MIDTERM ASSIGNMENT
Team Size: 4
Assignment: Presentation and written documentation
Develop your product concept to the concept stage. All decisions/approaches should be based on the customer requirements. In addition, the technical feasibility should be analyzed.
Describe the state of your design:
1) Describe the product. Who are the critical stakeholders, what do they want, what should the product offer to meet these demands. Illustrate the product concept through text, drawings, models, the product performance and technical features, the architecture, and how it will be used.
2) Your team will INTERVIEW (not survey) by phone or in-person 15 potential customers for the product or service that you are providing. Please summarize the findings and determine the key customer needs, wants, delighters, etc...
3) For the design:
CUSTOMER NEEDS: Explain the specific customer need that your business will fill and what their must havens, linear satisfiers, and delighters are. Build a HoQ for the product. Build a FMEA for the concept.
COSTS: Each team will start the target costing process. Analyze an existing product that is similar to yours. Create a preliminary cost budget for the product. How does your product differ from the competitors? What extra value does your product bring? How are the costs allocated to the rest of the product features?MARKET: Identify the different market segments and applications to which your new technology can be put and quantify the size of these different applications. Identify the segment that you plan to enter first. What are the technology changes/ unsatisfied needs that your product address.
PRELIMINARY: PRODUCT DEFINITION Identify the architecture of the product and explain how different market segments will be addressed with the product variety.
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS: What prototypes are you going to build and why? What is the schedule for the end of the semester?
4) Analyze your findings
CUSTOMER NEEDS: Provide specific evidence that customers see this need and are willing to pay for your solution to it. and the acceptable terms for them to purchase your solution to their need (e.g., Price, quality, support, etc....), Identify the customer decision maker, the time frame for customer decisions, and the dollar limits on the purchasing decision. Explain how the architecture supports the customer needs/markets.
MARKET: What are the uncertainties of the market data? What are the questions that remain unanswered? Analyze your product in terms of changing market forces, asymmetric information etc. Where does your opportunity come from?
PRELIMINARY PRODUCT DEFINITION Identify the key technical risks. Can you achieve the targets? Support with estimates. Explain how are you going to avoid the failure modes for the concept.
COSTS: Evaluate how expensive the variety will be in terms of parts, complexity, cost of change Determine if the target costs be achieved.