Finish Line Product Development

The prototype is all done and it seems to work well. Now, how do you get the prototype manufactured reliably and at a reasonable cost? If you're like a lot of small companies, this is not something you do all the time. Finish Line has done more than one thousand projects for more than 300 small companies and we have learned a few things in the process.

1) Do a Design Verification Test (DVT). Just turning your prototype on and seeing the lights flash is not good enough. Each requirement (you did complete a requirements document, didn't you?) should be verified through a test, inspection, or analysis. You should use an engineering team that did NOT do the design to do the DVT because “group think” often blinds the team from looking in the right places.

2) Make sure your documentation is in order. Manufacturing can/should only do what is documented—so called “drawing compliance.” If it is important, it should be written down. Don’t expect your CM to design the product for you. If you're in doubt about your documentation, call us and we will be happy to review it for you.

3) Do some field testing. Show it to customers, let them use it to run it through its paces in an as real world environment as possible. We are always amazed at the learning that comes from early field trials, and the earlier this happens, the sooner these issues can be resolved

4) Choose the right CM. There are lots of great CMs out there, but that does not mean they would be great for this product. Do your due diligence and understand what makes a good partner for you. This will be a long-term relationship that each side will have to make an investment in.  

5) Do not ignore red flags. Any failure, issue, oddity, etc., should be fully vetted in the early stage of product launch. Find the root cause of failure and implement corrective action before you go any further.

A working prototype is a great first step, but it takes careful planning and a lot of work before your prototype turns into a product that can be manufactured successfully.  

BTW, if you find yourselves being pulled into the next project before you have time to finish this one, give us a call—we can help.

Regards,

Steve Owens - CTO A Better Way for Small Companies to Develop Products

Ph: 603 880 8484

August 29, 2018

“The future ain’t what it used to be.”

Yogi Berra

Sometimes product development projects do not live up to their initial promise. Knowing when to shut down a project can be an important ingredient to success.

Most new product ideas start out with great expectations, but over time, some start to fade. Worse, this process often happens a bit at a time until one day you realize you have wasted a lot of time, money, and energy on a project that should have been killed long ago.

Having a defined product development processes with “gates” at the end of each step can be an effective method for avoiding this problem. The classic product development method consists of the following steps:

Requirements Document

Conceptual Design

Detail Design

Design Verification Testing

Pilot Production

Every project should start with a Requirements Document, and many should and will end there. Sometimes it is just not possible to meet all the requirements for the available budget, and it is important to be truthful and not succumb to wishful thinking.

Sometimes it is not possible to know if a product can be successful until well into the Conceptual Design phase. A word of caution: Know the difference between technology development and product development (see our white paper here) and delay further product development until the technology can be proven.

The critical risk factor at the Detail Design phase is unit cost and development cost. Break Detail Design into two phases. In phase one, produce a drawing tree of the product. This drawing tree details all the components and subassemblies in the product and can be used to validate the unit cost with manufacturing and development cost with engineering. After confirmation, the drawing tree can be used as a project plan to define the scope of each subassembly and the interface between each subassembly.

Having a formal gating process for each step in the product development is the best way to prevent negative ROI. At each gate point, there are four possibilities:

Continue

Pivot

Refine

Eliminate

Continue:  Nothing is learned that changes the product vision, and it should continue to the next stage.

Pivot:  It is now clear that the product in its current incarnation will not result in a positive ROI; however, we can change the product vision somewhat (a pivot) so that it can produce a positive ROI.  

Refine: It is now clear that the product in its current incarnation will not result in a positive ROI; the project requirements/conceptual design/detail design should be refined.

Eliminate:  It is now clear that the product in its current incarnation will not result in a positive ROI; the project should be shut down. For more tips on avoiding product development mistakes, see

Top 10 Reasons Why Product Development Projects Fail.

Steve Owens - CTO Finish Line PDS A Better Way for Small Companies to Develop Products

[email protected]

Ph: 603 880 8484

www.FinishLinePDS.com

If I had to pick the biggest mistake small companies make when it comes to product development, it would be that they make the mistake of treating product development as if it was just like any other business activity—sales, accounting, customer service, manufacturing, etc.

Product development is a process of discovery, creativity and problem solving, not a series of tasks to be done one after the other. Treating product development like any other business process leads to several common fallacies, as pointed out in this landmark HBR article, Six Myths of Product Development.

For more tips on product development, specifically small company product development, see our white papers click here.