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by Peter Thier -
Venture
Technologies
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Getting to market with speed and efficiency is often critical to
achieving product success for several reasons. First and foremost is the
competitive advantage of being first to market. But being first also promotes
premium prices early in the life cycle, a faster breakeven on the development
investment, a longer market life cycle and greater overall profits.
This article describes the key product development steps to ensure your
time-to-market goals can be achieved. In particular, we focus on the first two
steps since they are instrumental to success. The key steps are:
- Developing a clear, concise product specification
- Developing a detailed project plan & assigning the appropriate
resources
- Defining a detailed cost structure
- Execution of the project plan - designing and testing the product
- Development of the appropriate documentation
The Product Specification
An often-ignored part of the
process, the product specification is actually the most vital. Eighty percent
of the design and cost is captured and locked in at this stage. The product
specification defines what the product is supposed to be - in minute detail.
Essentially, the specification should be so thorough that, at the completion of
your project, a third party can determine if the product is what you asked for
when you started.
Each of our electronic product development projects
includes a Product Design Specification. Typical items in the design spec
include: a section for registering the document revision history; the document
scope, glossary of figures and drawings; sections for the functional
requirements; external interfaces; mechanical requirements; environmental and
reliability requirements; and installation and maintenance requirements. In
addition to performance and technical requirements, the specification should
also address ease of use, styling and aesthetics, ergonomics and conditions of
use. Along with the Product Specification, we also develop specific Hardware
Requirements Specifications, Software Requirements Specifications and
Mechanical Requirements Specifications to further define our tasks.
Even though this stage can be time consuming and expensive, its
importance should not be overlooked. Proficiency in developing the
specification will save valuable time and costly redesigns later down the line.
It is far easier to make changes on paper than in the middle of your
development cycle.
Top of
page The Project Plan
Once the specification has been
developed, the next step should be the development of a detailed project plan.
This stage should include members from each of the functional disciplines.
Without complete representation it is difficult to form a comprehensive and
fully integrated plan. The planning team must define each of the necessary
steps to drive the design to completion and locate and assign the appropriate
resources for each task.
When time-to-market is the objective, it is
important to choose resources that have completed similar projects and have
worked together before. This may be an in-house team or an outside partner or a
combination of both. Early resource planning and maintenance will provide
greater flexibility to respond to resource and time constraints so as not to
compromise schedule objectives. Falling behind the competition in
time-to-market can spell doom for your business, even if your product is
superior. Strict adherence to these first two steps can help insure the success
of your product and your business. |
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Peter is
the Director of Business Development for Venture Technologies. Venture is an
electronic product design, development and manufacturing partner to many small
and large businesses throughout New England. Their innovative programs are
aimed at helping clients meet their engineering and business goals. Venture
invests its services into a limited number of businesses each year. www.venturetechnologies.com
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All material copyright ©1999 by the author and may not be
used for reproduction without permission of the author. |
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