The document presents an overview of a product development session led by Dave Peres and Rob Patterson, focusing on the typical product development process and their experiences in software development for the mining industry. Key stages discussed include idea generation, product design, production, and maintenance, highlighting the importance of research, documentation, and customer collaboration. The session concludes with lessons learned from their experiences, emphasizing the significance of planning and structured processes to ensure successful product outcomes.

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!!