06 Apr How to Avoid Common Obstacles in NPD

There are many ways to lose focus developing a new product, especially with so many people involved and so much at stake. By taking a disciplined approach, one can avoid many of the common pitfalls that cost money and cause delays.

1. Develop a realistic schedule and stick to it. Always keep the critical path in mind and avoid letting non-critical path items slow down the project.
2. If possible, secure sufficient funding to complete development with some extra padding to cover the unavoidable things that come up. While the product development is best done in phases, raising funding in stages is often very inefficient and more expensive because the development team loses momentum if the timing is off.
3. Develop a comprehensive specification up front and be disciplined about preventing spec creep throughout the project.
4. Obtain voice of the customer (VOC) input very early in the project, since it will focus and define the feature set outlined in the product specification.
5. Perform market research prior to embarking on the development. Developing the marketing plan late in the game inevitably leads to costly last minute changes to the product.
6. Select the development team carefully, ensuring that members of the team communicate well. If outsourcing only a part of the development, make sure that part is very well defined and verify that the outsource partner has a full understanding of the requirements.
7. Prepare a detailed project plan that identifies the overall schedule with stage gates. The plan must clearly define the criteria necessary to pass each stage gate.
8. Identify the high risk aspects of the development and address them first in the project plan, before the bulk of the work gets underway. Wasted work equals wasted money.
9. Line up manufacturing partners as early as possible and involve them in the design process – include them in team meetings, design reviews, etc.
10. Communicate, communicate, communicate. Weekly team meetings often seem unnecessary, but keeping everyone on the same page throughout the project will reduce expenses in the long run.
11. Reduce the risk of safety and environmental testing by considering it early in the design.

This list goes to 11!

Photo credit: H Assaf

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Ben Lane

Ben has been with Key Tech since 2000. In his role as technical guru and project manager, he has provided guidance to our multi-disciplinary team on a majority of the projects that have passed through Key Tech’s doors. Ben’s First Principles approach to technical design challenges is deeply rooted in his background of physics and mechanical engineering, and is based on years of product development experience across a range of industries. Ben received a BS in Physics from Haverford College and a MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

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