Understanding the Opportunity

Processhttp://seniordesign.engr.uidaho.edu/process/process.html
Mainhttp://seniordesign.engr.uidaho.edu/
First Semesterhttp://seniordesign.engr.uidaho.edu/first_semester/schedule_&_deliverables.html
Second Semesterhttp://seniordesign.engr.uidaho.edu/second_semester/schedule_&_deliverables.html
Papershttp://seniordesign.engr.uidaho.edu/Papers.html
Sponsor Infohttp://seniordesign.engr.uidaho.edu/Sponsor_Info.html
Project Archivehttp://seniordesign.engr.uidaho.edu/Project_Archive.html
Processhttp://seniordesign.engr.uidaho.edu/process/process.html
Mainhttp://seniordesign.engr.uidaho.edu/
First Semesterhttp://seniordesign.engr.uidaho.edu/first_semester/schedule_&_deliverables.html
Second SemesterIdentifying_the_Opportunity.html
Papershttp://seniordesign.engr.uidaho.edu/Papers.html
Sponsor Infohttp://seniordesign.engr.uidaho.edu/Sponsor_Info.html
Project Archivehttp://seniordesign.engr.uidaho.edu/Project_Archive.html
 

At the beginning of this phase

    • business opportunity is validated

    • initial resources for learning are known and learning plan is formulated

    • design team with relevant expertise is formed

    • interested/available client is identified

At the end of this phase

    • design team is conversant with relevant technologies

    • design team can empathize with likely user

    • documentation system/approach is established (webpage, team binder)

    • initial product specifications established (high level functional requirements captured)

Identifying the OpportunityIdentifying_the_Opportunity.html
Detailed DesignDetailed_Design.html
Understanding the Opportunity
Conceptual DesignConceptual_Design.html
FabricationFabrication.html
ValidationValidation.html

Tools

  1. •Assign team members to project learning tasks

Process Step

  1. •Perform project learning:

  2. •literature review

  1. •Perform project learning:

  2. •Interviewing and observing experts and potential users

  1. •Perform project learning: experimentation / lab work.

  1. •Perform project learning: simulation

  1. •Write Target Specifications

  1. •Timeline for intermediate and final discoveries that frame conceptual design

  1. •Logbook notes on catalogs, websites, patents, textbooks, technical papers

  1. •A record of information gathered from interviews and observations

  2. •Models of user behavior

  1. •Models of current product/technology performance

  2. •Logbook diagrams, test procedures, data, and analysis

  3. •Breadboarding

  1. •Logbook sketches, CAD images, graphs, and tabulated data

  1. •De Target Specifications tails of the selected opportunity

Work Products

  1. •Kano Model of Customer Satisfaction [text, video]

  2. •Tips for conducting interviews

  3. •Tips for conducting user observation

  4. •Tips for generating task analysis

  5. •Quality function deployment - [House of Quality template] [1, 2]

  1. •Product teardown procedure [functional modeling with subtract and operate]

  2. •Engineering logbooks

  3. •ME 430 website

  4. •LabView

  1. •Engineering logbooks

  2. •pSpice

  3. •Matlab/FEM lab

  4. •MathCad

  1. •Tips for writing specs

  1. •MS Project Guide

  1. •Engineering Logbooks

  2. •USPTO

  3. •Mindworks Vendor Catalog

  1. •Synthesize project understanding

  1. •Up-to-date project website

  1. •Webpage guidelines

  1. •Stakeholders are people that have an interest in the creation of a new product

  2. •Experts are people that have specific knowledge about related products, processes, and technologies

Identify stakeholders and experts

  1. •Your problem was likely presented in an incomplete or solution biased manner.

  2. •Create a product opportunity statement (a.k.a. problem statement)

  3. •You must create a clear statement of the problem that is vetted by the stakeholders.

  4. •This “product opportunity” statement is best kept short (1 or 2 sentences)

Create a product opportunity statement

  1. •Extracting information from stakeholders and experts will net you substantial needs and constraints

  2. •Customer satisfaction – Kano model -

  3. •Latent and direct needs (communicate them 
    back to customer for validation) 

  4. •Interviewees focus on solutions and 
    anecdotes, you must extract the needs

  5. •Focus on what, not how (5 whys)

  6. •Watch for priorities - must, should, wish

  7. •Prepare a list of questions - don’t waste client’s time

  8. •Be sure to address broad classes of requirements

  9. •Functional performance

  10. •Human factors

  11. •Physical requirements

  12. •Reliability

  13. •Life-cycle concerns

  14. •Resource concerns (time, cost, etc.)

  15. •Manufacturing requirements

Conduct an interview

  1. •People often do not realize opportunities, realize their problems, and communicate all needs.

  2. •Apply anthropological techniques to document activity lists, characterize user types, and characterize value to the user.

Conduct an observation

  1. •Teardown competitive products and products with comparable function that may be helpful for conceptual design

  2. •Build model of geometry and performance

  3. •Benchmark performance of competitors

Product dissection

  1. •Use the product, perform the process, experience the hardship!

  2. •First-hand experience is a great way to grow understanding

Empathetic activities

  1. •Identify technologies that are core to the problem or potential directions for the solution

  2. •Web searches, patent searches, interview experts

Research

  1. •Gain clarity in relevant physical phenomenon my creating math models and relating them to experiments

  2. •Useful to determine what can be validated

Experimentation and modeling

ACTIVITY TOOLBOX

Tree climbing observation examplehttp://seniordesign.engr.uidaho.edu/2009-2010/foliaruav/files/Design%20Report.docx
Limb cutting examplehttp://seniordesign.engr.uidaho.edu/2009-2010/foliaruav/testing.html
Example statementhttp://seniordesign.engr.uidaho.edu/2008_2009/sparmill/problem%20definition.html
http://seniordesign.engr.uidaho.edu/processdocs/teardown.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kano_model