Product Development - Entrepreneurship 101 (2013/2014)

A trusted supplier of
advanced, high
performance, integrated
battery systems for
mission critical
applications

All images in this presentation ©2013 Panacis Inc.

Tell us what you need. We thrive on challenges.

Company Background
  Founded in 2002
  Privately owned by high-tech investor base
  Located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  R&D, prototyping, NPI, product design, and manufacturing

  Focused on Lithium ion rechargeable energy
storage systems since 2007
  Off-the-shelf products and custom/semi-custom
development for demanding applications
  Global customer base
  Strong IP portfolio
  Covers multiple aspects of advanced energy systems
including safety, manufacturing, control and applications

  Security clearance for international military
contracts

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Today’s Presentation – Product Development

How to take an IDEA and make it a REALITY
&
How to make sure that REALITY aligns with the
original IDEA!

4

Role of the Visionary

The Visionary drives the product idea
at a high level.

Visionaries often have trouble
communicating their ideas in a way
that can be acted upon to make them
real.

We will use a Flashlight as an example

5

Product Development Path
It doesn’t matter how simple or complex the
product is, the same basic path can be followed.

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Product Development Path
It doesn’t matter how simple or complex the
product is, the same basic path can be followed.
  Failure to have a PLAN will result in wasted time,
effort and money (and possibly result in the loss of
opportunity if the product fails)
  The PLAN will result in easier development of a
quality product that meets the market expectations
  Additional benefits of a good PLAN are easier
financing, recruitment and market entry.

7

Unify the Team
Every good product requires a team to bring it to market

  The team must
have a COMMON
VISION

8

Development Models
There are many different product development
models, software and planning tools
  Most plans have common steps, different names,
different breakdowns, but the same basic goal of
documenting the product development path
V-Model
Cycle Model
Phase-Gate Model

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Development Models

Waterfall Model
Agile Software Model

?
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Spiral Development
Model
Custom
Corporate-Centric

Development Models
How do you Choose?
  Do members of your team have a preference?
  Some models fit certain people better, your project lead is
most important to fit
  Some models fit certain industries better (military, medical,
low-risk consumer, high-risk consumer)

  Are you more interested in RAPID development,
LEAN development or PERFECT development?
  Models often have strengths and weaknesses that must be
matched to your product, financial health and team size
  Example: the Spiral method often delivers a superior product,
but takes longer and costs more to get there
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What Are You Trying To Do?
Before starting the plan, ask a few questions about what you
are trying to do.
  Who Wants It?
  Walmart, Road Warriors or Stocking Stuffer?

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are trying to do.
  What Is It For?
  Serious Lighting or Fun?

13

are trying to do.
  Who Pays?
  Consumer, Industrial, Government?

14

are trying to do.
  Who Pays?
  What is YOUR Capability?
  Distributor, Designer, Manufacturer?
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are trying to do.
  Who Pays?
  What is YOUR Capability?
  Distributor, Designer, Manufacturer?
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We are going to DESIGN a flashlight for ROAD
WARRIORS for SERIOUS LIGHTING.
This will be bought by the CONSUMER directly.
We will outsource the manufacturing and distribution.

  How do we communicate this vision to our team?

17

Your Product in 4 Easy Steps
Four planning documents can encompass the entire
product development in a form that is appropriate for
the audience.
  Customer / Market Requirements
  Functional Requirements
  Product / Engineering Specification
  Test and Verification Specification

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the audience.

19

Most Important

the audience.

Most Important


It doesn’t matter which development model you use – the
names may change but the fundamentals remain the same.
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When a product development effort is launched with only one
or two of these documents in place, the end result is
usually disappointing
  With ONLY Customer / Market Requirements document, the
engineering team will tend to iterate “forever” trying to hit the
technical points that make the vision match the reality
  With ONLY Functional Requirements documents, the product
may perfectly match every technical goal but will often lack the
“special something” that grabs market attention, it will be a “metoo” product
  Without the Product / Engineering Specification there will be
nothing to measure against to know the design is done
  Without the Test and Verification Specification there will be
nothing to measure against to know that volume production
matches what you designed
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Customer / Market Requirements
Focus on what the end customer wants in terms that use emotion,
comparisons to other products and qualitative adjectives.
  What would YOU say to a CUSTOMER and what would customers
say to each other about the product?
  Generally NOT technical
  Can be used to test the market
  Rarely has quantitative measurements
Example: The Bright Warrior is ready to shed light on any situation, it
won’t fail when thrown in your luggage, dropped in a lake, or used as
a hammer.1
1- use as a hammer not recommended, nails sold separately, please hammer responsibly.

22

The Visionary and the Sales or
Marketing leader (or business
development, distributors,
customers, other stakeholders etc.)
use this document to come to a
common vision for the product.

Describe the product “sales pitch”

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Examples of market requirements:
  Durable for situations the road-warrior faces
  Light weight and small to fit anywhere
  Bright, even illumination
  Good battery life
  Price is a moderate consideration (not cheap)
  Should have an appealing look and feel

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Examples of market requirements:
  Durable for situations the road-warrior faces
  Light weight and small to fit anywhere
  Bright, even illumination
  Good battery life
  Price is a moderate consideration (not cheap)
  Should have an appealing look and feel
  What about your “special sauce”, what do you add to this
product that makes it really special (integrated USB storage,
rechargeable battery, different colors…)
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What are your competitors doing:
  As durable as competitor X
  Lighter than competitor Y
  Price similar to competitor Z

  These market requirements will often feel obvious to you, the
Visionary, but they are often not obvious to the people that will
help you realize the product
  YOU are the expert in this market, do not make assumptions of
other people’s knowledge

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A good plan inspires confidence in your team:
  Everyone wants to do a good job
  It is a great feeling to hear your team quoting the vision:

“we are going to be the lightest, the
brightest… the best”

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Functional Requirements
Put QUANTITATIVE goals on QUALITATIVE market requirements
  This document does NOT give details of how the goals are
achieved (but it can give guidance)
  Provide goals for each requirement
  Provide stretch goals for as many of the market requirements as
possible
  Some requirements may be difficult or impossible to quantify
(example: look and feel) but these requirements can often still be
addressed (example: rubber coating on handle to make the
flashlight feel great in your hand)

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The Engineer works with the Visionary and Marketing to
define appropriate goals for the development team:
  Market requirements said “lightweight”
  Functional Requirements would define “less than 50 grams,
with a stretch goal of 40 grams”

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Beware of feature creep:
  It is easy to put these goals on paper, but they must be
achievable or you will never make it to market and your team
will be discouraged
  It’s OK to ask for the impossible, but do it in the stretch goals

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Product / Engineering Specification
Now you know what you want the product to be, how do
you get there?
  Provides technical details and guidance on how the goals (and/
or stretch goals) will be achieved
  Allows Marketing and Visionary to start formulating bullet points
of the product brochure

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Balance and Compromise will be required – iteration
against the Functional and Market requirements may
occur.
  Example: We will achieve light weight by using AAA Batteries

AA
23 grams

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AAA
12 grams

Balance and Compromise will be required – iteration
against the Functional and Market requirements may
occur.
  Example: We will achieve light weight by using AAA Batteries

AA
23 grams

AAA
12 grams

  AAA Batteries will help hit the light weight stretch goal, but may
cause us to miss the battery life goals

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The sum of the parts will also be summarized.
  AAA batteries
  Use of Titanium housing to reduce weight
  LED bulb to extend run-time
  Results in XX grams total weight, YYY minutes of run-time and a cost of $$$$$$$.

Iteration may be required if the Visionary feels the balance of
features isn’t quite right – Gut Feel is important!
Cost/Speed - It is better to iterate at this stage than waiting until a
prototype is completed (V-Model)
Risk/Market – It is better to go ahead and build a prototype for market
acceptance testing at this stage and iterate later (Spiral Model)

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The Visionary and the Engineering team will now
be aligned.
  Design can begin
  Test and Verification specification can also be started

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Test and Verification Specification
How do you know the product being designed
meets the Quantitative goals set?
  Prove it!
  Each measureable parameter is tested
  Design is tested via the prototypes
  Can be as simple as “weight it”
  Anticipate variation, set allowable limits

36

Test and Verification Specification
This specification has long-term usefulness that goes
beyond a first prototype
  A subset of this document may be used in
production testing
  The tests can be run on new revisions of the
product
  The tests can be run on products manufactured by
a new sub-contractor (or due to obsolete parts)
  The tests can be used as part of a regression test
strategy for new software versions

37

Other People, Documents, etc.
There is a lot missing in this presentation, your team members will add
their own details and processes.
  How does QA / QC Fit?
  What about Budgeting?
  How do you choose an Engineering partner?
  How do you choose a Manufacturer?

These topics become easier once you have the foundation of the
four documents outlined but are beyond what can be addressed
in a single session
Know your strengths, work with people who will fill out your weakspots and together, with a unified vision, you will be able to take
on the world

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A Final Word on Complexity.

Even something as simple as a flashlight has many parts.
Each part has to be designed or specified, located, bought, tested,
integrated and tracked.
Each component may be a project by itself!

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Powered by Panacis
Thanks for your attention, time to wake up!

Contact:
Steve Carkner
Founder and CTO
Panacis
613-727-5775x727
cell 613-286-2072
skype & twitter: “scarkner”

Product Development - Entrepreneurship 101 (2013/2014)

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