The Need for Speed: Time-To-Market

by Peter Thier - Venture Technologies

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.

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.

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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