Month: June 2020

Product innovation helps companies to obtain competitive advantage and operate successfully in an increasingly global market. Product development (PD) is a lengthy, expensive process. Thus, companies have a crucial need to assess whether or not they are on the right track from the early stages of product development. That is, to know whether their product is going to be creative and a marketing success.

A proper assessment will allow the right decisions to be made, leading to the development of innovative products. The conceptual design stage is critical when assessing the innovation potential of a product. In this stage, there is a shortage of methods to help companies identify the most innovative product concepts. In this article, a method for assessing the innovation potential of product concepts and selecting those with greater probability of success is described. To that avail, aspects regarding the degree of novelty of product concepts and their potential for success in the market are taken into account. These aspects were integrated into a modified QFD matrix. The proposed method was successfully applied in two companies.

The concept selection matrix and this process is part of DRM Associates’ QFD training and Product Development Toolkit software tools.

The specific steps for concept development and selection are as follows:

1. Based on the product requirements for technical characteristics, develop concept alternatives for the new product. Consider not only the current approach and technology, but other alternative concept approaches and technology. Use brainstorming. Conduct literature, technology, and patent searches. Use product benchmarking to identify different product concepts. Develop derivative ideas. Perform sufficient definition and development of each concept to evalaute against the decision criteria determined in the next step.
2. Evaluate the concept alternatives using the Concept Selection Matrix. List product requirements or technical characteristics from the Product Planning Matrix down the left side of the Concept Selection Matrix. Also add other requirements or decision criteria such as key unstated but expected customer needs or requirements, manufacturability requirements, environmental requirements, standards and regulatory requirements, maintainability / serviceability requirements, support requirements, testability requirements, test schedule and resources, technical risk, business risk, supply chain capability, development resources, development budget, and development schedule.
3. Carry forward the target values for the product requirements or technical characteristics from the Product Planning Matrix. Add target values as appropriate for the other evaluation criteria added in the previous step. Also bring forward the importance ratings and difficulty ratings associated with each product requirement or technical characteristic from the Product Planning Matrix. Normalize the importance rating by dividing the largest value by a factor that will yield “5” and post this value to the “Priority” column. Review these priorities and consider any changes appropriate since these are the weighting factors for the decision criteria. Determine the priorities for the additional evaluation criteria added in the prior step. List concepts across the top of the matrix.
4. Perform engineering analysis and trade studies. Rate each concept alternative against the criteria using a “1” to “5” scale with “5” being the highest rating for satisfying the criteria.
5. For each rating, multiply the rating by the “Priority” value in that row. Summarize these values in each column in the bottom row. The preferred concept alternative(s) will be the one(s) with the highest total.
6. For the preferred concept alternative(s), work to improve the concept by synthesizing a new concept that overcomes its weaknesses. Focus attention on the criteria with the lowest ratings for that concept (“1’s” and “2’s”). What changes can be made to the design or formulation of the preferred concept(s) to improve these low ratings with the product concept? Compare the preferred concept(s) to the other concepts that have higher ratings for that particular requirement. Are there ways to modify the preferred concept to incorporate the advantage of another concept?

There is a constant and relentless challenge to innovate and introduce the next range of products to the market along with the expected digital assets to support the sales and marketing activities of both the company, their channel partners, and their customers. Structured product development is key for industries which are driven by seasonality where a high percentage of new items are launched or released on a seasonal or more regular basis. The lifecycle of these products is relatively short from concept to launch to retirement and obsolescence.

Some companies may not have a defined structure or process for product development. A structured approach may be required as a company grows and the responsibility for product development moves beyond a relatively small group of people, and as the number of stakeholders involved increases.

A structured product development process allows an organization to establish a consistent approach to product development which can be implemented, reviewed, adapted and improved. This is key for management of the innovation pipeline, the timeline, the tasks required, and the deliverables at each stage of the product lifecycle.

Product development steps may include:

• Product ideation and concept evaluation
• Business analysis to verify the product with the market
• Product sourcing, product development or product adaptation
• Packaging development
• Finalise product specification, landed costs, and product pricing
• Sample and limited production runs
• Test, evaluation, certification
• Sign-off on product and packaging
• Get product into stock
• Launch product

Structured product development activity may require the establishment of a cross-functional team to represent the various business functions and geographies and to complete the tasks required during the development process. Best practice may also require the establishment of a separate governance and approval team, typically a group of senior executive management resources, with the responsibility to make approval or rejection decisions regarding new product development and also to ensure that the development team are compliant with the agreed product development process as defined for that organization.

Product development has traditionally been managed, with varying degrees of success, through project management tools, excel spreadsheets, electronic file share, document management and other systems. It requires a high level of oversight and coordination to manage these disconnected tools.

Modern ERP and CRM systems can support the setup of structured processes or workflows to support the product development process. These workflows can be used to define the required product development phases, activities, and deliverables for each phase of the process. They also provide functionality for alerts and electronic sign-off by authorised individuals at phase or milestone reviews. Product information can be setup and updated directly as field values or attributes in the material master of the ERP system. Some solutions allow product information to be accessed by links to files stored in electronic file management solutions.

In today’s marketplace, there are a growing number of digital assets that are required to support Product Development, Marketing, Sales, and Operations activities.

Digital documents and data that might be stored in a Product Information Management solution may include product number and description, product costs, target pricing, technical product specification data sheets and photographic images and video. Other non-product related digital marketing assets such as company brand collateral including logos, building signage, business cards, email signatures, and other collateral needs to be managed.

Product Development and Marketing teams are looking towards alternative specialized best of breed solutions for Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Product Information Management (PIM) as their needs and requirements become more complex. A combination of structured processes and best of breed PLM and PIM systems should enable the realization of the following benefits:

• Improved management of product development pipeline
• Better and consistent alignment of product and business strategy
• Improved control through task management and phased reviews to verify design and market assumptions
• Shorter and more predictable development cycles
• Improved ability to meet launch dates and manage market expectations
• Reduction in the cost of late product launches.

Integration with ERP and CRM solutions and the transfer of data also need to be considered. The security features of these applications, data governance and the change management process will ensure that there is a co-ordinated and controlled transfer or change of data between the PLM, PIM, and the ERP system during the lifecycle of a product.

Successful new product development (NPD) starts with identifying good product ideas and using reliable criteria to decide which ideas to pursue.

You should take the following steps before you allocate funds to new product development.

Idea generation

Write a customer needs list based on the information you gather from the sources identified below. You should try to identify existing weaknesses in your products, gaps in your product range and areas for product improvement.

Brainstorm product issues

Work with your existing team members to brainstorm product issues. Your sales and service staff speak to your customers daily, hearing feedback about your products and the customers’ needs. Capture the feedback, product observations and ideas from your team. Make sure you recognise their ideas and promote a shared culture of innovation.

Use your research and development (R&D) processes

Use your business’s existing R&D processes. Identify modifications you could make to existing products, or adaptations for new products, consistent with feedback from your market and customers.

Review your quality assurance (QA) processes

Note any issues in your products and identify potential ideas for addressing gaps in quality.

Review your customer complaint records

Identify common weaknesses in your existing product range, and look for areas where improvement is most needed. Learn about managing customer complaints.

Review your research

Review your customer research and market research, and plan further market and customer surveys if you identify research gaps. What are your customers telling you they’re looking for? What do they find frustrating or limiting about your products? How do they use your products most?

Talk to your suppliers and other business partners

Talk to manufacturers, retailers and sales reps to capture their knowledge of your products and thoughts for improving them.

Research and understand your competition

Try to understand your competition. Review your competitors’ product range and consider how the market is responding to them. Do any of their products seem to be meeting needs that yours aren’t?

Study catalogues and product information

Make sure you have a comprehensive understanding of existing products available in your market.

Idea screening

With your list of potential new product ideas, you now need to decide which ideas to pursue and which to discard. Consider your competition, your existing products, their shortcomings, and the needs of your market. Draw on the customer needs list you have developed, and the areas for product improvement you have identified.

Develop a set of criteria to evaluate your ideas against. Your criteria might include:

• Most prominently identified customer needs
• Product improvements most needed
• The benefits to your target market
• The technical feasibility of the idea
• The level and scope of research and development required
• The profitability of the idea. What is its potential appeal to the market? How would you price it? What are the costs in bringing it to market — overall and per unit?
• Where the product fits in the market. Is there a gap? How close is it to competitor products?
• The resources it will require in development
• The marketing potential of the idea
• The fit with your business profile and business objectives.

SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis can help you to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each idea.

Innovation support

Your innovative approach and your steps to foster innovation in your team will help you realise your new product goals. Find out about innovation advice, grants and support.

How to design a Product Scoring Mechanism?

1. Features

For this example, I chose to prioritize product features, but entrepreneurs, product leaders, and almost anyone can prioritize with the PSM method anything that he or she would like: tasks, potential hires and more. Let’s assume that I’m building Airbnb in their early stages. Choosing your features could come from a team discussion, work with your stakeholders, customer feedback, etc.

2. Setting parameters

These are the parameters that you and your team think will affect your product prioritization. For example, if you are planning to build 3 product features with your team, each will have a score for the 3 different parameters that you defined. Examples of those parameters could be time to build, complexity, cost, etc.

3. Setting weights

Because not all apples are red, each parameter could have a different weight and impact on your total decision. Maybe you are short in funding and cost would have the larger focus, or you are in fierce competition with 2 other startups and then Time to Build would be the most important parameter. There are many ways you can define PSM weights. The most common way to define weights is to choose a number that could be from 1–10 or 0–1 and then multiply each score with the weights that you define.

4. Setting a scale

Setting a scale for your parameters could be done globally for all parameters or individually for each. Setting a scale is a tool to help you align everyone on how they should score the different parameters. What is the minimum score value, maximum score value and what each one mean.

5. Scoring (input)

After you clearly defined the PSM scales and aligned the team, scoring is the actual work for you and your team to think objectively on each parameter and evaluate it for each feature. It is important that each team member will do this on his own to prevent influence from other team members. However, if you feel that a collaborative work would be better you could try it you know your team best.

6. Normalization (optional)

Normalizing your scores is optional. If you keep your scales uninformed, there is no need to normalize them. However, if you do not keep them uninformed or use weights in your PSM, you would want to normalize your scores.

7. Output (Total Score)

Remember our mechanism and that it compute the numbers that we put inside? It’s time to compute the output. Like every part of our Product Scoring Mechanism it depends on how we build it, but for simplicity, we will compute a total score for each feature. I will use a simple summation of the different parameters to get one score for each feature.

8. Prioritization

Now it’s time for prioritization. This is the answer to the question that you asked. The question is: are you looking for a minimization problem or maximization problem? In our case, a good solution would be something which is quick to build, simple and doesn’t cost a lot. Parameters that could create conflict are importance or value to customer, but then you would have to adapt your scale for minimizing or maximizing.

9. Benchmark

In some cases, you would like to set a benchmark or a default score in your company or team. This benchmark could be set after trial and error to validate in the same scale what would be a score that beyond that score you would decide to launch for example and below to archive a feature. A benchmark could also be a score that you would retrieve from market research or data analytics. The most important thing to remember is to keep the benchmark and your PSM in the same scale, or else it means absolutely nothing.

10. Recommendations

Now your product recommendation can have an objective an unbiased back. You will be able to confront your intuition, emotions, and ego with numbers and not only your numbers but with your team’s PSMs. However, making product decision will be much easier when you have a mechanism that helps you make your decisions slightly better and clear.

What is the problem with the Product Scoring Mechanism?

We’re back again with bias. Critics would say that the way you build your Product Scoring Mechanism is biased, and therefore the scoring and output are still biased. I agree we can manipulate any mechanism to give the results we wished for. However, when dividing larger problems to smaller ones as we do in this method we minimize our bias into problems that we can quantify more clearly, and sometimes really measure a number like cost or time to develop. Building your Product Scoring Mechanism with a diverse team will also minimize the bias of this mechanism.

In an industry devoted to creating a great experience for people who use products, services, and apps, usability testing is paramount. The main goal of usability testing is to inform the design process from the perspective of the end-user.

1. Guerilla testing

Guerilla testing is the simplest form of usability testing. Basically, guerrilla testing means going into a public place such as a coffee shop to ask people about your prototype. Test participants are chosen randomly.  They are asked to perform a quick usability test, often in exchange for a small gift (such as a free coffee). It’s low cost and relatively simple testing that enables real user feedback.

When to use

Guerilla testing works best in the early stages of the product development process. When you have a tangible design (wireframes or lo-fi prototypes) and what to know whether you’re moving in the right direction or not.

Guerilla testing is also good for collecting personal opinions and emotional impressions about ideas and concepts.

It’s always important to understand that test participant in Guerilla testing might not represent your product’s target audience. That’s why Guerilla testing might not be right for testing niche products that require having special skills (i.e., software for finance brokers).

What to remember

The tasks you select for your testing session play a critical role in whether findings will be useful or not. Since it’s impossible to test everything at once, you need to prioritize all possible scenarios of interactions and select the most probable one (core user flow). It’s also important to remember that you will have a limited time per every test session. Usually, people who participate in guerilla testing will give you maximum 5-10 minutes of their time.

2. Lab usability testing

As the name suggests, lab usability testing is testing run in special environments (laboratories) and supervised by a moderator. A moderator is a professional who is looking to obtain feedback from live users. During a moderated test, moderators are facilitating test participants through tasks, answering their questions, and replying to their feedback in real-time.

When to use

Lab usability testing works best when you need to have in-depth information on how real users interact with your product and what issues they face. It will help you investigate the reasoning behind user behavior. The fact that this testing is moderated enables you to collect more qualitative information. At the same time, lab testing can be expensive to organize and run because you need to secure an environment, hire test participants, and a moderator. Another problem with this testing is the number of test participants in a single round. Usually, you have 5-10 participants per research round in a controlled environment. So it’s important to ensure that all test participants are reflective of your actual customer base.

What to remember

Lab usability testing requires having a trained moderator and a place for running a testing. Here are a few things to remember when choosing a moderator:

A moderator should always be ready to help test participants understand the purpose of testing (describe the goal) and keep the participant on track if they have any sort of confusion. However, it does not mean that a moderator should tell test participants what they should do.

Moderator should be good at decoding body language. Remember that what test participants say is not always the same as what they think. That’s why a moderator should be good at observing and analyzing body language and facial expressions.

The after-testing interview is an essential part of this type of testing. Moderators reach test participants after the testing session and ask them a few important questions.

With lab testing, there is always a risk that the controlled environment will be different from the user’s real environment. By placing the user in a controlled atmosphere, there is always a risk of creating a non-realistic user behavior.

3. Unmoderated remote usability testing

Unmoderated remote usability testing occurs remotely without a moderator. It offers quick, robust, and inexpensive user testing results to be used for further analysis. Test participants are asked to complete tasks in their own environment using their own devices and without a moderator present, which leads to the product being used naturally. The cost of unmoderated testing is lower; however, this type of testing offers less detailed testing results.

When to use

Unmoderated remote usability testing works the best when you need to obtain a large sample to prove critical findings from your initial moderated research. In other words, you have a particular hypothesis that you want to validate on a large segment of your users. Unmoderated remote usability testing will help you test a particular question or observe user behavior patterns.

What to remember

Remote usability testing doesn’t go deep into a test participant’s reasoning. That’s why it’s not recommended to use unmoderated remote testing as a first usability testing method.

4. Contextual inquiry

Contextual inquiry is less a usability testing method and more like an interview/observation method that helps a product team obtain information about the user experience from the real users. Test participants (real users) are first asked a set of questions about their experience with a product and then observed and questioned while they work in their own environments.

When to use

This technique is useful for getting rich information about users their workspace, personal preferences, and habits. Getting all this information at the beginning of the design process will help the product team design a well-tailored experience. But this method also works for shipped products. It’s easy to prioritize the usability issues when you see them from the first-hand experience.

Contextual inquiry is also good when you want to test a user’s satisfaction with a product.

What to remember

Research should never provide their opinion during test sessions. The goal is to watch how test participants interact with a product, not participate in these interactions.

It’s important to take notes during the observation. Having notes after every observation session will help you write a detailed test report.

5. Phone interview

A phone interview is a remote usability test where a moderator verbally instructs participants to complete tasks on their device and feedback is collected automatically (the user interaction recorded remotely).

When to use

Phone interviews are an excellent way to collect feedback from test participants scattered around different parts of the globe.

What to remember

This type of testing requires a trained moderator. When it comes to interacting with test participants, a moderator should have excellent communication skills.

6. Card sorting

Card sorting is an excellent method for prioritizing content and features in user interface. The technique is relatively simple all you need to do is place concepts (content, features) on cards and allow test participants to manipulate the cards into groups and categories. As soon as test participants sort the cards, a moderator should ask them to explain their logic (to understand the reasoning).

Product testing, also called consumer testing or comparative testing, is a process of measuring the properties or performance of products.

The theory is that since the advent of mass production manufacturers produce branded products which they assert and advertise to be identical within some technical standard.

Product testing seeks to ensure that consumers can understand what products will do for them and which products are the best value. Product testing is a strategy to increase consumer protection by checking the claims made during marketing strategies such as advertising, which by their nature are in the interest of the entity distributing the service and not necessarily in the interest of the consumer. The advent of product testing was the beginning of the modern consumer movement.

Product testing might be accomplished by a manufacturer, an independent laboratory, a government agency, etc. Often an existing formal test method is used as a basis for testing. Other times engineers develop methods of test which are suited to the specific purpose. Comparative testing subjects several replicate samples of similar products to identical test conditions.

Purpose of Product Testing

Product testing might have a variety of purposes, such as:

• Determine if, or verify that, the requirements of a specification, regulation, or contract are met
• Decide if a new product development program is on track: Demonstrate proof of concept
• Provide standard data for other scientific, engineering, and quality assurance functions
• Validate suitability for end-use
• Provide a basis for technical communication
• Provide a technical means of comparison of several options
• Provide evidence in legal proceedings: product liability, patents, product claims, etc.
• Help solve problems with current product
• Help identify potential cost savings in products

Product tests can be used for:

• Subjecting products to stresses and dynamics expected in use
• Reproducing the types of damage to products found from consumer usage
• Controlling the uniformity of production of products or components

The Major Techniques

The monadic, sequential monadic, paired-comparison, and protomonadic research designs are the most widely used research designs for product testing.

1. Monadic Testing

Monadic Testing typically is the best method. Testing a product on its own offers many advantages. Interaction between products (which occurs in paired-comparison tests) is eliminated. The monadic test simulates real life (that’s the way we usually use products—one at a time). By focusing the respondent’s attention upon one product, the monadic test provides the most accurate and actionable diagnostic information. Additionally, the monadic design permits the use of normative data and the development of norms and action standards. Virtually all products can be tested monadically, whereas many cannot be accurately tested in paired-comparison designs. For example, a product with a very strong flavor (hot peppers, alcohol, etc.) may deaden or inhibit the taste buds so that the respondent cannot really taste the second product.

2. Sequential Monadic Designs

Sequential Monadic Designs are often used to reduce costs. In this design, each respondent evaluates two products (he or she uses one product and evaluates it, then uses the second product and evaluates it). The sequential monadic design works reasonably well in most instances, and offers some of the same advantages as pure monadic testing. One must be aware of what we call the “suppression effect” in sequential monadic testing, however. All the test scores will be lower in a sequential monadic design, compared to a pure monadic test. Therefore, the results from sequential monadic tests cannot be compared to results from monadic tests. Also, as in paired-comparison testing, an “interaction effect” is at work in sequential monadic designs. If one of the two products is exceptionally good, then the other product’s test scores are disproportionately lower, and vice versa.

3. Paired-Comparison Designs

Paired-Comparison Designs (in which the consumer is asked to use two products and determine which product is better) appeal to our common sense. It’s a wonderful design if presenting evidence to a jury, because of its “face value” or “face validity.” The paired comparison can be a very sensitive testing technique (i.e., it can measure very small differences) between two products. Also the paired-comparison test is often less expensive than other methods, because sample sizes can be smaller in some instances.

Paired-comparison testing, however, is limited in value for a serious, ongoing product-testing program. The paired-comparison test does not tell us when both products are bad. The paired-comparison test does not lend itself to the use of normative data. The paired-comparison test is heavily influenced by the “interaction effect” (i.e., any variations in the control product will create corresponding variance in the test product’s scores).

4. The Protomonadic Design

The Protomonadic Design (and the definition of this term varies from researcher to researcher) begins as a monadic test, followed by a paired comparison. Often sequential monadic tests are also followed by a paired-comparison test. The protomonadic design yields good diagnostic data, and the paired comparison at the end can be thought of as a safety net as added insurance that the results are correct. The protomonadic design is typically used in centrallocation taste testing, not in-home testing (because of the complexity of execution in the home).

Product testing is the conduction of any of various tests to measure the performance or properties of a product. It can, for instance, be used to verify that a product works correctly and is safe for use by consumers.

Manufacturers may test their own products, or an independent laboratory or government agency may test them, depending on the circumstances.

Types of Product Tests

There are many different types of tests for evaluating various aspects of products:

1. HALT/HASS

A Highly Accelerated Life Test (HALT) aims to discover weaknesses in the early phases of a product’s life cycle and is deployed during the design phase or development stage. Highly Accelerated Stress Screening (HASS) aims to uncover faults that are caused during production and manufacturing processes. Firms conduct HASS after they’ve already conducted HALT and entered into the production phases.

2. Vibration and Shock

Vibration tests involve applying vibrations at various frequencies to a product, while shock tests involve subjecting a product to sudden, short and high levels of force. These tests assess the product’s reaction to these stimuli. There are a variety of types of vibrations tests, including sine sweeps, random vibration tests and resonance search and dwell tests.

3. ESS Testing

Environmental Stress Screening (ESS) is a term that refers to any of various tests that simulate the environmental conditions a product will be used in, including extreme temperatures, corrosive environments and persistent vibrations. ESS tests include thermal testing and electrodynamic vibration testing.

4. Accelerated Weathering

Accelerated weathering tests simulate the weather conditions that products used outdoors will be exposed to, such as sunlight, moisture and extreme temperatures. Products that typically undergo accelerated weathering testing include automotive parts, construction materials, farming equipment and furniture.

5. Thermal and Humidity Testing

This term refers to various environmental tests of a product’s resistance to humidity and temperature changes. These tests include humidity cycling, high-temperature testing and moisture-resistance testing. They help establish the temperature and moisture limits and uncover the causes of defects.

6. Accelerated Life Cycle Testing

Accelerated life cycle testing stresses a product to uncover faults and failures. Life cycle testing enables the manufacturer to predict the product’s service life and maintenance requirements and offer appropriate guarantees and warranties.

7. Mechanical Endurance Testing

These kinds of tests assess a product’s reaction to repeated stress. They measure the damage this stress will cause over a product’s normal life using forces such as vibrations, shocks and strains. The assessments establish the limits of an item’s use and can help the manufacturer improve its durability.

There are also other types of product testing methods, and firms may use custom-designed tests to meet the testing needs of their specific products.

Uses for Product Testing

Some of the uses of product testing include:

1. Screening Concepts and Designs

Early in the development process, a company may use product testing to test the feasibility of various ideas and designs. Testing can help you to eliminate unsuccessful ideas and choose the best-performing ones.

2. Checking Compliance with Requirements

Sometimes, testing is required to provide verification that an item meets the requirements of a standard, contract or regulation. In the case of regulation, testing is mandatory. It may also be required to win a contract with another firm or to achieve compliance with an industry standard.

3. Establishing Baseline Data for Other Functions

Product testing can provide a baseline for other functions of an organization. The results of these tests may serve as standards for quality assurance checks or engineering guidelines.

4. Validating Suitability for the Intended Use

Before beginning mass production of a product and putting it on the market, a company may conduct extensive testing to ensure it will perform as expected and serve its intended purpose. These assessments can help a company to catch any flaws before beginning large-scale production or selling it to customers, saving the business money and improving reputation with customers.

5. Ensuring Safety

Product testing is also crucial for ensuring a product is safe for use. Companies are legally required to test many products to ensure compliance with safety requirements, and customers may not purchase some products if they haven’t been tested for safety. In addition to protecting customers, product safety testing protects the manufacturer by reducing liability concerns.

6. Enabling Technical Communication

Companies need the results of product testing to communicate the technical specifications of their product and provide guidance for how to use it. They can use this information in marketing materials, user manuals, training programs, specifications, proposals and more.

7. Forecasting Life Expectancy

Product testing enables companies to accurately predict the life expectancy of their products. This allows them to offer appropriate warranties and other guarantees as well as to market their products appropriately.

8. Providing Evidence for Legal Proceedings

The results of product tests can be used as evidence in various types of legal proceedings, including those related to patents, product liability and advertising claims.

9. Solving Product Problems

If a product is not performing as expected at any stage of the product development process, the company may perform tests to help determine the cause of the problem. The firm can conduct various types of tests on different parts of the product, allowing evaluators to pinpoint the source of the issues and potentially identify ways to solve them.

10. Improving Products and Production Processes

Even if a product is not experiencing problems, testing can help to uncover potential design or manufacturing process improvements that would enhance the product’s performance or reduce production costs. This can help the company to keep up with competition, stand out to customers and improve their bottom line.

Benefits of Product Testing

Companies that test their products, or have a laboratory test them on their behalf, derive substantial benefits from doing so. Some of these benefits, which highlight the importance of product testing, include:

1. Decreased Product Development Time

Testing a product throughout the development cycle can help to reduce time to market by helping to catch faults early. This helps the company avoid having to go back to a previous step to uncover a flaw in the design or production process. The results of product tests can also inform work on the product throughout the later stages of development.

2. Improved Customer Confidence

Customers will have more confidence in a product that has been tested, especially if a third party completed the testing. Testing provides evidence to customers that a product will perform its intended function and do so well. It also provides assurance of a product’s capabilities to investors, third-party partners, standards organizations and other groups.

3. Enhanced Quality and Reliability

Testing a product can help manufacturers to improve its quality and reliability. Testing multiple ideas and designs helps a company to choose the best-performing one, and other types of tests help to uncover and fix flaws to improve reliability. Ultimately, this leads to a better product and more satisfied customers.

4. Reduced Costs

Testing helps firms to fine-tune their designs and production processes to reduce production costs. Catching flaws early in the product development cycle reduces the cost of fixing those defects. Testing a product to ensure quality before sending it to market can help a company avoid excessive warranty payments and potentially legal costs. It may also help to reduce the need for after-sales service.

5. Increased Profitability

Ultimately, product testing can help to improve a firm’s profitability by reducing costs and increasing sales. Product testing may improve sales because including testing results in marketing materials can generate more interest in a product. Enhancing quality and reliability leads to a better product, which may ultimately increase sales.

Stages of Product Testing

1. Requirement Development

First, you must determine what products you are testing and which aspects of the product you’d like to evaluate. The features you’ll need to look at depend on your goals in testing the product.

You also need to choose the standards to which you will compare the results of your test, which will help you to determine whether the product performs its intended function and whether it does so satisfactorily. Sometimes, these requirements will be a part of a regulatory requirement, industry standard or contract. Other times, the manufacturer or test facility will need to establish them themselves. The information you gathered in this step will inform the next step in the process.

2. Test Plan Development

Next, you will need to create a test plan, a document that describes the strategy you will use for testing. This plan will include the scope of the tests, the techniques you will use, the equipment and other resources you need and the schedule of the testing.

It’s best to be as detailed as possible when creating your test plan. You need precise processes and standards to follow to ensure your test is reliable. If you’re conducting a test to verify conformance to a standard, regulatory requirement or contractual requirement, that document may help you in developing your test plan.

3. Testing

Then, you will set up the testing environment according to the product testing guidelines in your plan. Once the testing environment is prepared and the necessary equipment is in place, you will start to run the tests according to your pre-determined strategy.

During the actual testing, it is crucial to follow the test plan exactly. You will also need to monitor the test as needed and document results appropriately so that you can ensure the test is completed accurately and results are reported accurately.

4. Evaluation of Results

After the test, you will assess the test results and report them. You may analyze any failures or performance issues that occurred in the product to determine their cause as well as how to address those causes to improve product performance or prevent product failures in future design iterations. If there were problems with the test itself, you will need to evaluate those issues, adjust your test plan and rerun the evaluation.

The New Product Development process is often referred to as The Stage-Gate innovation process, developed by Dr. Robert G. Cooper as a result of comprehensive research on reasons why products succeed and why they fail.

When teams collaborate in developing new innovations, having the following eight ingredients mixed into your team’s new product developmental repertoire will ensure that it’s overall marketability will happen relatively quick, and accurately making everyone productive across the board.

Step 1: Generating

Utilizing basic internal and external SWOT analyses, as well as current marketing trends, one can distance themselves from the competition by generating ideologies which take affordability, ROI, and widespread distribution costs into account.

Lean, mean and scalable are the key points to keep in mind. During the NPD process, keep the system nimble and use flexible discretion over which activities are executed. You may want to develop multiple versions of your road map scaled to suit different types and risk levels of projects.

Step 2: Screening The Idea

Wichita, possessing more aviation industry than most other states, is seeing many new innovations stop with Step 2 screening.  Do you go/no go?  Set specific criteria for ideas that should be continued or dropped. Stick to the agreed upon criteria so poor projects can be sent back to the idea-hopper early on.

Because product development costs are being cut in areas like Wichita, “prescreening product ideas,” means taking your Top 3 competitors’ new innovations into account, how much market share they’re chomping up, what benefits end consumers could expect etc.  An interesting industry fact: Aviation industrialists will often compare growth with metals markets; therefore, when Boeing is idle, never assume that all airplanes are grounded, per se.

Step 3: Testing the Concept

“Concept testing is done after idea screening.” And it is important to note, it is different from test marketing.

Aside from patent research, design due diligence, and other legalities involved with new product development; knowing where the marketing messages will work best is often the biggest part of testing the concept.  Does the consumer understand, need, or want the product or service?

Step 4: Business Analytics

During the New Product Development process, build a system of metrics to monitor progress. Include input metrics, such as average time in each stage, as well as output metrics that measure the value of launched products, percentage of new product sales and other figures that provide valuable feedback. It is important for an organization to be in agreement for these criteria and metrics.

Even if an idea doesn’t turn into product, keep it in the hopper because it can prove to be a valuable asset for future products and a basis for learning and growth.

Step 5: Beta / Marketability Tests

Arranging private tests groups, launching beta versions, and then forming test panels after the product or products have been tested will provide you with valuable information allowing last minute improvements and tweaks. Not to mention helping to generate a small amount of buzz. WordPress is becoming synonymous with beta testing, and it’s effective; Thousands of programmers contribute code, millions test it, and finally even more download the completed end-product.

Step 6: Technicalities + Product Development

Provided the technical aspects can be perfected without alterations to post-beta products, heading towards a smooth step 7 is imminent. According to Akrani, in this step, “The production department will make plans to produce the product. The marketing department will make plans to distribute the product. The finance department will provide the finance for introducing the new product”.

As an example; In manufacturing, the process before sending technical specs to machinery involves printing MSDS sheets, a requirement for retaining an ISO 9001 certification (the organizational structure, procedures, processes and resources needed to implement quality management.)

In internet jargon, honing the technicalities after beta testing involves final database preparations, estimation of server resources, and planning automated logistics. Be sure to have your technicalities in line when moving forward.

Step 7: Commercialize

At this stage, your new product developments have gone mainstream, consumers are purchasing your good or service, and technical support is consistently monitoring progress.  Keeping your distribution pipelines loaded with products is an integral part of this process too, as one prefers not to give physical (or perpetual) shelf space to competition. Refreshing advertisements during this stage will keep your product’s name firmly supplanted into the minds of those in the contemplation stages of purchase.

Step 8: Post Launch Review and Perfect Pricing

Review the NPD process efficiency and look for continues improvements. Most new products are introduced with introductory pricing, in which final prices are nailed down after consumers have ‘gotten in’. In this final stage, you’ll gauge overall value relevant to COGS (cost of goods sold), making sure internal costs aren’t overshadowing new product profits. You continuously differentiate consumer needs as your products age, forecast profits and improve delivery process whether physical, or digital, products are being perpetuated.

Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity that is or could be done internally, and sometimes involves transferring employees and assets from one firm to another.

The term outsourcing, which came from the phrase outside resourcing, originated no later than 1981. The concept, which The Economist says “made its presence felt since the time of the Second World War”, often involves the contracting of a business process (e.g., payroll processing, claims processing), operational, and/or non-core functions, such as manufacturing, facility management, call center/call centre support).

The practice of handing over control of public services to private enterprises, even if on a short-term limited basis, may also be described as “outsourcing“.

Outsourcing includes both foreign and domestic contracting, and sometimes includes offshoring (relocating a business function to a distant country) or nearshoring (transferring a business process to a nearby country).

Offshoring and outsourcing are not mutually inclusive: there can be one without the other. They can be intertwined (Offshore outsourcing), and can be individually or jointly, partially or completely reversed, involving terms such as reshoring, inshoring, and insourcing.

• Offshoring is moving the work to a distant country. If the distant workplace is a foreign subsidiary/owned by the company, then the offshore operation is a captive, sometimes referred to as in-house offshore.
• Insourcing entails bringing processes handled by third-party firms in-house, and is sometimes accomplished via vertical integration.
• Offshore outsourcing is the practice of hiring an external organization to perform some business functions (“Outsourcing”) in a country other than the one where the products or services are actually performed, developed or manufactured (“Offshore”).
• Farmshoring refers to outsourcing to USA rural-located companies.
• Homeshoring (also known as Homesourcing) is a form of IT-enabled “transfer of service industry employment from offices to home-based … with appropriate telephone and Internet facilities.”. These telecommuting positions may be customer-facing or back-office, and the workers may be employees or independent contractors.
• An Intermediary is when a business provides a contract service to another organization while contracting out that same service.

How to Develop a Plan for Outsourcing?

A lot of discussions about outsourcing in the media make it appear complex, but it’s quite simple. Even in our homes, we “outsource” many tasks: Cooking, maintaining our lawns, and child care, just to name a few. When we don’t have the time, the focus, or the skills to do the work ourselves, we look for someone who can, and someone who will do the work for a price we can afford to pay. Corporations work the same way, even though their decisions may involve more factors and decision-makers.

1. Development Process

But just as families make different decisions, corporations can come to startlingly different decisions about outsourcing. There is no template that works for all firms, but there is a process that all firms need to consider:

2. Realization

In the past, many corporations may not have even known what outsourcing was. Today, they know about outsourcing, but may not realize how many outsourcing (and outsourcing-like) programs they already operate: Copy centers, mailrooms, facility management, IT, and even parts of a corporate legal department. Outsourcing may not solve every problem, but learning about the previous generation of contracts will identify new projects and provide valuable insight.

3. Goal Setting

To be successful in creating an outsourcing program, you need to define specific goals, such as reduce overall corporate costs by five percent, focus on efficiency for a single location, or only look at functions performed in one business unit. Goals don’t need tremendous detail. As your outsourcing experience increases, definitions will change.

4. Participation

You need participants from many areas of expertise to provide input to the plan, to verify assumptions and to provide expert judgment. When you move from a general plan to specific projects, you will repeat this process and create sub-groups with even more specific knowledge.

5. Identification

Now that you have goals and experts to identify and interpret information, it’s time to identify specific projects for your outsourcing program. Every firm develops different criteria and is driven by culture as much as by financial or operational analysis, but there are common criteria that you should look at:

• Previous decisions: Your firm probably made earlier decisions about using non-employees, such as temporary workers or service contracts. Work with Procurement and your PMO (Project Management Office) for details. See how they addressed the issues on this list, and compile lessons learned.
• Expertise: Are you performing functions or producing products without sufficient expertise, or are you having problems retaining managers? Does the current management have a plan to address these problems? If not, this could be a good outsourcing project.
• Quality: Even if a function has people with the right skills and experienced managers, you may not get the level of service you need. Does the manager conduct customer surveys? What are customers saying about products or services? A gap in quality or a lack of interest in customer service is another flag for outsourcing.
• Cost: An exceptionally high-quality service is not necessarily a good value. How do your costs compare to competitors? Does the function produce monthly reports: Unit costs, operating cost, multi-year cost trends? If this function cannot produce these reports, an outsourced service might provide greater transparency into your operations.
• Scale: When you examine your entire firm, you will make many unexpected discoveries. Stay focused! One big project is a better candidate for outsourcing than a number of smaller projects. That single big project will require far fewer administrative and management resources. Keep a comprehensive list, but only select candidates that provide a big impact on your first wave of projects.
• Security: You now have a good idea of potential projects. It’s time to filter them according to security standards. Security is a complex and controversial subject. Different standards apply to different industries, and some firms are more security conscious than their competitors. Understand internal and industry standards, and limit outsourcing projects accordingly. Include legal, IT, corporate security, compliance (if it applies), and any “risk” departments in your discussions.
• Prioritization: Each item above (and perhaps other characteristics) must be scored, and then each project should be assigned a total “outsourcing value.” Undoubtedly, there will be much debate over which characteristics are the most important, if their scores are accurate, and if other characteristics should be considered. Don’t be surprised if this process lasts for months or even years.
• Communication: By the time you’ve prioritized potential projects, you’ve held a lot of meetings and talked to a lot of people. Expect these discussions to be public information in the departments you’ve targeted for outsourcing. Always assume that these discussions will get to your employee population, often in real-time. Carefully thought-out corporate communications need to be prepared and ready. Never let rumors become a better source of information than facts.

One of the most crucial tasks of a company is the recruitment of its people. Every company wants quality talent who can grow and take forward their company. It is not easy to find suitable candidates, and it is the HR manager’s job to find the best method of recruitment for getting good hires into the system.

There are mainly two broad types of recruitment methods, the traditional one and the modern one. The traditional recruitment method has served well in the past years and provided companies with great candidates. But it has its pitfalls; it is time-consuming and also high in cost. With the advent of technology, modern recruitment methods have come up, which are opening new channels and ways of recruiting.

Let us first look into what are these traditional hiring techniques:

• Newspapers: A vast segment of people read the paper, and it has been one of the oldest means of posing a job vacancy.
• Internal hiring: Relying on existing employee’s potential is easy and time tested. Hence hiring one of their own to fill a higher position is a great choice.
• Local employment office: Putting up your job in a local employment office will get a wide range of people to read your post and apply for it.
• Temp agencies: This is one of the most used methods. You make use of a temporary employment agency to shortlist and find good potentials for your company.

Here are some of the modern methods of recruitment:

• Smartphones: The easiest way to connect to the world is today’s age is Smartphones. One can access any page, and recruiters use this to interact and provide information about their company to the prospects.
• Social media: This is the age of Facebook and Twitter. Since most people use these platforms in their everyday life, these mediums can be effectively used to engage with prospective candidates. This is an inexpensive method that also gives you a vast pool of candidates.
• Event recruitment: Companies sponsor events which reflect their ethics and values. This is done to show their association with such values and gain popularity. Lots of likeminded people are part of such events, and it is a great way to reach a wide net of people.

So we have seen the two methods, now is the time to evaluate which is relevant in what circumstance:

1. Time

In the traditional way of the newspaper and other mediums, a lot of time goes between posting and receiving applications. Then comes the sorting of the applications, which is another time taking task.

On the other hand, modern methods are quicker. Jobs can be posted instantly, and applications are received in real-time. Sorting is faster as well by, filtering them using the software.

2. Money

With fixed low-cost hiring, the latest fad in modern recruitment method, the process of hiring has become very cheap. In this, the recruitment consultant charges a very low-cost fixed price, which is based on the package, and they also do all the jobs of an in-house recruitment team. In the traditional methods, a fixed rate of commission is usually charged, based on the salary of the hired person, both form the organization as well as the job seeker. This is much costlier than the modern method.

3. Duration of the job posting

Traditional methods of print media or employment offices give a compact frame of visibility to the job posting, maybe a week or so. That restricts the number of candidacies one receives. But postings on twitter or the company’s web page can remain as long as they want; increasing the probability of drawing more people to apply.

It might look like that modern method of recruitment have a clear win over the traditional method, but there are times when one would like to go via the conventional method. For example, small organizations prefer going the traditional way as they find it more within their reach. Also, using modern methods needs a certain level of technical expertise which might not be present in many organizations. So the recruiter skills too matter in choosing between the two arrangements.