As consulting designers, we are constantly looking for the best possible outcomes for our  clients. We always aim to provide a comprehensive and thorough development process,typically starting with a series of loose ideas and concepts, and gradually and iteratively progressing towards the final solution.

We use a range of tools and techniques to identify, investigate and resolve problems – including sketches, illustrations, 3D computer-aided design, physical mockups and prototypes. These approaches help us to devise, revise and decide on the best solutions as well as communicate them to our clients.

For those of you who may be new to product development, and more specifically industrial design projects, you may in for a wild ride – so you will need to be ready to navigate a myriad of activities, challenges and tough decisions.

With this in mind, I’ve attempted to outline six traps that you might keep in mind whilst your design project progresses:

1. There is no such thing as risk-free product development

You will be faced with some difficult decisions which force you to face the real risks of product development. Usually, these are financial risks, but you’ll also need to deal with potential sales, marketing, environmental, production and numerous other consequences that could make or break your project. These risks are part-and-parcel of product development  - and your designer will be one of your key weapons to identify and mitigate those risks as much as possible.

Ultimately,  your money, reputation and brand will be on the line… so you need to be ready to take responsibility for the commercial and technical risks of your project.

2. Innovation can’t happen if no one signs the cheque

Consulting designers are always looking for the most innovative and exciting outcomes for their clients, and to be paid accordingly. Your role in this process is to ensure that they are given the freedom to explore various potential solutions, whilst also keeping them focused on your key issues and objectives. Without your investment, your designer will not be able (nor willing) to find the innovation you are seeking.

3. Design can’t always be fast tracked

Sure, some activities can be sped up, but ultimately, design is a process of deep thinking, problem solving and thoughtful communication. You may be tempted to offer higher financial reward for your designer to turn work around faster, but this is not a sustainable approach if you want the final solution to be well considered, refined and appropriate for your purposes.

Conversely, some design tasks warrant tighter deadlines – purely to ensure that low-priority and inefficient “finessing” is avoided. You and your designer need to find a happy balance here.

4. Short cuts can often cost more money and time

Many activities available to you during a design program may not be necessary to achieve your goals. Our role as consulting designers is not to sell you a Big Mac if you only want a couple of fries… However, there are some activities that shouldn’t be skipped if you want to retain control of your design and ensure your requirements will be met.

You need to give your designer time and budget to research, familiarize and consider your requirements. Research is often undervalued, and as designers, we are often expected to be instantly aware of our clients industry, products and jargon.

Your designer will usually also spend significant time and effort in the development of precise 3D Computer-Aided Design (CAD) electronic models of your design. These models can be used for a variety of purposes, not the least of which is the implementation into production tooling.

Whilst there are many skilled pattern & tool makers offering traditional “hand-made” services, clients are encouraged to seek out tooling and production suppliers that can use your CAD information within their computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) systems. CAD/CAM processes ensure you retain control over the design throughout the tooling and production phases of your project, and so that quality can be managed.

Cost differences are usually negligible between traditional and CAM methods, but it’s always good to discuss your options with your designer and potential suppliers to find the best value and appropriate method for your project.

5. Don’t skimp on prototyping

It may sometimes seem like an unnecessary expense, but we encourage clients to build as many prototypes as necessary to make sure that ideas are validated and all the important problems are solved.

Physical (aka “real”) prototypes, whilst relatively expensive when compared to production parts, can literally save you thousands of dollars and a lot of time if done properly.

Your prototypes will aim to answer questions about the design – questions that can’t be answered using 3DCAD, sketches, photo-real images or on-screen animations. These prototypes help you see your design how it is intended – it is tangible, can be painted, machined, modified, decorated – it can be cosmetic (“looks like”), functional (“works like”) or a combination of the two.

Prototypes will help you enjoy massive time and money savings, reduce the likelihood of major reworking of production tooling, and get your design to market as quickly as possible.

If a picture can tell a thousand words, a prototype can be infinitely more informative. Don’t just rely on drawings, sketches or on-screen images; get a prototype made so you can touch, feel and engage with your design well before any production happens. There’s more specific information about prototyping here.

A relatively small investment in prototyping early in your development can be one of the most effective methods for reducing your project’s commercial and technical risks.

6. The reals costs hit you after the design is done

Many new clients feel that the design process is too expensive, particularly because the designer is paid their fee well ahead of any (potential) financial return received by the client.

In the whole scheme of things, design is typically one of the cheapest phases in the product development cycle. The costs of marketing, tooling, production and approvals can simply tower over any investment you might make during the design phase.

By engaging professional design, you can maximise your design’s efficiency, effectiveness and chances of success. Thoughtful and appropriate use of materials, assembly processes, usability, styling and manufacturability are just some of the opportunities awaiting you to make your existing products better, and your new products exceptional.

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I hope this gives you a clearer idea of some common traps and misconceptions about the design process. With any luck, you will be better equipped to allocate time and funding appropriately – giving your designer enough freedom to help you, as well as minimise your commercial risk. Let me know your thoughts / feedback below.

As product developers, there is no better way of learning how well your concept will work is to build a physical prototype.

Depending on your specific requirements, your prototype doesn’t need to be super elaborate or complicated.

In essence, your prototype should be designed to answer questions you still have about your design. You may need to verify functionality, performance, assembly fitment, ergonomics or other crucial attributes that may have been too difficult to assess through sketches, 3D CAD or other “desk-based” tools and evaluations.

In this respect, you can simply build “localised” prototypes and models to assess specific areas of your design, or you can “go the whole hog” and build a complete prototype sample if you feel you have got everything resolved.

Modern prototyping and modelmaking technology now allows product developers to make “pre-production” samples of their design using real materials and assembly tolerances, before being forced to invest in tooling and production setups.

I’ve prepared a quick comparison table of various prototyping techniques to help you determine which might be suitable for your needs, and below that, my Top 10 tips for deciding when and how to build your prototype.

Some prototyping options to consider...

When deciding how, why and what to prototype for your current or future projects, consider the following tips:

1. Design your prototype: Consider and document your requirements for your prototype ahead of time so you can decide which prototyping process and/or material will be the most efficient and cost-effective for your needs. We call this a “prototype specification”
2. Research the alternatives: There is never one way to prototype – so investigate different technologies, materials and processes to find one that best suits your product or testing requirements.
3. Seek advice: Talk to a designer, engineer or prototyping supplier about your product and ask them to recommend some alternatives. If you’re under time-pressure, this could short-circuit other prototype-research activities you might be embarking on. This is also your opportunity to get your designer or engineer to develop drawings / 3D CAD or other related information ready for your prototype supplier.
4. Decide what you are building the prototype for and choose the materials and processes that will best suit your application or testing procedure. (For instance, there is no point making an underwater enclosure prototype with some rapid-prototyping technologies because these materials can be water-soluable.)
5. Allocate funding to prototyping within your project budgets and plans: Don’t believe that the design can be completely resolved within 3D CAD or other design packages – many essential qualities of your design (weight, form and feel) can only be assessed with a physical sample that you can touch and interact with
6. Be prepared to build more than one prototype (either of the same design, or  numerous iterations as the design is developed) in order to ensure your design will do the job
7. Only make what is necessary to prove a point or answer a question: Prototyping can be expensive, so try to focus on key issues or concerns at first and use prototyping as a tool to address those issues.
8. Supplier selection: Depending on your process, material or other technical requirements, certain prototyping suppliers will be preferable. Ask lots of questions and be open with your suppliers about what your trying to achieve so they can advise you appropriately.
9. Testing requirements: think about the criteria you will use to determine if your design meets your requirements, and align your prototyping strategies with those criteria.
10. Time and Cost: Don’t build a prototype based on the cheapest price or fastest turnaround – the prototype must be built to help you test your design – so not all prototyping approaches will suit.

I help my clients find the right prototyping approach for their designs all the time. If you need a hand developing the designs, 3D CAD or prototype specifications, please contact me. If you have your design ready for prototyping, I may also be able to provide a referral to a range of local or offshore prototyping suppliers.

Many clients also use digital prototyping (aka “virtual” prototyping) when they want to assess various attributes of the design prior to making physical prototype samples. You can read more about this in one of my earlier articles here.

What are your experiences with prototyping? Do you have any stories, advice or suggestions that could help others? Please comment below.

I thought it might also be a good idea to give you a practical way of refining and summarising the output for your NPD planning, brainstorming and research activities.

It comes in the form of a single-page document. A one-page document (be it a business plan, proposal, marketing strategy or other important business communication) works incredibly well for our increasingly time-poor business community.

It’s important to note that a one-page plan does not necessarily require less work – it is typically quite the opposite. Preparing a plan that captures all the critical information that your management and stakeholders can approve can take many hours, and will require substantial background work and research before you can even put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard for that matter).

Your NPD plan must be aligned with your overall business plan and related financial and marketing plans. These information sources will give you ideas about what capital investment the business can allocate to NPD activities, as well as broader growth, expansion and strategic goals that may act as catalysts for NPD research, concept development, prototyping and evaluation activities.

Your one-page business plan might have the following sub-headings and content:

• Company goals

List the top 3 company goals for the next financial year, as they relate to potential new product development activity

• NPD plans

List 3-5 specific NPD projects that the company need to invest in to deliver to the above goals. Quantify these in terms of customer / economic / environmental importance and risk

• Budgets and Timing

Provide a summary of estimated costs, milestones and development timelines for each of the projects. It’s important that you include budgets for outsourced activities such as consumer research, branding, industrial & graphic design, engineering, prototyping, tooling & production. Be as realistic as you can, and if need be, consult with professional practitioners to assist in the development of these estimates. You may need to prepare some general design briefs in order to do so (get help on this here).

• Current issues and considerations

Your company’s decision makers will treat this document as a proposal as much as it is a plan… So you need to be upfront with any issues, concerns, problems or requirements which may affect any of your NPD projects. Transparency is crucial, such are the risks with product development – so the more your team can understand all of the issues surrounding your NPD objectives, the more they can contribute solutions to help you reduce the risks. Don’t do this work alone if you don’t have to.

Another point… Sell your plan a little… Put a little sizzle with the sausage… This may be your last chance to get these projects funded, so make sure you are crystal clear about how these projects will benefit your company and exploit opportunities you or other team members have identified

• Next actions

Clearly describe what has to happen next, and by whom. You may need to submit this plan for formal review – or perhaps you need to simply discuss it over lunch with your manager or CEO… Whatever you think needs to happen next, write it here.

Your one-page NPD plan will take some effort, and concise writing… But the result can be a powerful and highly practical reference document for the coming financial year.

Concise, one-page documents save your audience time, force you to use simple, direct and jargon-free language and ultimately help your audience make prompt, informed decisions. You don’t need to write a 50-page tome in order to articulate your NPD goals and plans… it is far more impressive and respectful to your audience’s time and needs to keep these plans short, punchy and to-the-point.

Don’t worry – if any of your NPD projects are approved, that’s when you can dive into the minutiae and prepare more detailed design, technical, requirements and functional specifications.

If you have any questions, or would like some assistance developing your one-page NPD plan, please contact me directly, or leave a comment below.

So it got me thinking: how about developing a formal New Product Development (NPD) plan just as you would a cashflow, marketing and overall business plan?

To develop a decent NPD plan, you would need to consider the following goals as essential:

• Deliver new products and services that are relevant to your customers real needs and desires (regardless of whether your customers are aware of them or not!)
• Help your business grow by providing increased and sustainable profits
• Reduce and/or minimise environmental impact through better materials and process decisions.

Achieving these goals is not easy, but you can adopt some simple yet effective strategies to kickstart the process:

1. Reduce your risk… When you look at your market, are there any particular risks, issues or problems that may be preventing you from increasing your sales or profitability? What tweaks can you make to your products that minimise or even eliminate those issues?
2. Innovate… Look for ways you can change, enhance and accessorize your current line of products and/or services to improve your customers’ experience, influence their decision to buy and differentiate you from your competitors
3. Niche-down and specialise… Perhaps your product may be pushing the boundaries of a commodity; meaning that your market may be highly competitive with numerous major players and/or brands… What ways could you revise, simplify, exchange or even delete certain products to give your brand a higher quality, more focused, targeted and “niche” feel that could in fact help you reduce costs, charge more and achieve higher profits?
4. Sustainability… How will you harness all things ‘green’ and also deliver improved profits and customer satisfaction? Can you increase your usage of recyclable / recycled materials? Can you improve your production processes to use less energy, water, raw materials and toxic chemicals? Are there renewable energy or material sources available in your industry? If there are new (aka expensive) technologies available which can reduce your environmental footprint, can you form buying consortiums with partners, competitors and/or complimentary organisations to share upfront and one/off implementation costs?

How about hosting a session with your team to address these areas and develop your FY10-11 NPD plan together? Your aim is to keep your team engaged and excited about the coming year, and what better way than to lay out a roadmap together of the next year’s product development projects?

NPD plans that focus on addressing real needs & delivering true benefits to your customers, shareholders and broader community will ultimately set your business up for a higher chance of success.

If you’d like some help preparing your NPD plan and/or hosting a workshop with your team to work through the process, please contact me

Efficiency vs Effectiveness

The old adage of “Efficiency is doing things right; Effectiveness is doing the right things” is particularly relevant here. My “design” version is:

“Designing the right things is more important than Designing things right… To be effective and successful in product development, you have to design the right things”

As product developers, we need to continually ask ourselves if we are designing the right things. Do we know what our customers really need? Are we sure that this concept or idea has the legs to make it in the market?

There are a million of these kinds of questions you can ask to evaluate your projects and decide which to pursue. At some point, you’ll need to take a leap of faith… but with a combination of luck and some objective and quantitative decision-making processes, it will be a calculated risk rather than a speculative “punt”.

Help me to help you

Over the next few months, I will be publishing a series of new product development (NPD) tips which aim to help you implement Design simply and easily into your daily product development and strategic planning processes – to help you design the right things.

However, I can’t do this all by myself…. so I have a humble request:

How do you know you’re designing the right things?

Even though your specific products and projects may be unique to your business and industry, I’m sure there is a range of lessons and insights you have about product development which are universal and could be applied successfully to any problem or new product idea.

So, I’d love to hear your thoughts… and I’ve set up a short survey here which should only take about 5~10 minutes to complete.

Whilst your identity and details will be kept confidential, your answers and insights will be relayed to your fellow readers in the form of future tips and articles. Of course, you will also receive this information through your preferred email and/or RSS feeds.

Complete the survey here and WIN!

Cheesy and cliched I know, but I wanted to reward the most exciting, detailed and insightful survey response with a complementary copy of “Made to Stick“, by Chip and Dan Heath. This is a great book about crafting and executing new ideas for the best impact. It’s equally useful in design, marketing, sales and any industry that relies on fresh ideas, innovation and effective communication.

Survey responses received by 4th December 2009 will be eligible to win a copy of “Made to Stick” – so complete the survey now!

(By the way, I’m not getting any commissions or royalties out of this… I just like the book so much I wanted to give one away!)

I can’t wait to read your survey responses.

Best of luck – and thanks in advance for your time.