PRODUCT

DEVELOPMENT

Product Development is a discipline few can do without professional help.

The problem with product development "best practices" is that they are somebody else's. Why not concentrate on what will work for you?

We believe that there is only one measure of the value of our services: enduring improvement in your product development as a result of our help.

We work with you to provide more than just "best practices" or "compelling concepts." Even if they fit, "best practices" are of no value until your people start using them and they actually improve your performance.

Our product development training incorporates several techniques to maximize the prospects for adoption and improvement after the class. Our consulting normally follows a momentum-sustaining model developed by Robert H. Schaffer CMC.

You can read about this model in his book, High-Impact Consulting. For example, read about how we carried these concepts onto action in one engagement, or see our article on continuous improvement.

Product development is often described as a linear process, moving from concept to initial design, breadboard, debug, detailed design, engineering model, and production. In the real world, we believe errors and "unforeseen aspects" are an inevitable part of the design process.

We strongly advocate early breadboarding and repeated cycles through the concept-to-breadboard process in order to uncover more of the "unforeseen" at an earlier and less costly stage in the product development cycle.Our on-site machine shop and implementation of rapid prototyping reflect this hands-on approach.