Marc Fraser Design

…and the winner is…

I received a bunch of great responses to the ‘Designing the right things’ survey.

I’m very pleased to announce that Shaun MacKenzie of Zacspeed scored the copy of ‘Made to Stick‘ by Chip & Dan Heath thanks to his insightful and motivational comments. My sincere thanks and congratulations Shaun for your great input.

The major theme of everyone’s survey responses revolved around the balance of tenacity, passion and objectivity when developing products. It was also clear that the predominant factor in achieving successful products relates to one’s ability to overcome many problems and obstacles, align their efforts with strategic business and financial goals as well as engage the assistance of professionals at all stages of the program.

Survey results summary:

In product development, you need:

• Tenacity, passion and objectivity
• To overcome many problems and obstacles
• To align your efforts with strategic business and financial goals
• To engage professional assistance

Many thanks again to all who responded. Your answers will provide much-needed insight and inspiration for my future articles – which in turn I hope will provide you with new views, ideas and directions for your product development programs.

And, as always – please visit this site as often as you can and add your comments / feedback to any article… I look forward to hearing your unique perspective on all things related to product development.

Designing the right things (+ PRIZE!)

So, you read the last post about tips for using Design to deliver value and growth to your business. I hear you say, “Easier said than done! It’s so difficult to know where to start…”

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?

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Enough with the GFC already…

Despite the emerging optimism and need to carry on “business as usual”, the global economic crisis has put some serious pressure on product development programs globally.

Whilst we may be through the worst of the downturn, the business and economic communities are treading carefully and avoiding making any substantial claims of economic recovery. Budgets are being carefully guarded, and money spent cautiously. Projects that may have been a “sure thing” in terms of budget and strategic approvals may now be “discretionary” or just simply put on the back-burner altogether.

This is a good thing. It is fundamentally sound business practice to carefully evaluate and prioritise your product development projects, and only pursue those which add value, growth and sustainability to your business, society and the environment.

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