Profitability and market
potential
• Resources required for
development
• Competitor analysis
• Fit with your business profile
Business Strategy

11. Feature Specification & Product Design
Who?
• Visionary
• Customer
• Product Manager
• Designer
• Programmer / Engineer
What / How?
• Customer and market
requirements
• Functional requirements
• Technical designs and
specifications
• Testing and verification
specification

12. A Note on Simplicity

13. Product & Process Development
Who?
• Product Manager
• Programmer / Engineer
What / How?
• Build the product to the
specifications defined
• Adjust as necessary to meet
reality!
• Develop and document
processes and procedures that
produce the best product

14. Testing & Verification
Who?
• Product Manager
• Quality Assurance
What / How?
• Confirm that product meets all
requirements in testing and
verification specification
• Work with development team to
address defects/issues

15. Production
Who?
• Product Manager
• Analyst
What / How?
• Establish a production facility /
line
• Create manuals and other
documentation
• Determining logistics
• Shipping
• Storage
• Sales & Distribution

16. Launch
Who?
• Product Manager
• Customers
• Sales and Marketing
What / How?
• Advertising
• Marketing
• Elevator pitch and sales
collateral
• Re-sellers, distribution channels
• Get it into your customers’
hands

17. Support & Maintenance
Who?
• Customers
• Product Manager
• Quality Assurance
• Analyst
• Engineer / Programmer
What / How?
• Provide avenues for customer
feedback
• Address customer issues
• Inform customers of those issues
• Identify opportunities for
product improvement

18. Popular Product Development Models

19. Our Experience
• All of our experience in product development has been with software
• At Century Systems, we assisted in the development and
implementation of GeoData Management products for the mining
and exploration industries

20. Our Experience with Ideas
• When we started
• The product had been developed specifically for one
customer’s needs
• It cost time and money to re-design the product to meet
the needs of the overall industry
• Lessons learned
• Do your research up front
• Talk to your customers; make sure that you understand your
market
• What we did to get better
• Improved communication and collaboration with customers
through user reviews and conferences

21. Our Experience with Design & Development
• When we started
• Lacked formal requirements and design specifications
• This resulted in the wrong things being built with no way to
determine where things went South
• Lessons learned
• Documentation is key. If it’s not in writing it doesn’t exist
• It takes time to prepare it correctly but IT MUST BE DONE
• What we did to get better
• Introduced formal requirements and technical
specifications templates and enforced their use

22. Our Experience with Testing
• When we started
• We did not have structured test plans
• Introducing new features caused old ones to break
• Lessons learned
• Testing specifications are a must
• Regression testing must be incorporated
• What we did to get better
• Developed a bug and enhancement tracking system
• Introduced test plans to track the issues

23. Our Experience with Support & Maintenance
• When we started
• There were no standard releases – each
customer got the latest set of features
• SUPPORT NIGHTMARE!!!
• Lessons learned
• Product improvements need to be
organized and planned
• Future feature roadmap is important
• What we did to get better
• Established standard releases and service
packs which greatly reduced support
overhead

24. Our Experience – Conclusion
• Despite some hiccups along the way, hard work and perseverance
paid off! The effort was successful and the product was sold in over
45 countries.
• Do your research and planning up front, take the time to write things
down properly, and stick to the plan!

25. Thank You!!