Product Design

Harry Kogetsidis

School of Business

Lecture’s topics

• What is product design and why is it

important?

• What are the basic stages of the product

design process?

Product Design

Product design

is the part of product

development

that defines the features to be included in

the

product.

Product Design

Organisations tend to operate in highly

competitive

environments. Generating new products, as

well as

making improvements to existing products, is
therefore necessary in order to ensure long-

term

success.

Product Design

marketing

design

operations

The success of the design process primarily depends on the

relationship

between the functions of

marketing

,

design

and

operations.

Product

?

Turning a concept into a product

The Product Design Process

Idea

Product

Idea Generation

Product design ideas can come from a variety of
sources, including the organisation’s research and
development (R&D) function, market research,
salespeople, competitor actions or developments
in new technology.

This will be largely dependent on the

strategy

that

the organisation follows.

Idea Generation – R&D

The organisation’s research and development
(R&D) function will play a very significant role in
idea generation if the organisation has a strategy
of delivering a new product in the market before its
competitors do.

In order to achieve this, the organisation has to

innovate

.

Idea Generation – Competitor

Action

Another approach to idea generation would

be to

monitor the actions of competitors.

This can be done through

benchmarking

or

reverse

engineering

.

Idea Generation – Competitor

Action

Benchmarking

compares the product against

what is

considered the best in the market segment

and then

makes recommendations on how the product

can be

improved to meet that standard.

It is considered to be a

‘reactive’

strategy.

Idea Generation – Competitor

Action

Reverse engineering

is a systematic approach to

dismantling and inspecting a competitor’s product
to look for aspects of design that could be used in
the organisation’s own product.

It is most relevant when the product is relatively
complex (e.g. a car) and is also considered to be a

‘reactive’

strategy.

design concept

The Product Design Process

?

Feasibility Study

The organisation carries out a feasibility

study of

the design concept that has resulted from

the idea

generation stage.

Feasibility study includes a

market

,

economic

and

technical

analysis.

Feasibility Study

Market analysis

aims to evaluate the design

concept

with potential customers through

questionnaires,

interviews, focus groups and other data

collection

methods and to identify whether there is

sufficient

demand for the proposed product.

Feasibility Study

Economic analysis

develops estimates of

production

and delivery costs for the new product and

then

compares them with estimates of demand.

Feasibility Study

Technical analysis

determines whether the

organisation has the technical capability to

make

and deliver the new product.

Preliminary Design

Design concepts that pass the feasibility stage

enter

preliminary design.

specification of the

technical

design concept

specification

What the product should do A detailed specification
to satisfy customer needs.

of the various components

of the product.

Preliminary Design

Preliminary design will result in the

development of

an initial product prototype.

technical

product

specification

prototype

Final Design

The initial product prototype will then be

further

refined until a viable final design can be

made.

product

final

prototype

product

design concept

The Product Design Process

technical specification,

product prototype,

final product

Group work

In small groups, identify a product that has clearly
evolved over time. Discuss the main changes that
this product has experienced over the years. What
has caused these changes and how did they affect
the product. How did the market respond to these
changes?