BA 296-3 and ME290P
Fall 1996

GENERAL INFORMATION

Teaching Staff:

Prof. Alice Agogino, Room 5136 Etcheverry Hall, 2-6450, aagogino@euler.ME.Berkeley.EDU

Dr. Sara L. Beckman, Room F575 Haas School, 2-1058, beckman@haas.Berkeley.EDU

TA: Andy Dong, 6102 Etcheverry Hall, 2-8146, adong@jerry.ME.Berkeley.EDU

Web site: http://hart.ME.Berkeley.edu/~me290p/f96/

E-mail address: ba296.3@haas.Berkeley.EDU or design@hart.ME.Berkeley.EDU

Class Meetings:

Wednesdays and Fridays, 9:30 - 11:00 a.m., Room Cheit 110

Course Objectives:

This course is one of five core courses of the Management of Technology program at the University of California, Berkeley. (To learn more about the Management of Technology Program, see http://kingkong.me.berkeley.edu/mot/start.html.) It is considered an operationally focused course, as it aims to develop the interdisciplinary skills required for successful product development in today's competitive marketplace. Engineering and Business students join forces on small product development teams to step through the new product development process in detail, learning about the available tools and techniques to execute each process step along the way. Each student brings his or her own disciplinary perspective to the team effort, and must learn to synthesize that perspective with those of the other students in the group to develop a sound, marketable product. Students can expect to depart the semester with a solid knowledge of the new product development process and its various phases, tools and techniques that are useful, and organizational structures that support new product development practice.

Expectations:

This is a three-unit graduate course. Accordingly, we have designed the course to demand approximately 12 hours per week of your time. We expect that each student will prepare for and attend all of the class sessions and will participate fully on a project team. We have tried to smooth the workload for the course, so that it will remain relatively constant throughout.

Academic Integrity:

We encourage full group and class collaboration on all aspects of this course. It is almost impossible to share too much information in product development. We do expect that all team members will contribute substantially to the project efforts, although some students will choose to devote themselves to the projects beyond what is required for the course. Students will be asked to critique and contribute to the development projects of others in the class in a cooperative, supportive environment.

Reading Materials:

The primary reading material for the class is the textbook Product Design and Development written by Karl Ulrich and Steve Eppinger. This book is a very basic text that provides a step by step view of how new product development processes are to be conducted. A course reading packet supplementing the book is also available for purchase at the UC Bookstore. Additional reading materials are available on reserve in both the Business and Engineering libraries. Students who wish to dealve more deeply into a given aspect of the product development process are encouraged to seek out these readings.

Grading:

Your course grade will be determined as follows:

30% quality of your preparation for and participation in class discussions

20% quality of your individual assignment solutions

30% quality of your team's work on project-related assignments

20% quality of your team's final project presentation

Class Preparation and Participation:

Reading assignments and questions to guide your thinking about these assignments are given in the class schedule for each class session. We expect you to come to class prepared to discuss the readings and the suggested questions. In any given class session, a handful of students may be called upon specifically to speak to the readings and questions about them. If you have prepared according to the syllabus, you will have no problem responding when called upon. Your individual class participation grade will be based upon your in-class remarks during discussions, and will be judged by the faculty.

Individual Assignments:

We have periodically assigned exercises at the back of the chapters. The syllabus makes clear which of these are to be turned in. The others are intended simply to prepare you for class discussion.

Projects:

The goal of this exercise is to learn principles and methodologies of product development in a realistic context. Most product development professionals work under tremendous time pressure and do not have an opportunity to reflect on the development process. In this course, the project stress level will be low enough so that there will be time to experiment and learn. We will provide additional instruction as to the nature of the project in the second week of the course. You will be asked to form project teams of 4 to 5 students, including a mix of Engineering and Business students. (We have experimented with all-Engineer and all-MBA student groups, and have found that they are not as effective as the mixed groups.) You will have ample opportunity during the first two weeks of class to scope out the possible projects and get to know potential teammates.

READINGS FOR THIS COURSE CAN BE FOUND IN TWO PLACES:

Required Textbook: Product Design and Development, Karl T. Ulrich and Steven P. Eppinger, available at the UC bookstore (and also used in last year's class). In the outline below, CHAPTER X always refers to the readings from the text.

Required Course Reader: Also available from the UC bookstore; slightly changed from last year.

Class 1: Introduction to New Product Development (NPD)

Wednesday, August 28th

We will cover course logistics and requirements and then develop the motivation and framework for the course. Read the December 13, 1993 Fortune article, PAYOFF FROM THE NEW MANAGEMENT (accessible through the Melvyl network in the library), which describes a successful product development effort at Thermos, and CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Consider the thought question at the end of Chapter 1.

(NOTE: If you have not used the Melvyl network before, here is one way you can access the article. Log on to the network in the library or from a terminal in the computer center. Go to the business catalog by typing "bus" and then to the magazines and journals database by typing "mags". There are numerous ways to find the article at this point. One approach is to type "find xt payoff" which will give you a list of 19 items that have the word payoff in the title. Then type "display text 4" which will display the text for the fourth article, which is the assigned article. Note that both find and display can be shortened and represented by their first letters, f and d, respectively.)

Class 2: New Product Development Processes and Organizations

Friday, August 30th

Read CHAPTER 2: DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES AND ORGANIZATIONS. Do Exercise #4 at the end of the chapter and bring your sketch to class. (You may do this work in teams.) Also consider thought question #4. Read DELTA -- A DESIGN EXERCISE and come to class prepared with any questions you may have about the exercise. We will assign roles in class and "train" you to play your role.

Assignment due in Class on Wednesday, September 4th: During the next few class sessions, we will talk about team dynamics and interactions as being critical to new product development success. You will have a chance to observe first-hand the difficulties in team formation and process during the Delta Design Exercise. To provide another dimension to understanding team dynamics, complete a simplified version of the Myers-Briggs test, the Kiersey test, available on the WWW. (MBA students may use the results of the test they took last year, if available.)

• First, read the background on the test available at http://sunsite.unc.edu/personality/faq-mbti.html
• Then, take and score the test available at http://sunsite.unc.edu/jembin/mb.pl. (Note that it is also available directly from the background page -- even though it says that the test will be a future addition.)
• Based upon the information you gather in this process, write a one-page (max) paper about how you might use the information about your personality type and those of the other individuals in your design group to improve your group's work. (Include your personality profile in the paper.)

Class 3: Delta -- A Design Exercise

Wednesday, September 4th

Re-read the role assignment you were given in class. Make sure that you thoroughly understand the role you are to play. If you do not, please ask questions of your trainer to clarify your position. Prepare any materials you believe you will need to play the role. DO NOT discuss the other three roles with others in the class. On the day of class, go straight to the room to which you are assigned and convene your team as quickly as possible, as you will find that 1 1/2 hours is quite short for accomplishing this work. YOU MAY WISH TO LEAVE SOME EXTRA TIME AT THE END OF THE CLASS TO COMPLETE THE EXERCISE, or you may have to arrange with your group to meet again before Friday's class.

Your Delta Design Team will receive another assignment on Friday, September 6th when you will be given the design and videotape from another design team to analyze. It would be appropriate to schedule time to do this analysis (sometime between Friday, September 6th and Friday, September 13th) while you are together doing the design exercise.

Due at the end of this class session:

• Your videotape with name of your team and names of all of your team members written on it. Include those assigned to observe the team.
• Delta Design game materials. You should keep a sketch on a separate piece of paper from the gameboard for your own purposes. The game materials will be kept and reused by another class.

Assignment due in class on Friday, September 6th includes:

• A sketch of your final design
• The calculations of the required performance measures (e.g., interior area, blue delta percentage, temperature, load, cost)
• A brief paragraph describing the virtues of your design

These materials will be passed along with your videotape to another team in the class. That team will be charged with reviewing your design and analyzing the design process your team employed.

NOTE: Project Proposals are due on Thursday, September 5th at 3 p.m.

Class 4: Project Proposals

Friday, September 6th

We will use this class session to review in some detail the various proposals that have been put forth for design projects. See instructions for the design project for more detail. Students who wish to sell their design ideas to the rest of the class will be allotted time to do so during this class session. By the end of the class session, you should be prepared to submit your top three choices for projects on which you wish to participate.

In addition to discussing the projects, we will briefly discuss your experience in the Delta Design Exercise. At the end of class, you will be given a copy of another group's design and videotape, and asked to analyze them for class on Friday, September 13th.

Assignment due in class on September 13th: Read A MODEL OF THE MECHANICAL DESIGN PROCESS BASED ON EMPIRICAL DATA. Meet with your Delta Design Team (including observers) to review the tapes and design documents from another team. (You will have received these in class on Friday, September 6th.) View the tapes, analyze them, and answer the following questions:

• Estimate the percentage of time spent in assimilation, documentation, planning, repair, specification and verification. (A full protocol analysis is not required.)
• How did your results follow those of Ullman, et al.? How were they different?
• What other observations to you have of the process the team used?
• Write a paper of two pages (max) describing your findings and observations. Return the videotapes and designs with your write-up.

NOTE: Project preferences are due by 5 p.m today.

Class 5: Theories, Models and Conceptual Frameworks

Wednesday, September 11th

The reading this week will be a bit more intensive than in other weeks, as we are providing you with an overview of the academic literature on new product development. Read ACCELERATING PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT which presents a review of the literature on new product development and some models for thinking about product development processes. Then read SHARED MEMORY IN DESIGN: A UNIFYING THEME FOR RESEARCH AND PRACTICE which presents a broader view of the field of design. What are the common themes in the two papers? What are the most interesting findings from a practical perspective?

On reserve: There is another literature review by Brown and Eisenhardt, "New Product Development Research: Past Research, Present Findings, and Future Directions," Academy of Management Review, April 1995 that may interest those of you seeking more background in organizational design of new product development processes.

Class 6: Descriptive Studies of the Design Process

Friday, September 13th

Bring your videotape analyses to class. We will discuss your findings and observations about the teams you observed. In addition, read THE DISCIPLINE OF TEAMS. What does the paper say about using information from tests such as the Myers-Briggs (Kiersey) test? What roles does the paper suggest that the course faculty (Agogino and Beckman) should play? How would you have changed your Delta Design Exercise experience were you to have read this paper ahead of time? Would dicussing your Myers-Briggs profiles with your Delta Design team members have helped you work better with one another?

Regarding the Ullman article: Does the "task/episode accumulation" (TEA) model developed by the authors do a good job of capturing the design process? What do you like and dislike about the model? How would you change it? What does the authors' approach to modeling tell you about the mechanical design process itself?

Class 7: NPD in the Electronics Industry

Wednesday, September 18th

This session commences a three session cluster on new product development practices in the electronics, software and biotechnology/pharmaceutical industries. We attempt to provide you with an integrative perspective of new product development in these industries as well as a sense of the similarities and differences among them.

Prepare QUANTUM CORPORATION -- BUSINESS AND PRODUCT TEAMS for class discussion. This case describes the multi-year effort at Quantum Corporation, a Silicon Valley-based disk drive company, to develop distinctive capability in new product development. That capability, based on heavyweight product teams under the direction of cross-functional business teams, has been the basis for success in the corporation's efforts to gain a commanding position in the 3.5" disk drive market. The case reviews the company's experience on a number of development teams and the evolution of business teams for each of its three primary businesses.

1. What is required to be successful in the Winchester disk drive industry? What do you think accounts for Quantum's success?

2. What is your evaluation of Quantum's progress to-date in developing and applying team concepts?

3. How effective have the major teams been? What accounts for their primary differences in effectiveness?

4. How would you recommend that Dave Brown address the team-related issues raised at the end of the case? Why? Are there other team issues that you would add as high priority on his list?

5. Develop an overall plan of action for addressing these issues. How should they be linked to other aspects of Quantum's management approach? How should they measure and track their progress in implementing that plan? (Be specific as to actions taken, their timing, and the results expected.)

Skim CHAPTER 14: HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY (pp. 393-425) in The Perpetual Enterprise Machine: Seven Keys to Corporate Renewal Through Successful Product and Process Development, edited by Bowen, Clark, Holloway and Wheelwright. This chapter will provide you with additional insight into the product development processes of electronics companies.

Class 8: NPD in the Software Industry

Friday, September 20th

NOTE: Mission Statements etc. are due today.

Prepare the case MICROSOFT: OFFICE BUSINESS UNIT. The case investigates product development in the personal computer software industry. It focuses on the development of Word for Windows (or "WinWord"), a critical product for the Microsoft Corporation. WinWord was the first popular Microsoft application to run on the Windows operating system, which has become the company's most important product platform. The WinWord project took a very long time to complete. The schedule delays and the significant confusion during the project reflect problems associated with the project's organization, the turbulent history of the company's development process, and the evolution of its market environment.

1. What is your assessment of the WinWord project? Why did it take so long?

2. What is your evaluation of Microsoft's development process? What are its weaknesses? Its strengths?

3. Why is the company so successful? Do you think that it will remain successful?

4. How should Microsoft's development process evolve in the future? What specific suggestions would you have for the company?

5. What should Raikes do with respect to the next generation WinWord project?

For background on product development practices in the software industry at other companies besides Microsoft, skim BEYOND THE SOFTWARE FACTORY: A COMPARISON OF 'CLASSIC' AND PC SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS, Introduction (pp. 1-11), Fujitsu (pp. 30-38), and Lotus (pp. 61-70). For those of you wishing to read other sections of this paper, including reviews of the product development processes at Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Microsoft, the complete working paper is on reserve. Michael Cusumano and Richard Selby have also written a book on product development at Microsoft entitled Microsoft Secrets, available a local bookstores. For those of you more interested in software development in Japan, Michael Cusumano's book Japan's Software Factories is also available.

Class 9: NPD in the Biotech Industry

Wednesday, September 25th

Prepare the BECTON DICKINSON: ADVANCED DIAGNOSTICS DIVISION case. This case examines product development challenges at Becton Dickinson. It focuses on the Advanced Diagnostics Division (BDAD) which was created to combined the company's expertise in immunodiagnostics to efficiently deliver products to a diverse set of markets. The case describes BDAD's model for product development and discusses in some detail the role of the program manager.

1. Analyze BDAD's development process. What are its strengths and weaknesses?

2. How would you characterize the program manager's role at BDAD? What evidence do you have?

3. Should the new format test be developed internally or at Quidel? What should Forlenza do, given his circumstances?

On reserve, for those wishing more background on product development in the biotechnology/ pharmaceutical industry:

Henderson, Rebecca, "Managing Innovation in the Information Age," Harvard Business Review, January-February 1994.

Vogel, Brian L., "Concept Development for High-Technology and Medical Products," Design Management Journal, Fall 1993.

Class 10: Concept Development: Customer and User Needs Assessment

Friday, September 27th

Read CHAPTER 3: IDENTIFYING CUSTOMER NEEDS and LEAD USER ANALYSIS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS by Urban and von Hippel. Consider the thought questions at the end of Chapter 3, and be prepared to discuss the chapter material and other methods of gathering, organizing and deploying the "voice of the customer."

Assignment due today: Perform exercise #3 at the end of the chapter. Prepare a 1-2 page summary of your answers to the questions.

For those of you wishing additional information on customer and user needs assessment, the following papers are on reserve:

• "Conjoint Analysis: A Manager's Guide," Harvard Business School, 1990.
• Griffin, Abbie and John R. Hauser, "The Voice of the Customer," Marketing Science, Vol. 12, No. 1, Winter 1993. (Provides more detail on the findings presented in Ulrich and Eppinger.)
• Potts, Colin, "Using Schematic Scenarios to Understand User Needs," ACM 1995.
• Kaindl, Hermann, "An Integration of Scenarios with their Purposes in Task Modeling," ACM 1995.
• Royer, Traci, "Using Scenario-Based Designs to Review User Interface Changes and Enhancements," ACM 1995.

And, if you wish further depth in the market aspects of new product development there are two Management of Technology classes that cover marketing issues:

• BA 263: New Product Development
• BA 264: High Tech Marketing

Class 11: Concept Development: Using QFD to Communicate the Voice of the Customer

Wednesday, October 2nd

Read CHAPTER 4: ESTABLISHING PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS, and HOUSE OF QUALITY. Prepare the SWEETWATER case for class discussion. The SweetWater case will allow us to understand how the "voice of the customer" must be chased back to clearly stated needs that vividly incorporate the user experience with the product, and will provide a structured way of thinking about stratifying user needs. The following questions should guide your case preparation:

• Using your own perspective, what are the most important user needs in the water purifier market? You might want to interview a few wilderness enthusiasts to help answer this question.
• How can you structure this user's needs data to assist Sandy Platter in creating his product concept?
• How do competitors' products meet those needs?
• What characterizes an outstanding concept for a water purification device for backpackers and other outdoor enthusiasts?

(You should start applying some of the methods you are learning in class to your design project. Note that you will have to select from among many methods the ones that are most appropriate to your development project.)

Class 12: Concept Development: Concept Generation

Friday, October 4th

This class session will focus on brainstorming and "ideation" techniques used by new product development teams to generate product ideas from their understanding of customer wants and needs and of the available technologies. Read CHAPTER 5: CONCEPT GENERATION. Consider thought questions 2, 3, and 5. We will use the Vizability Software in class to show additional concept generation techniques. This will launch the next phase of your projects' development efforts as you begin to translate customer needs into various product concepts.

Additional references for those of you interested in techniques for stimulating creativity:

• Adams, James L., Conceptual Blockbusting
• Michalko, Michael, Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Business Creativity for the '90s

Both books have a number of exercises intended to stimulate creativity, similar to some of those used in class.

Class 13: Voice of the Customer Presentations

Wednesday, October 9th

This will be the first of three presentations you will give on your product development project. Plan 10 minutes MAXIMUM for the presentation so that we can fit all projects into two class sessions. If you plan to use the in-class podium to give your presentation, make very sure that it works before you come to class, as we will not have time to spend trying to bring up your presentation materials.

Your presentation should cover the following: a mission statement, such as is shown on page 37 of your textbook, a brief review of the means used to collect customer and user needs information, a summary of the identified customer and user needs, and a brief summary of lessons learned in the process to date. Please bring a hardcopy report to class as well to be turned in along with a copy of your slides. Bring two copies -- one for each faculty member.

Come to class prepared to actively listen to your peers talk about their projects, ask them constructive questions and provide them feedback on the direction their projects are taking.

Class 14: Voice of the Customer Presentations

Friday, October 11th

See Class 13.

Class 15: Concept Development: Concept Selection

Wednesday, October 16th

Once you have generated a set of possible product concepts, you must identify the one or ones that you will actually work on. During this class session, we review methodologies for choosing from among the options. Read CHAPTER 6: CONCEPT SELECTION. Bring your results to class. During class we will review these concepts as well as the application of probability theory and decision analysis to concept selection. Proceed to apply these methodologies to your design projects.

Assignment due: Complete exercises #3 and 4.

For a concise and brief review of probability theory, some of you may wish to refer to the following materials which are on reserve: Agogino, A.M., "The Logic of Probability Theory," October 1992.

Class 16: System Level Design: Product Architectures and Product Partitioning

Friday, October 18th

Read CHAPTER 7: PRODUCT ARCHITECTURE and DESIGNING DEEPER: TOWARDS A USER-CENTERED DEVELOPMENT EFFORT. Complete exercise 2 or 3 at the end of the chapter and be prepared to discuss thought questions 1 and 2. We will discuss the importance of good product partitioning and its relationship to the organizational design of a new product development effort as well as to the overall product strategy of a firm.

Should you wish to read additional material on product architecture and the implications of modular design, look at the following articles on reserve:

• Ulrich, Karl T. and Karen Tung, "Fundamentals of Product Modularity," MIT Working Paper #3335-91-MSA, September 1991
• Ulrich, Karl, "The Role of Product Architecture in the Manufacturing Firm," MIT Working Paper

Class 17: Design for Usability (Role of Industrial Design)

Friday, October 23rd

NOTE: Concept Sketches are due today.

This class launches a four-session module on "design for x," where x refers to many aspects of design from manufacturability to serviceability to usability. We have chosen to focus on product usability, with two sessions on industrial design and user interface design, manufacturability and designing for environmental soundness. Each company chooses to focus on the specific "design for x" issues that are important in its industry.

Read CHAPTER 8: INDUSTRIAL DESIGN AND GETTING A GRIP ON KITCHEN TOOLS. (Note that there is also an article about Web site design in this issue of @Issue.) Consider thought questions 1 and 3. Prepare the CYCLONE GRINDER Case for class discussion.

1. What do you like about the process that Ingersoll Rand used to design the Cyclone Grinder? What do you not like about the process?

2. What role did the industrial designers play on the team?

3. What does it mean to do "outside-in" versus "inside-out" design? Look at products in your everyday life. Find examples of products that were designed "outside-in" and ones that were designed "inside-out."

For a deeper understanding of design (industrial design, product design, architecture) and its role in business development, take Management of Technology course BA 296: Design as a Strategic Business Issue.

The Cyclone Grinder case is also accessible on the Web. Simply access the home page for this class, and you will find a link to the case. Alternatively, we have placed the CD-ROM version of the case on reserve in both the Business and Engineering libraries if you prefer to review the materials in that form. The electronic version of the case allows you to see pictures of the products as well as hear directly from the players quoted in the written case.

Class 18: Design for Usability (User Interface Design)

Friday, October 25th

Read A FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPING EXPERIENCE-BASED USABILITY GUIDELINES and AN APPLIED ETHNOGRAPHIC METHOD FOR REDESIGNING USER INTERFACES. While the last class was focused on physical design principles (e.g., ergonomics), in this class we will turn to the design of software user interfaces. In preparation for class discussion, choose three of the user interface design rules listed below. First, interpret what they mean, and then use your favorite software package(s) to find examples of their implementation (or lack of implementation.) Where do these rules fit in the taxonomies provided by the readings?

Following is a list of user interface design rules that you may find helpful in your team's work:

• Know thy user, and YOU are NOT thy user.
• Things that look the same should act the same.
• Everyone makes mistakes, so every mistake should be flexible.
• The information for the decision needs to be there when the decision is needed.
• Error messages should actually mean something to the user, and tell the user how to fix the problem.
• Every action should have a reaction.
• Don't overload the user's buffers.
• Consistency, consistency, consistency.
• Minimize the need for a mighty memory.
• Keep it simple.
• The more you do something, the easier it should be to do.
• The user should always know what is happening.
• The user should control the system. The system shouldn't control the user. The user is the boss, and the system should show it.
• The idea is to empower the user, not speed up the system.
• Eliminate unnecessary decisions, and illuminate the rest.
• If I made an error, let me know about it before I get into REAL trouble.
• The best journey is the one with the fewest steps. Shorten the distance between the user and their goal.
• The user should be able to do what the user wants to do.
• Things that look different should act different.
• You should always know how to find out what to do next.
• Don't let people accidentally shoot themselves.
• Even experts are novices at some point. Provide help.
• Design for regular people and the real world.
• Keep it neat. Keep it organized.
• Provide a way to bail out and start over.
• The fault is not in thyself, but in thy system.
• If it is not needed, it is not needed.
• Color is information.
• Everything in its place, and a place for everything.
• The user should be in a good mood when done.
• If I made an error, at least let me finish my thought before I have to fix it.
• Cute is note a good adjective for systems.
• Let people shape the system to themselves, and paint it with their own personality.
• To know the system is to love it.

(Note: This list was generated through an extensive survey of people working in the human-computer interface design field. Results of the survey are reported more extensively by Arnold M. Lund of Ameritech in "Expert Ratings of Rules of Thumb for Usability.")

Other rules:

• The idea is to empower the user, not speed up the system.
• Don't overload the user's buffers.
• Let people shape the system to themselves, and paint it with their own personality.
• Minimize the need for a mighty memory.
• Eliminate unnecessary decisions, and illuminate the rest.

These rules should prove useful as you take your product prototypes out and test them with users.

Class 19: Design for Manufacturability

Wednesday, October 30th

Read CHAPTER 9: DESIGN FOR MANUFACTURABILITY and prepare the case DESIGNING THE IBM PROPRINTER. Come to class prepared to discuss the following questions:

1. What was IBM's product strategy for the Proprinter?

2. In what ways does reducing the number of component parts in design reduce the total cost of the product to the firm?

For more background on the IBM Proprinter product design activity, see the paper on reserve: "Matrix printer: no pulleys, belts, or screws," IEEE Spectrum, May 1987.

To understand more about the manufacturing implications of new product designs, take Management of Technology course BA 296/ME 221: Intelligent Manufacturing Systems.

Class 20: Design for Environmental Soundness

Friday, November 1st

Read EVALUATION FOR POST-MANUFACTURING ISSUES IN LIFE-CYCLE DESIGN and DESIGN FOR ENVIRONMENTABILITY. Come prepared to discuss the key issues in designing environmentally sound products and the means by which environmental considerations can be built into the design process. Revisit the Cyclone Grinder case. Would Ingersoll-Rand have taken a different approach to product design if environmental issues had been considered? Observe examples in your everyday life of products that were and were not designed for environmental soundness. Would using environmental design principles make any difference to your projects?

Class 21: Concept Generation and Selection Presentations

Wednesday, November 6th

Prepare a 10-minute (maximum) presentation of your product concept. The presentation should include a very brief review of your mission statement, customer needs, selected concept, and your key target specifications. You should also prepare a "proof-of-concept" prototype. We will give each team 10 minutes to present and allow 5 minutes for questions from the rest of the class.

Class 22: Concept Generation and Selection Presentations

Friday, November 8th

See Class 21.

Class 23: Economics of Product Development and Activity Based Costing

Wednesday, November 13th

Read CHAPTER 11: ECONOMICS OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS and THE RETURN MAP by Price and House in Harvard Business Review (copies on reserve). Consider thought questions 1 and 2 at the end of the chapter. What do you like and dislike about the "return map?" We will discuss performance measurement, investment justification and cost accounting implications of new product development activities.

Class 24: Testing and Refinement: Role of Prototyping throughout the NPD Process

Friday, November 15th

Read CHAPTER 10: EFFECTIVE PROTOTYPING and prepare the case BMW: THE R-SERIES PROJECT for class discussion. This case focuses on a decision about how to prototype a product in development. Discussion of the alternatives provides insight into the different roles that prototyping can play in product development and why different prototyping approaches may be more or less appropriate within specific organizational and strategic contexts. The prototyping decision allows you to examine how the product development process influences product quality along such dimensions as conformance, performance and appearance.

1. What are the causes and consequence of BMW's quality problems with newly launched products? What should be done to improve "launch quality?"

2. What are your recommendations to Carl-Peter Forster concerning the 7-series prototypes? What should he do regarding future development projects?

3. What changes would you recommend in the way BMW develops new models? What attributes of newly launched products would you expect to improve as a result of these recommendations? Which attributes might deteriorate?

4. What recommendations would you make to Chairman von Kuenheim regarding BMW's strategy to compete against new Japanese entrants into the luxury car market?

Some of you may also be interested in reading

• Schrage, Michael, "The Culture(s) of Prototyping," Design Management Journal, Vol. 4, No. 1, Winter 1993. (An interesting view of the different roles that prototypes play in new product development.)
• Sutcliffe, Alistair, "Requirements Rationales: Integrating Approaches to Requirement Analysis," ACM 1995.
• Lichter, Horst, Matthias Schneider-Hufschmidt and Heinz Zullinghoven, "Prototyping in Industrial Software Projects -- Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 20, No. 11, November 1994.

Class 25: Testing and Refinement: Taguchi Method and Failure Mode Analysis

Wednesday, November 20th

Read ROBUST QUALITY and THE TAGUCHI APPROACH TO PARAMETER DESIGN (on reserve in the library for engineering students; business students have in their BA 204 syllabi). What does "robust quality" mean? How does a good new product development team go about achieving it? Don Clausing has written a book called Total Quality Development. What do you suppose the title means? We will introduce the notion of failure mode analysis as well as review the Taguchi Method.

Class 26: Testing and Refinement: A Case Study

Friday, November 22nd

NOTE: Final Product Specifications, etc. are due today.

Prepare the BOEHM AUTOMOTIVE SUPPLIERS (A) case which describes a project aimed at the development of the COMP 1, an automobile air conditioning compressor. The project was revolutionary for Boehm's Climate Engineering Division, employing a new dedicated team approach to product development and resulting in a design which appears to exhibit impressive features and cost potential.

1. What is your assessment of the approach used in the COMP 1 project?

2. What is your evaluation of the COMP 1 team's progress so far?

3. What is your evaluation of the proposed test plan for the COMP 1?

4. As Stan Ellis, what are your critical action items to ensure the successful completion of the project?

If you are interested in more information on testing and refinement in the software industry, see the article on reserve: Boehm, Barry W., "Verifying and Validating Software Requirements and Design Specifications," IEEE, 1984.

Class 27: Tools for Managing NPD Projects

Wednesday, November 27th

Read CHAPTER 12: MANAGING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS and MANAGING DESIGN KNOWLEDGE IN ENTERPRISE-WIDE CAD. Complete exercises 1, 2 and 3 at the end of the chapter and consider thought questions 3 and 4.

Class 28 & 29: Project Presentations

Wednesday, December 4th and Friday, December 6th

Final project presentations.

Final Exam Period: Project Review and Feedback

Saturday, December 14th, 9:00 - 11:00 a.m.

Although there is no final exam in this class, we expect to hold a session during the final exam at which time we will provide feedback to you on your projects and will discuss the lessons learned during your product development efforts.

PROJECT BACKGROUND AND SCHEDULE

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Your challenge in the project portion of this course is to design a new product and to produce a prototype version of it. The goal of this exercise is to learn principles and methodologies of product development in a realistic context. Project ideas may come from the following sources:

• Student-Conceived Projects
• Faculty-Suggested Projects
• Industrially-Sponsored Projects

Faculty-suggested and industrially-sponsored project options are described in the following pages, and will be discussed further in the September 6th class session. Guidelines for student-conceived projects are as follows:

• There should be a demonstrable market for your product. One good way to verify a market need is to identify existing products that meet the need. Your product need not be a variant of an existing product, but the market need addressed by your product should be clearly evident. The product does not have to have a tremendous economic potential, but should at least be an attractive opportunity for a small firm.
• If you choose a physical hardware product (rather than a software user interface design), the product should have a high likelihood of containing fewer than 10 parts. Although you cannot anticipate the design details, it is easy to anticipate that an electric drill will have more than 10 parts and a garlic press fewer than 10.
• You should be confident of being able to build a reasonable prototype of the product. If you choose to make a hardware product, you must have access to prototyping capabilities such as machining processes and the skill sets to run them! For software user interface products, you should have access to proficiency in Web page design and/or PowerPoint.
• The product should require no basic technological breakthroughs. We do not have time to deal with large technological uncertainties. In fact, we are more concerned that you have a specific market need in mind for your project than that you attempt to develop new technologies.
• You should have access to more than five potential "lead users" of the product (more than 20 would be nice.)
• Save any highly proprietary ideas for another context, as we will be quite open in discussing the projects in class and do not wish to be constrained by proprietary information.
• The most successful projects tend to have at least one team member with strong personal interest in the target market.
• Most products are really not very well designed. Thus, if you pick almost any product that satisfies these general guidelines, you will likely be able to develop a product that is superior to everything currently on the market.

Projects adhering to these guidelines will have the greatest probability of success. Projects from last year's class can be reviewed through the class web page.

PROJECT SCHEDULE

All assignments must be handed in at the beginning of the class session in which they are due. Note that each of these assignments is intended to pace the development process for your product. There is virtually no slack in this schedule and so assignments must be competed on or before the scheduled due date in order to maintain the project schedule.

All assignments except the project proposal are to be completed as a team.

Project Proposal and Selection: Friday, September 6th

A list of faculty-suggested projects is provided at the end of this document. For those of you wishing to propose your own project, you must prepare a project proposal in any format that fits on one 8.5 x 11 page (one side only). If you provide a copy to one of us by 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 5th, we will photocopy the proposals and distribute them in class on September 6th. If you miss the deadline, bring 45 copies to class. Proposals should include:

_ A brief, descriptive project title (2-4 words)

_ Your name, phone number, e-mail, and school/department affiliation

_ A description of the product opportunity you have identified. Your description may include any of the following: Documentation of the market need, shortcomings of existing competitive products, and definition of the target market and its size.

_ Please do not present any of your own product ideas at this point. Our strict focus in this phase of the course is on the market opportunity and not on solution concepts.

Come to class prepared to give a VERY SHORT presentation on your project. Your presentation should include:

_ Your name and school/department affiliation

_ A verbal or visual demonstration of the product opportunity you have described in your proposal. Given that the audience will be able to read your proposal at their leisure, you might spend your time explaining the richness of the market opportunity or demonstrating existing competitive products.

_ Any special skills or assets you have (marketing expertise, access to a multimedia computer, user interface design expertise)

By 5 p.m. on Friday, September 6th, you must decide on your project preferences. (You may do this during class and submit them by the end of the class session, or send e-mail to BOTH of us by the end of the day.) You should list the THREE projects on which you would most like to work in order of preference. If you would like to work with a particular group of classmates, recalling that your group must contain engineering and MBA students, please list their names on your paper as well.

We will process your preferences and assign teams. You will be notified of team assignments by Monday, September 9th.

Mission Statement and Customer/User Needs Assessment Plan: Due Friday, September 20th

To start your design project, you will have to read Chapter 3: Identifying Customer Needs. Prepare a Mission Statement (as shown on page 37 of that chapter) and a plan for assessing customer and user needs for your product. Hand in three copies of both during this class session. (NOTE: We will ask for three copies of each project assignment you complete this semester. This will allow both faculty and the TA to review your work immediately without having to wait for copy time.) From this planning, you should be able to launch your customer and user needs assessment process.

Customer and User Needs: Presentation to the class on October 9th and 11th

This will be the first of three presentations you will give on your product development project. Plan 10 minutes MAXIMUM for the presentation so that we can fit all projects into two class sessions. If you plan to use the in-class podium to give your presentation, make very sure that it works before you come to class, as we will not have time to spend trying to bring up your presentation materials.

Your presentation should cover the following: a mission statement, such as is shown on page 37 of your textbook, a brief review of the means used to collect customer and user needs information, a summary of the identified customer and user needs, and a brief summary of lessons learned in the process to date. Please bring a hardcopy report to class as well to be turned in along with a copy of your slides. Bring three copies.

Come to class prepared to actively listen to your peers talk about their projects, ask them constructive questions and provide them feedback on the direction their projects are taking.

Concept Sketches and Descriptions: Due Wednesday, October 23rd

Hand in sketches and bullet-point descriptions of 10 to 20 alternative product concepts for your project. Describe some of the steps of your concept generation process. Prepare a list of the target specifications and provide documentation to support these decisions. Remember to make three copies.

Concept Selection and Proof-of-Concept Prototype: Presentation to class November 6th and 8th

Prepare a 10-minute (maximum) presentation of your product concept. The presentation should include a very brief review of your mission statement and customer needs, with particular attention to anything that may have changed since the last presentation. You should also share your selected concept, and your key target specifications. In this presentation, you should also demonstrate some form of "proof-of-concept" prototype. We may divide the class into two groups for these presentations, allowing for more peer discussion of the results.

Along with a copy of your slides, hand in a sketch of the concept you intend to pursue. Show the concept selection matrix (screening or scoring) that you used. Also, prepare a list of the key uncertainties or questions you still need to address to determine the viability of your product. For each one, specify an associated plan of action (such as analysis, mock-ups, interviews, experiments, etc.) Remember three copies.

From this point forward, your focus will be on testing your product concept with your customer base, obtaining feedback, incorporating it into your product, and preparing the final product prototype. You will also perform some rough financial analysis of the product.

Final Product Specifications and Financial Analysis: Due Friday, November 22nd

Document the final specifications you intend to achieve. How will you evaluate how well your design meets the final specifications? Develop an economic analysis of your product following the guidelines provided in Chapter 11 of the book. Turn in three copies of both in class.

Presentation of Final Prototype: December 4th and 6th

Prepare a 15-minute presentation describing your final product. Your presentation should concentrate on the product itself, although you may wish to emphasize any particularly impressive portions of your development process. The presentation should be of the quality you would make to convince a top management group to purchase the rights to your product or to fund its final development and launch. Turn in a copy of the slide presentation and your prototype product.

Project Feedback and Review: December 14th

Come prepared to discuss the process you used to test your prototypes with your customers. Show the ways in which your product changed as a result. Summarize the key lessons you have learned from the development project.

PROJECT TOPIC AREAS

1. CD-on-Demand (Faculty-suggested)

See attached.

2. Berkeley Software Forum Choice Model (Faculty-suggested)

See attached.

Project 2: Berkeley Software Forum Choice Model

Contacts: Dr. Sara Beckman Mr. John Carter

F575 Haas School of Business Product Development Consulting, Inc.

(510) 642-1058 (415) 328-5275

beckman@haas.berkeley.edu john_carter@pdcinc.com

Abstract: Executing the front end of the product development process -- defining customer and user needs, assessing competitive positioning, making technology choices -- is a critical and difficult process that is receiving increased attention by software developers in industry. Although many tools are available and used on the front end of the development process, they are not all well understood or documented. This project will allow students to engage with local software development organizations to identify best practices and tools in product definition, document them, and design a (web-based?) delivery system to share those practices and tools with the involved companies.

Background: The Berkeley Software Forum was formed in Spring, 1996 to bring together local software developers for discovery, validation and dissemination of knowledge about the "fuzzy front end" of the product development process. The group presently consists of about twenty companies, some packaged software developers (e.g., Autodesk, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft) and some embedded software developers (e.g., 3Com, BayNetworks, Hewlett-Packard, KLA Instruments). The group is focusing its exploration on four topic areas: defining product strategies, including the scope of product offerings; discovering and documenting product definition best practices; managing changing product definitions during development; developing products with outside partners.

Project: Berkeley Software Forum members have agreed that it would be useful to have what they have come to call a "choice model." This model, presently pictured as a web-based model, would allow product marketing and development engineers to identify the critical tools and techniques they need to perform their product definition tasks, to obtain instructions as to how to use those tools or techniques, and to see best-in-class implementations of the techniques at their own or other companies. At the last Berkeley Software Forum meeting, participants identified the following as some of the best practices that might be documented in a choice model:

• Strategic Alignment: Creating a vision and mission
• Customer/User Needs Assessment (e.g., Market surveys: Disk-based, Focus groups, Conjoint analysis, Customer interviews, User groups and advisory boards)
• Automated Requirements Tracking
• Mapping Customer Requirements to Product Specifications, e.g., using Quality Function Deployment Product Concept Generation and Selection: Brainstorming and Prototyping Techniques
• Organizational Design (e.g., of product development teams)

A student team could be formed around any one of these topic areas, or around the general design of the overall choice model.

Strategy: The Berkeley Software Forum will meet again on September 24th. Students participating in this project could expect to meet with company representatives at that time, and establish contacts for performing customer and user needs assessment, collecting best practice information and testing product prototypes. Key questions that remain unanswered in the design of the choice model include:

• Who are the key customers for the choice model?
• In what form do they like to gather information about tools and techniques? Is the Web the best delivery mechanism?
• How much detail do they need to be able to use the tools?
• What should the choice model framework look like?
• If access to the choice model were to cost something, what should it cost?

Last updated: 23 August 1996 by Andy Dong