The Product Development Process

1. A Better Way for Small Companies to Develop Products
Finish Line PDS
Product Development Services
The Product Development Process

2. Product: What the customer buys
Development: Growing the product vision
Process: A step-by-step series of activities that have a
defined method
The goal of product development is to
generate a positive return on investment.
Product Development Process

3. ❖ Fired for being “Incompetent”
❖ Deep thinker
❖ Obsessive compulsive disorder
❖ Not a technologist, but process
oriented
❖ Largely an incrementalist
❖ Only wanted the best
What Makes a Good Product Developer?
Steve Jobs

4. Product Development Myths
▪ Product development is all about technology
▪ I just need a prototype
▪ Everyone will steal my idea
▪ My uncle is an engineer, he can design the product at night
▪ I will outsource my product development to the lowest bidder
▪ I will get funding from venture capitalists, angels, Kickstarter
etc.
▪ Everyone will buy my product
▪ First to market wins

5. Truths About Product Development
▪ You must have a realistic schedule
▪ You must have a realistic budget
▪ No one will steal your idea until you prove it makes money
▪ 99% of all engineers are not trained in product development
▪ Amateurs will cost you a lot of money and time
▪ Most ideas/companies are not fundable
▪ Finding out if someone will buy your product does costs money
▪ “Best to market” beats “first to market” every time

6. Product Development is Difficult
Source: “New Product Development: Process Benchmarks &
Performance Metrics” – Scott J. Edgett Ph.D. – 2011

7. “If you always do what you always did,
you’ll always get what you always got”
Anonymous
If you’re unhappy with your Product Development,
change it.
Change = a different way, a different Process

8. A Proven, yet adaptable methodology – from concept through production
The Finish Line PDS Process
2
3
4
Requirements Document
Conceptual Design
Detailed Design
Design Verification Testing
1
5 Pilot Production

9. Requirements

10. Would you tell me please, which way I ought
to go from here?
That depends a great deal on where you
want to get to
I don’t much care where…
Then it doesn’t matter which way you go
So long as I get SOMEWHERE
Oh, you’re sure to do that, if you only walk
long enough.
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going…
A Requirements Document Defines Where You are Going

11. A Requirements Document is Essential
▪ It defines the goal
▪ It provides a vision for the product
▪ It quantifies that vision
▪ It helps to provide clarity of the vision
▪ It forces an understood vision

12. Types of Requirements Documents
▪ Marketing Requirements Document
▪ Product Requirements Document
▪ Requirements Analysis (Now called Customer
Validation)
▪ Technical Requirements Document

13. Download a Free Requirement
Documents Template Here:
https://www.finishlinepds.com/requi
red-doc-template

14. Some Things Defined in a
Requirements Document
▪ Development budget
▪ Unit manufacturing cost
▪ Compliance: FCC, UL, CE, Standards, etc.
▪ Functional
▪ Environmental
▪ Design verification testing
▪ Anything that, if not met, means you will not
have a positive return on investment

15. Tips for Generating a
Requirements Document
▪ Define a budget for the requirements
▪ Set a date that it will be completed
▪ Force everyone to contribute
▪ Use a template
▪ Use a checklist
▪ Formal sign-off:
Engineering / Marketing / Production / Operations
▪ Controlled document
▪ Decide to Kill / Pivot / Continue

16. Conceptual Design
Conceptual Design sets 90% of the unit cost and development
budget. it's not an option to get this part of the project wrong.

17. What is Conceptual Design?
Conceptual Design is the Process of determining the design
concept that satisfies the requirements best.
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
than are dreamt of in your philosophy”
William Shakespeare

18. Why is Conceptual Design Important?
Best to Market Wins…Not First to Market
▪ Ever hear of MPMan?
▪ How about Diamond Rio?
▪ HanGo?
▪ iAudio?
▪ Archos?
▪ Maybe you have heard of the iPod?

19. Procedure for Conceptual Design
▪ Sort requirements into “defining” and “un-defining”
▪ Weigh the defining requirements
▪ Develop multiple concepts
▪ Rank concepts against requirements
▪ Highest number wins

20. What does a Conceptual Design look like?

21. Download a Free Concept Design
SpreadSheet
https://www.finishlinepds.com/concept-
design-template

22. Detail Design

23. Detail Design Tips
▪ Find reference designs/designers
▪ License other peoples’ technology
▪ Take technology projects offline
▪ Make a drawing tree
▪ Have design reviews – Many of them

24. Drawing Tree

25. Download a Free Drawing Tree
Template
https://www.finishlinepds.com/draw
ing-tree-templat

26. Design Verification Testing
▪ Must prove that design meets each requirement
▪ Proof by testing or analysis; test is better
▪ There are methods for reliability testing –
Life Span & Mean Time Between Failures
▪ Not all compliance testing labs are equal
▪ Never use same engineers for design and testing

27. Pilot Production
▪ Start at detail design
▪ Pick a contract manufacturer and make a long-
term relationship
▪ Pick a quality plan
▪ Keep engineers involved
▪ Pay attention to red flags
▪ Root cause & corrective action

28. Summary
▪ Ideas are worthless without execution
▪ Best to market wins; first to market means nothing
▪ You get what you pay for
▪ You will fail if you don’t follow a process
▪ It will take a lot longer than you think
▪ It will cost a lot more than you think
▪ Focus on long-term relationships

29. • Product Development in a Small Company
• Why Product Development is Different in a Lean Start-up​
• Keys to Successful Product Development​
• Invention versus Engineering
• Top 10 Reasons Why Product Development Projects Fail
• What Every Contract Manufacturer Needs to Know
About Product Development​
• What Every VC Needs to Know About Product
Development
Our White Papers
https://www.finishlinepds.com/white-papers

30. Finish Line has completed more than 1,500
projects for 275+ companies.
We lower Product Development Cost by:
- Using our Reference Design
- Using True Experts
- Our Processes
Best Regards,
Steve Owens
603-880-8484
https://www.finishlinepds.com

31. Thank you!