Creative Product Design

About this Book

Defining a process of requirements capture as the 'front end' or 'pre-development' of the product development process is imperative. The front end is a critical phase because once the concept has been defined, then about 80% of subsequent costs will have been committed.

Without the requirements capture process, false assumptions regarding customer, technical and other requirements may be made. Such false assumptions lead to errors in the product specification which may only be uncovered later in the process. It does not take much to imagine the impact this has on time and money.

With the current focus on achieving quick response, managers worry that more effort expended on requirements capture at the front end will increase the time of product development. However, companies with intensive front end activities spend 40% less time on product development than those that ignore this stage. In addition, companies with an effective requirements capture process gain more profits and revenue from new products than those that do not have an adequate requirements capture process.

The writing is on the wall.