This post is part 1 of the ‘Role of an Engineer’ series.
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.
Have you ever wondered how a product makes it from ideation to a working product in a customer’s hands? What does an engineer do to get a product out the door? Does an engineer’s work stop once the design is done?
Welcome to the ‘Role of an Engineer’ series. These are posts dedicated to giving you insight into what engineers do during each step of the New Product Development (NPD) Process. This series will also detail how this process is used to launch products. These posts will answer the above questions and more!
The work engineers do at each phase of the process is very different. This series will detail each step. Then, you will understand the roles and responsibilities of an engineer during each phase. As an engineer, you could be assigned a project at any point in the process. Therefore, it is important to understand the purpose and work involved in each step.
New Product Development Process Overview
Steve Jobs stated, “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology- not the other way around.” He knew the importance of starting with the customer’s need first.
This is the essence of the NPD Process. The process starts with defining the customer’s need and then developing solutions that meet that need. Instead of putting design first and then finding a customer for the design.
The process is composed of multiple phases. This helps ensure your design actually works how the customer is expecting. It also enables you to launch as soon as possible. Companies have different versions but they are all very similar.
Five Phases of the NPD Process:
- Define
- Design
- Develop
- Test
- Launch
These steps are used to guide the team into making the most successful product possible. When people think of engineering, everyone immediately thinks about designing products (which are the prototyping and development stages). Rarely are the other stages discussed or required parts of assignments in school.
My senior design project in college only included steps 1 and 2 of the process! We had to create a working prototype, but we did not even get into how it would be manufactured for production or the testing involved to show it actually worked and met the users’ needs. Ironically, the develop and test phases were left behind, but these usually take the longest!
Each of the following posts for this series will detail the role of an engineering during one phase of the NPD Process.
“New Product” does not always mean completely new
It is also important to note that although these steps are called the NPD Process, every product that goes through it might not be a completely new technology.
A totally new product is very risky to the business. Companies like to build on the technology they already have. Most “new products” are considered iterations of products a company already sells.
Sometimes, this may be just adding new features to an existing product, a change to the packaging, or a component change. In my first project as an engineer I was working through a component redesign that was prompted by physicians complaining about the product. We had to use each step of the NPD process even though we were replacing a component on an existing product.
What to look forward to in this series
Did you know as an engineer you will work closely with all different functions including marketing, regulatory, manufacturing, and supply chain to get a product launched? It might be surprising to know that engineers need to interface with the customer to get feedback on prototypes.
You will learn more about the role of the engineer and how it changes depending on where you are in the NPD process. Each part of this series will detail one phase of the process.
An engineer will need to complete a variety of tasks throughout the NPD process. The more you know about what is expected of you, the more valuable you will be to the company. Understanding what is required for each phase, will enable you as an engineer to get through the process quicker. This will decrease the time to launch, which decreases the cost of the project, and gets a product out the door quicker so the company can start making money faster.
Read more about each phase of the process in the posts below:
- Define Phase: What Engineers Do During The Define Phase
- Design Phase: What Engineers Do During The Design Phase
- Develop Phase: What Engineers Do During The Develop Phase
- Test Phase: What Engineers Do During The Test Phase
- Launch Phase: What Engineers Do During The Launch Phase
