Perils and Pitfalls of Product Development

by ROBERT K. WAITE '79,
Waitek Electronic Product Development

New products rarely spring fully formed from the mind of the inventor. On average, most products go through six designs before they are ready for the real world. Why is this so and what can be done to reduce the financial and schedule impacts of multiple redesigns?

There are several reasons for multiple redesigns:

No longer novel: The inventor is usually so closely involved with the product, its application to solve a problem, and the specifics of its use that he/she is unable to approach the product as a novice user.

Confusing applications: Operations and applications that are second nature to the inventor are bewildering to the new owner without specific instructions. Even the ergonomics that are appropriate to an experienced user of similar devices may be confusing and uncomfortable to the inexperienced user.

Wrong words, wrong colors: Terminology common to the inventor may be unknown to the user. Color choices for important operating controls must be considered in light of a user's background instead of the inventor's.

Too pricey: Initial prototypes are always expensive, leading to redesigns for cost reduction.

To mitigate such problems, there are several time-proven approaches. Make the first prototypes out of cardboard and color them with crayon. To simply mock-up a product out of available, common materials and talk naive users through its operations is one of the best ways to learn early what works and what does not. Making changes to a cardboard prototype takes a few minutes and costs nothing. Making changes to circuit boards, software, and sheet metal (or plastic molds) is expensive and time-consuming. For computer-based products, Visual Basic or paper screen shots can be used to demonstrate screens that can be finalized in another language later.

Finally, hardly any product comes to market as it was originally conceived, so work with an experienced designer and accept the need for iterative improvements.

Bob Waitek specializes in product design and prototyping of products using electronics. He can be reached at WaiteInc@aol.com.