Iterative Product Development

Iterative Product Development

Alan Starner

Published by Alan Starner, 2024.

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

ITERATIVE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

First edition. January 12, 2024.

Copyright © 2024 Alan Starner.

ISBN: 979-8223460824

Written by Alan Starner.

Iterative Product Development:

How to Turn Your Ideas into Successful Products

Alan Lee Starner

Copyright 2023

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the prior permission in writing of the author, except for brief quotations used for promotion or in reviews.

About the author

Alan Lee Starner has been developing products since the early 1990's. He currently has 7 patents under his name and has brought several of these products to the marketplace. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Physics with a minor in Computer Science in 1981. In his early career he worked in the defense industry later, transitioning to being the director of software for a semi-conductor equipment maker.

His greatest education in product development happened in the University of hard knocks. He wrote this book to help other product developers avoid the painful mistakes he has made along the way. You can reach him at [email protected], or go to

www.nalalab.com

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Kai Madrone for her support, encouragement and editing assistance. This book would not be as readable without her help.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Product Development Phases Overview

Phase 1: High-Level Evaluation

High-Level Evaluation Checklist

Phase 2: Iterative Product Development

Dieter Ram's 10 Design Principles

Customer Delight Questions

Intellectual Property

Pre-production Planning

Contracts and Terms

Pre-production Checklist

Phase 3: Mass Production

Phase 4: Selling and Support

Marketing

Summary

Epilogue

Appendix A – Applying for a Trademark

Appendix B. Sample Interview Questionnaire

Introduction

Turning your idea into a successful product is exciting and, if done well, can give you the kind of financial success you've only dreamed of. However, it is also high risk. Estimates are that 70% to 95% of new products fail soon after being introduced and this doesn't count products that never even made it on the market. You obviously want to be among the 10% or so of products that do make it, but how do you increase the odds in your favor?

The short answer is to have a disciplined method that will keep you focused on the most important tasks, prevent you from skipping steps, and can help you know when to hire someone for a given task and when to do it yourself. In bringing a product to market, there are so many interrelated fields of expertise that it is really easy to get off track, so unless you have a cross-functional team already in place with a wide range of expertise, you will likely need some guidance along the way.

I started doing product development in 1987 and have had both failures and successes. Though success feels great, I've learned far more from my failures. It's hard to forget the sting of losing the time and money invested into a product idea that doesn't work out, especially when 20/20 hindsight makes the mistakes obvious. You can study design, you can study marketing, and you can study manufacturing, but to create a successful product you need to incorporate all of these and more.  Most of the engineers, designers and marketers you meet will have only done their slice of the pie: either as an employee or a consultant with contracts in place. With no skin in the game, their risk is limited. It feels completely different when you are the entrepreneur taking the risks and spending the money – you have nothing but skin in the game. There aren't many people who have gone through the entire product process from conception to sales, and most of those who have are not in the business of helping others get their product to market. That’s where this guide comes in.

I would like to share an approach to product development which is both disciplined and holistic - it integrates all the slices of the pie into a unified approach. I would like to help you avoid the many mistakes that I've made and offer you a focused step-by-step way to develop products that hit the target for your customers. I recommend reading through the entire guide before taking action because many of the elements are interrelated and understanding the entire journey will help you with what you are doing each step along the way.

Although I developed this approach independently, it has much in common with lean product development and agile software development. It minimizes costs and risk by doing as much work as possible upfront, emphasizes a fast iteration cycle combined with customer feedback, and has a relentless focus on the customer's needs. However, for physical products that involve expensive tooling before mass production, the agile principles apply mainly to the early phases where 3D printing prototypes substitute for the release of new software versions. With physical product manufacturing, this quick iteration cycle should happen before expensive tooling is ordered since changes from that point forward are expensive and create huge delays.

There are multiple roles required to bring a product to market, and that means either having someone on your team who specializes in each role or wearing a lot of hats. You can wear as many hats as you like, but since success depends on each role being well fulfilled, you should only play a role in which you have competence.

Though there are many different roles to consider, I consider the following six to be the most essential roles for the product development process. Once the product is on the market, additional roles come into play.

The six most essential roles in the development process are:

Product Champion: This is usually the inventor or entrepreneur who came up with the idea. The product champion is responsible for holding the vision of the product, making sure the whole process stays on track, and that the final product fulfills their vision of customer satisfaction. The vision they hold should be of the customer being satisfied with the product, not a vision for the product itself. This allows our ideas about the product to evolve in ways beyond our original conception and not get stuck in our first set of ideas. Many new products fail because the focus was on bringing the original vision to life, rather than having a relentless focus on the customer's needs and desires. The Segway is a well-known example.

Product Designer: This is usually someone with