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New
Product Success - Our Series on
the Six Pillars of the New Product
Process
Continues
By David Clark, New Business Development
Manager,
the Malco Design & Deliver Group
This is the fourth installment on the importance of
project
pre-design preparation. If for some reason you
missed
a previous installment, please view
back issues
of
the newsletter.
In April,
we kicked-off our series on the six pillars of the new
product process with the importance of having a solid
understanding of the customer through market
research.
We followed-up in May with the second pillar, documenting
customer performance
requirements. Last month we
talked about the third pillar, projecting
unit volume, and how
this will drive every major design, manufacturing, and
marketing decision you will make.
Our
fourth pillar is physical properties.
Physical properties are the
non-cosmetic and non-
performance characteristics of the product that affect
how the user will interact with the product. This
translates to size, weight, configuration
and layout.
Just
like performance
requirements, the
proposed product's
physical characteristics should be derived from market
research and your
understanding of how your customer will
use your product.
There
are a number of questions you can ask that will
help
you ferret out these characteristics. For example:
- Who
will use the product?
Will
the user be male or female? What age group will
they
be in? Are there any user differences based on
ethnicity
(i.e. physical stature, culture)? Is the user a
skilled
professional or a do-it-yourselfer?
- How
will it be used?
How
frequently will the product be used? How long do
you
expect your customer to keep and use the product?
Will it be stationary or portable?
- Where
will it be used?
Will
the product be used indoors or outdoors? Will it be
used in high or low light? Will the user be seated or
standing?
Will it be used in a wet or dusty environment?
Are there any geographic differences?
- Are
there product characteristics that will make the
product more readily accepted by users?
Will
it need a handle, grab bar, or gripping area? Will it
need
an interface with other products or components?
How
much assembly, if any, will the user be expected to
do after the purchase?
Take
a cellular phone as an example
The functionality of the phone
(call forwarding, address book,
text
messaging, etc) would be
addressed in Performance
Requirements.
The aesthetic appearance of the
product such as color, branding,
and finish would be addressed in
Cosmetic Requirements.
The size,
weight and layout/complexity of the keyboard would
be addressed under Physical Characteristics. For example,
if
the user is a senior citizen who is not technically inclined,
then physical characteristics might dictate a limited number
of
keys that are oversized and easier to see. However, if the
user
is a tech savvy 26 year old then a compact QWERTY
keyboard might be more suitable.
I hope this real-world example not only gives you a better
understanding
of the importance of size,
weight,
configuration
and
layout in designing a product,
but also
demonstrates
how these physical characteristics affect the
way
the user will interact with the product.
For more
information on determining and designing for
Physical
Characteristics, please feel free to call a member of
our staff
Next
month, the fifth pillar: Safety.
Go
back to Malco Newsletters
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