- Estimate the project time frame
- Learn about the potential technology and project risks; what contingencies may be needed?
- Determine preliminary business case (Will the Product be profitable and fit the corporate mandates?)
- Assemble the resulting information into a preliminary MRD. This information is analyzed to the necessary extent to determine if further effort to refine the new product definition should be funded.
- If a product concept is estimated to be designable, producible and sellable at a profit and fits the corporate structure, then the business case is good enough to proceed to the next phase. If not, the project can still be suspended without spending a lot of time and money.
- Involved team: Marketing, Engineering, Manufacturing, Finance, corporate management, users, consultants
- Lots of high-level product creativity takes place in this phase. Consider the product ideation not from the technology standpoint, but from the user standpoint.
- If the analysis is not acceptable but interest still exists, seek funding to answer the outstanding questions (R&D, market research, manufacturer search, technology research…) then repeat this phase to determine if there is still a business opportunity.
- Don't start the next phase until a preliminary MRD and acceptable business case for the product and project are completed and agreed to. This can become political at times, so stick to a rational process. The MRD will be the input to the next phase, but it will not be frozen since it is preliminary.
- If the information at the end of this phase indicates objectively and clearly that there is no way a business case can be justified then the effort can be stopped, incurring very little investment loss.
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©1999, 2005, Richard M. (Dick) Haney
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