Electronic Product Design

Unni A M,SOE,CUSAT
Characteristics of Successful product 
development

Product Quality

Product cost

Development time

Development cost

Development capability

Unni A M,SOE,CUSAT
Composition of a product development
team

Unni A M,SOE,CUSAT
Challenges…

• Trade-offs
• Dynamics
• Details
• Time pressure
• Economics

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 interests…

• Creation
• Satisfaction of societal & individual
needs
• Team diversity
• Team spirit

Unni A M,SOE,CUSAT
Unni A M,SOE,CUSAT
 Identify customer needs
• Gather raw data from customer
• Interpret the raw data in terms of
customer needs
• Organize the needs
• Establish the relative importance
of needs
• Reflect on the process and the
results

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Gather raw data from customer

• Interviews
• Focus groups
• Observing the product in use

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• When and why do you use this type of
product?

• Walk us through a typical session using the

product

• What do you like about the existing product

• What do you dislike about the existing product

• What issues do you consider when purchasing

the product?

• What improvements would you make to this

product Unni A M,SOE,CUSAT
Interpret raw data in terms of
customer needs

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Product specification…

• The precise description of what the

product has to do
• It consists of metric and value

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Product specification…

Target specification

Final specification

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 Establishing target
specification..
Step1: Prepare the list of metrics
Step2: Collect the competitive
benchmarking information
Step3: Set ideal and marginally
acceptable target values for each metric
eg: at least X
between x and y
exactly y…
Step4: Reflect on the results and the
process
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Setting final specifications
• Step1 :Develop technical models
» Both analytical & physical

• Step2 :Develop a cost model

» Product can be made at the target cost ?

Unni A M,SOE,CUSAT
Setting final specifications
(cntd…)
• Step3 : Refine the specification,
making trade-offs where necessary
» Competitive map

• Step4: Flow Down the specification

as appropriate
• Step5: Reflect on the results and
the process

Unni A M,SOE,CUSAT
Thank you