Converting an idea or even a lab prototype into a real, customer-ready product is no simple task. Learn how to turn your idea into a successful product by following the “V-model” of concept development and how to differentiate the steps of product development.

2. A trusted supplier of
advanced, high
performance, integrated
battery systems for
mission critical
applications
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3. 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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4. Role of the Visionary
The Visionary drives the
product idea at a high level.
How do you get that vision to
the market?
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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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6. 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.
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7. Unify the Team
Every good product requires a team to bring it to market
§ The team must
have a COMMON
VISION
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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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9. 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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10. 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?
§ What Is It For?
§ Serious Lighting or Fun?
10

11. 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?
§ What Is It For?
§ Serious Lighting or Fun?
§ Who Pays?
§ Consumer, Industrial, Government?
11

12. 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?
§ What Is It For?
§ Serious Lighting or Fun?
§ Who Pays?
§ Consumer, Industrial, Government?
§ What is YOUR Capability?
§ Distributor, Designer, Manufacturer?
12

13. 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?
§ What Is It For?
§ Serious Lighting or Fun?
§ Who Pays?
§ Consumer, Industrial, Government?
§ What is YOUR Capability?
§ Distributor, Designer, Manufacturer?
13

14. What Are You Trying To Do?
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?
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15. 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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16. Your Product in 4 Easy Steps
Four planning documents can encompass the entire
product development in a form that is appropriate for
the audience.
Most Important
§ Customer / Market Requirements
§ Functional Requirements
§ Product / Engineering Specification
§ Test and Verification Specification
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17. Your Product in 4 Easy Steps
When a product development effort is launched with only one
or two of these documents in place, the end result is
usually dissapointing
§ 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 “me-
too” 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 agaisnt to know that volume production
matches the design
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18. Customer / Market Requirements
Focus on what the end customer wants in terms that use
emotion, comparisions to other products and qualitative
adjectives.
§ Generally NOT technical
§ Can be used to test the market
§ What would YOU say to a CUSTOMER and what would
customers say to each other about the product?
§ Rarely has quantitative measurements
§ Example: A road warrior wants a flashlight that is incredibly
durable, it can’t fail when repeatedly thrown in their luggage.
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19. Customer / Market Requirements
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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20. Customer / Market Requirements
Examples of market requirements:
§ Durable for situations the road-warrior faces
§ Light weight and small to fit anywhere
§ Bright, even light
§ Good battery life
§ Price is a moderate consideration (not cheap)
§ Should have an appealing look and feel
20

21. Customer / Market Requirements
Examples of market requirements:
§ Durable for situations the road-warrior faces
§ Light weight and small to fit anywhere
§ Bright, even light
§ 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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22. Customer / Market Requirements
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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23. Customer / Market Requirements
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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24. Functional Requirements
Puts QUANTITATIVE goals on the QUALITATIVE
statements of the marketing requirements?
§ This document does NOT give details of how all 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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25. Functional Requirements
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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26. Functional Requirements
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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27. 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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28. Product / Engineering Specification
Balance and Compromise will be required – iteration
against the Functional and Market requriements my
occurr.
§ Example: We will achieve light weight by using AAA Batteries
AA AAA
23 grams 12 grams
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29. Product / Engineering Specification
Balance and Compromise will be required – iteration
against the Functional and Market requriements my
occurr.
§ Example: We will achieve light weight by using AAA Batteries
AA AAA
23 grams 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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30. Product / Engineering Specification
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 ultimately
feels the balance isn’t quite right
It is MUCH better to iterate at this stage than waiting
until a prototype is completed
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31. Product / Engineering Specification
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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32. 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
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33. 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
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34. A Unified Approach
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35. 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 weak-
spots and together, with a unified vision, you will be able to take
on the world
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36. 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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37. 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”