Product Development - February 2011 - STEEN Solutions

 Turnkey Product Development Services
 Service inventors, entrepreneurs, and
businesses
 Our goal is to help you reach your goals
An Engineering Solutions Company
2www.STEENsolutions.com

 Engineering Services
◦ Concept – to – production engineering
 Go-to-Market Services
◦ Patents and IP protection
◦ Marketing
◦ Web Development
 Seminars and Workshops
An Engineering Solutions Company

 One-stop-shop…
◦ We offer to cover any or all aspects of the product
development process
 Diverse, creative, and results-oriented
technical team
 Communication is our top priority
 Focus on customer satisfaction
◦ You don’t pay until you are completely satisfied!

www.STEENsolutions.com 5
A process overview

 Product Development 101:
◦ Balance Cost, Time, and Quality!
 Key elements to product development;
◦ An idea
◦ A well-defined goal
◦ Funds
◦ Patience and persistence!
?
Quality
CostTime

 Basic Development Process
 However, actual process can be overwhelming
◦ Rely on others to get things done!

 General idea (or problem statement)
is the catalyst for the process
◦ Preliminary visions/goals are defined
 Secondary challenges often not
considered at this stage
◦ The “how’s” quickly multiply…
 Critical realization: I need
assistance!

 Critical aspects to keep in mind;
◦ Document as much as possible about the
idea or problem statement
 Refines the scope of the project
◦ Define benefits of idea with some basic
research (and perhaps soul searching)
 This is a critical checkpoint – a “go/no-go
decision”
◦ Decide where assistance is needed to
realize idea in timely manner
 Time, Cost, Quality

 Deciding that an idea has
merit is exciting!
◦ A new journey is about to begin…
 However, before discussing idea with anyone,
protect your intellectual property (IP)
◦ Prepare a non-disclosure agreement (NDA)
 When identifying a vendor, be sure to ask that
they sign the NDA before sharing your idea(s)

 Ensure that compensation scheme for
vendor(s) is clearly defined and
documented
◦ You need it to stay on budget and to prevent any
unpleasant surprise expenses mid-project
◦ Vendor needs it to allocate resources
appropriately and plan project time
 Compensation scheme examples;
◦ Hourly (“pay as you go”)
◦ Project-based (clearly defined deliverables)
◦ Bartering (B2B opportunity?)

 Outline design requirements and criteria
◦ A “technical” document to help engineers
understand what to aim for and when to stop!
 Outline a list of clearly defined project
checkpoints with objective success criteria
◦ Link to project goals and/or design requirements

 And finally…kick of conceptual product
design work
◦ Establish a list of the aspects of the idea the conceptual
design should consider and prioritize
◦ Include frequent design reviews with
interactive discussions to review
progress and ideas
◦ Note: Never throw away conceptual
design documents or delete files - a crazy
idea today can quickly become a good
idea tomorrow…

 Conceptual design checkpoint!
◦ Is there a viable technical solution to all the
identified conceptual areas of the product?
◦ Based in the conceptual design proposal,
what is in store for the detailed design
phase?
◦ Project status check:
 Budget on track?
 Vendor choice still appropriate?
 Idea / Project goals still valid? (technical,
environmental)

 Detailed design phase dives into
nuts and bolts of product design
 Engineering considerations are
applied to meet design requirements
and criteria optimally
 Various engineering tools are used
to create the design
◦ CAD tools, calculations, simulations, etc

 Conduct design reviews at
relevant stages to discuss key
design elements
◦ Engineering trade-off decisions
◦ Engineering analysis conclusions
◦ Design risk
◦ Technical vs. practical design
decisions

 Host a Final Design Review
◦ This is a BIG milestone…first official (paper) design
◦ Review a formal presentation of the design as if you
were selling it to someone…
 Product functions
 Performance specifications
 Usage outline
 Design drawings / illustrations
 Design risk assessment
 Bill of Materials
 Etc…

 With a (paper) design in
your hands, time to
validate it!
 Prototyping is the most
underutilized process
 Don’t underestimate the
value of prototyping as a
design validation tool
◦ Nothing ever works flawlessly
the first time …

 Establish a design risk mitigation plan…
◦ What type of prototype(s) is needed?
◦ How should/could design be simplified for
easier prototyping?
◦ What type of data should be collected?
◦ How should the data be collected?
◦ How much data should be collected?
 Use of “partial” prototypes can be a
great way to reduce cost of design
validation
◦ Why make fully functional prototype only to
throw it out because a small feature didn’t
work?

 Prototypes should aim to mitigate identified
design risks
◦ Verify functionality of an electrical circuit (PCB)
◦ Test the mechanical strength of a component
◦ Show’n tell (investors)
◦ Test temperature along fluid flow path
◦ Optimize user interface for a handle design
◦ Test user interface with test groups (software
design)
 A fully functional prototype can be targeted
when/if all design risks are low

 Patent filing is an important
aspect to consider after a design
is outlined
 Patent filings are expensive, but
can be well worth it
◦ Carefully consider the benefits vs.
cost of a patent filing
 Talk to the engineering team and
patent attorney to identify
relevant patent areas

 Prototypes have lead to some valuable learnings
and design has been updated
◦ … Now what?
 Get ready to make and sell products!
 Key upfront (business) decisions;
◦ Product certifications needed?
◦ Estimated volume forecast?
◦ Geographical areas of product market?
◦ Inventory management strategy?
◦ Targeted price-point?

 Based on upfront business decisions, outline
a manufacturing strategy
◦ Outline vendors to;
 Provide off-the-shelf parts
 Provide custom components
 Assemble sub-systems
 Assemble final product
 Test (quality inspection) on component level, sub-
assembly level, and final assembly level
 Store (inventory)

 For each vendor in the
manufacturing plan;
◦ Establish contract to fix price point,
lead-time, and payment scheme for
given time period
◦ Clearly outline quality expectations
(quality assurance plan)
◦ Outline business communication
model
 Issues, manufacturing yield, status
updates, etc

 Flip the production switch!
◦ Plan for a “first article” from each vendor to test out
the newly established vendor strategy
◦ Treat it as a “final prototype” and collect data
accordingly
 Pending successful test results, give thumbs
up for continued production

 Go-To-Market services starts before product
development efforts are completed
 For more info, contact STEEN Solutions
www.STEENsolutions.com 26

 Always have vendor sign NDA to protect your idea
◦ If you lose the idea, the project (and goals) are gone
 Outsource intelligently
◦ Apply your time and skills where relevant outsource the
rest
 Establish and document project (business) goals
◦ Never lose track of the goal…
 Have clearly defined checkpoints and objective
success criteria (linked to documented goals when
possible)
◦ Enable others to tell you if the project should continue
 Never neglect design prototyping activities
◦ Nothing has ever worked perfect the first time.
Validation is needed to pin point problematic areas

Product Development - February 2011 - STEEN Solutions

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