Role Of An Engineer Series: What Engineers Do During The Define Phase

This post- What Engineers Do During The Define Phase, is part 2 of the ‘Role of an Engineer’ series. If you missed part 1- Welcome To The Role Of An Engineer Series, definitely check that out first!

This series is based on my experience as an engineer. Although the New Product Development Process is used in many industries, the exact tasks may vary.

Did you know engineers may work closely with marketing to understand the users’ needs? It might be surprising to know that engineers need to translate users’ needs into measurable requirements, sometimes using competitive products. These are some of the tasks an engineer is responsible for during the Define Phase of the New Product Development (NPD) Process.

The five phases of the NPD Process include:

Define
Design
Develop
Test
Launch

This post will focus on what engineers do during the Define phase.

Define Phase

The Define phase includes four steps:

Identifying the user need
Cost analysis
Competitive landscape analysis
Assembling the team

Most of these steps are related to the business. For this reason, as an engineer, it is critical to understand the business side of the project. Notice how these steps do not include jumping into product design. It is important to complete background research before wasting time on designing a product potentially no one wants!

1. Identify User Need

In this phase, the team focuses on researching the market and the problem. This is where the user of the product and their need is identified. It is vital to do the upfront work so that you are designing a product that the market actually wants and is solving a problem.

Surveys will also be used to interview potential customers to better define the need for the product. Engineering will work closely with marketing to interpret the results from the surveys.

Marketing may work with the engineers to define the market specification for the product. These are the requirements the user is expecting the product to meet. Some examples of market specifications are compatibility with other products it must be used with or features of the product the customer needs.

The Importance Of Understanding The Users' Needs

Sometimes, there could be different users for a product that have different needs and expectations. These should be identified upfront in the project because you could be designing a product that one user group does not even care about!

One time, I was brought into a project that was already in the Develop phase. We were designing a medical device that was used by physicians all around the world. Our task was to take an existing product the company made and add the ability to rotate.

We continued to receive mixed feedback from physicians on our prototypes depending on the part of the world they were from. The physicians from the United States were really impressed with the device’s ability to rotate. However, the physicians from Japan were not very impressed with the prototypes.

Unfortunately, the reason for the discrepancy was that we had two very different users for one design.

The way the US physicians were using the current device did not involve rotating the product. This was a completely new feature to them. Therefore, when we showed them the prototypes the novelty of rotating the device impressed them. However, the physicians in Japan already used a competitive device that rotated. Therefore, this was not a novel concept to them. They expected all devices to rotate so when we showed them our prototypes, they were not impressed.

We spent a lot of time trying to improve the ability for the device to rotate. Then, we realized we had two different users. We were trying to solve a problem for the physicians in Japan that did not exist!

At that point, the decision was made to focus on the US market, since the product was fulfilling a need there, as opposed to Japan. Japan was already happy with the competitive product they were using. We were not adding any new feature to our device, so converting them would have been challenging.

This is a perfect example of why it is so important to understand your users’ needs early in the project! A lot of time and money was wasted chasing a user group (the Japan market) that already had an answer to a problem we were trying to solve. Our focus should have been on the US market all along.

2. Cost Analysis

Engineering researches similar products the company already produces and manufacturing technologies to ensure the company has the capability of proceeding with the proposed project. In addition, the engineer will reach out to the manufacturing plants to help with this part of the project.

The marketing representative will estimate the potential sales the project will generate. If this is a quality issue, i.e. based on customer complaints, this might not be necessary. In this case, marketing may put together the potential impact to sales if nothing is done.

Engineering and manufacturing will work together to estimate the potential cost to create the product. The estimated cost to make the product will include materials, labor time, and overhead. Then marketing will determine how much the product can be sold for.

Most companies have a target margin for products. Therefore, if it does not meet these margins the project will not go further than this phase (unless it is a quality issue). Margins refer to the difference between the price of the product to the consumer minus the cost to manufacture the product.

3. Competitive Landscape Analysis

The competitive landscape is also defined. Marketing lets engineering know who the competitors are in the space and engineering performs competitive research.

This research can involve testing the competitors’ product if you are able to get the product. Testing can be very beneficial so that you can understand how the competitors perform. These values can become the baseline for what the product you are designing must meet.

For example, it you are trying to pass a device easily through another device, this might be hard to quantify at first. But, if you get a competitor’s product and set up a test, you could acquire the force required to pass the device through another product. Now you can quantify this requirement as opposed to a subjective marketing requirement that the device must pass easily through another device.

Quantifying your requirements early on using competitors’ products can help you screen your prototypes in the Design phase.

The engineers will complete the background research on the project as well. This can include understanding how the customer uses the device, where in the world the device is used, and the environment the device is used in.

4. Assembling The Team

The product manager will work with the cross functional team, which may include R&D engineering, manufacturing engineering, quality engineering, regulatory, marketing, and supply chain, to put together a timeline and plan for the project.

Each function will put together a list of deliverables needed for each phase of NPD process. Therefore, as an engineer, you will scope out all of the deliverables you need to complete. You will also produce a timeline for how long it will take you to complete each deliverable. These are presented to the team and discussed.

Once the market and timeline are understood, the project is presented to upper management. If they approve the project proposal, the project will move to the next phase, which is Design.

Define Phase Case Study

Each step of the NPD process is crucial, but in my experience the first phase is the one that can cause the biggest issues if not executed properly. The Define phase focuses on defining the market and ensuring you are going to design something the market actually wants.

You could have the best idea and best design, but if there is no need, then the product will flop. Therefore, you want to find this out as soon as possible so the company does not invest a lot of money designing something no one wants.

For example, in 2012 Bic launched “Bic for Her”, pink and purple pens designed specifically for women. There was no reason for women to need “feminine” colored pens. Regular pens worked just fine.

Due to lack of market research, and even worse, offending their current market, this product launch failed. Not only did no one want this, it was also considered sexist.

This is why it is really important to understand your market and what they need, to ensure you are creating products that solve their problems.

Summary

Engineers and their teams use the NPD Process to guide them through the necessary steps to launching a product. Even though the upfront work in the Define phase, for identifying the need and market, rely on the marketing team’s lead, engineering is very involved in this phase as well.

To summarize, the engineer’s role in the Define phase includes:

Working with marketing to understand the user and their needs
Interpreting the data gained from user surveys
Estimating the cost to make the product
Conducting background research
Completing competitor analysis
Creating a timeline for all of these deliverables that fits into the overall project timeline

Now you understand why not just having the best design is enough. In order to have a successful product, you need to be solving a problem or an unmet need from your target market. The next post of the series will be discussing the Design phase.