And who must participate in one... why, how and when? First of all, it's important to be aware that one can have many different definitions describing what a product design review is, and these definitions may vary greatly across various industries. The attempt herein is to explicitly define the Product Design Review so as to distinguish it from other product, project, market and technology reviews that are common during a product development project. It's quite important to know the difference between all these 'reviews' so that appropriate budgeting, staffing, goals and expectation-setting occurs for each. Also, the significance of the product design review will be demonstrated.

The discussion herein mostly applies to light industrial and commercial product development efforts. Highly complex projects such as designing a new passenger jet, a manned exploration of Mars, etc. will need more complicated consideration. However, the essence of this article will still apply to those highly complex projects as Greer and Black point out in their research "Improving Inter-Organizational Baseline Alignment in Large Space System Development programs"¹.

Now, as to what a product design review is: for the purposes of this article and within our context of product development projects:

A Product Design Review is the process of examining a product design (i.e., the result of translating an idea into a blueprint for useful goods, services, processes and knowledge sold) with an eye to criticism or correction of the value of features, benefits, uses, and functions describedin the design concept. The design review's purpose is to check that the design solution is in accordance with the original design objectives and to ensure that pertinent standards are met, and there is 'agreeable alignment' among all participating stakeholders, with an envisioned business case and with legal and marketing goals.

To see justifications for this definition click here: