"what to do before project starts?" or problem definition for innovation

bytics engineering ag. All Rights Reserved. / 09.01.2013 A.Schukin 1

Andrey Schukin

Esslingen, 09. January 2013

bytics engineering ag

Bachweg 5

CH-8133 Esslingen

T +41 44 905 64 64

Standort

Problem Definition for Product Innovation or What to Do before Project Starts?


bytics engineering ag

• Swiss-based engineering and management consulting firm, founded 1988

• 35 employees

• Two offices: Zürich city centre and Zürich suburbs, EMC test lab

• Three departments: Mechanical Engineering, Electronics & Software,

Simulation & Calculations

• Over 350 customers: industry and universities (ABB, Alstom, Bombardier,

Carl Zeiss, Honeywell, Leica, Lindt & Sprüngli, MAN, Siemens, Sulzer,

Wärtsilä, etc.)


Contents

2 Innovation Process

3 What is Innovation?

4 Project Requirements: Different Levels 5 Capturing Customer Needs

6 Multiple Stakeholders

7 Technical System Description

8 Successful Product

1 Our Challenges


Challenges that we face

• New products/solutions, start from scratch

• Often no detailed requirement specification from the customer

• “Hidden” implicit requirements (ease of use, aesthetics, etc.)

• Whether the solution is “good” or “innovative” is defined by customer, not us

• Competition: other consulting firms AND sometimes customer’s own engineers

with a lot of experience in their area


Why Projects Fail

• Reasons for project failures (Fraunhofer Institute, Germany) :

• 50% is due to insufficient problem definition

• 20% due to the lack of ideas

• 30% due to poor execution quality and technical faults

• That means: 70% of all failing projects could be saved if more attention was paid to Problem Definition and Problem Solving.

Problem

Definition

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4 Phase 5

Idea

Generation Concept

Definition Development

& Tests

Production

Service


Customer Focus

Innovation Process


Innovation Process

E

5 Innovation Process

TM

Define

Research the problem

Define the requirements

1 Discover

Discover the range of possible (and impossible) solutions

2 Select

Evaluate, select and refine the most promising idea

3 Produce Develop

Develop solution in more detail

4 5

Prototype

Manufacturing

Generation of Customer Value

Tiefenanalyse und

Requirements Engineering

Ideefindung und

Grobkonzept

Konzeptentwurf und

Fertigungsunterlagen

Prototyp, Nullserie

und Herstellung


What is Innovation?

Invention vs. Innovation: what’s the difference?

A product, service, or process that creates new value for customers

Driven primarily by a desire to add customer value

Merit defined by profitable deployment

Based on a broad set of strategic, marketing, operational and technical skills

Innovation Invention

A new-to-the-world discovery/creation

Driven primarily by inventor curiosity or research interest

Merit defined by uniqueness

Based primarily on scientific skills

R. Martin & J. Milway «User-Driven Innovation: Putting an

End to Inventing in the Dark», Rotman Magazine, Fall 2012


Project Requirements Pyramid

Impact on business operation and profitability. Project Scope, Objectives and Constraints.

Business Requirements

Product qualities and functions that, combined, satisfy needs of the end user.

User Requirements

Technical parameters to be achieved that would satisfy user requirements.

Technical Requirements

Summarising technical parameters that would guarantee user satisfaction is not easy – direct user input is often required.


Problem Definition: System Description

• For any problem, we aim to get the desired outcome with the minimum possible input (costs) and minimum possible undesired outcome (harms).

• Our ultimate (and mostly unachievable) goal is Ideal System, which does not have any costs or harmful effects, just benefits.

• Problems are just gaps between existing system and system we want.

undesired outcome input

desired outcome

costs

harms

benefits

System

𝑰𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 = ↑ 𝒃𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒕𝒔

↓ 𝒄𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒔 + ↓ 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒎𝒔


• Step 1: Definition of Ideal Outcome: what we want, without any costs or harms

• Step 2: Function Split: we split our future system into sub-functions

• Step 3: Undesired Outcome: acceptable harms and possible risks

• Step 4: Input

• Interactions: People. Who will use the product? How are the inputs from people are delivered to the System? Ergonomics.

• Interactions: Environment. How are the inputs from environment are delivered to the System?

• Available Resources and “Disturbances” – variation in parameters: uneven floors, unexpected events, etc.

• Step 5: History: existing system, previous tries to achieve result. Why failed?

undesired outcome input

desired outcome

costs

harms

benefits

System

Problem Definition: System Description


User

Requirements

Business

Requirements

Successful

Product

Technical

Requirements

SCENE What is “well designed” product?

Every commercially successful products is a result of finding a “golden middle” of the business requirements, user needs, and technology available.


Understanding Business Requirements

Project delivered on specification, budget and in time

Instead of immediately accepting customer’s solution, ask: what benefits is he looking for? Then search for other solutions that bring same benefits.

The common end goal is to provide competitive advantage for the customer. Keep it in mind at all times.

SCENE Development projects – not just engineering


Understanding User Requirements

Focus on Usability: the product should be useful, usable and desirable.

Involve users or user representative at the beginning of every project, in concept and evaluation stages

Take a closer look at additional customer needs: aesthetics, ergonomics, serviceability, reliability, etc.

Aim to transform most vague wishes into actionable, specific and easy to understand technical requirements



Understanding Technical Requirements

Step by Step: 1.Describe the problem before coming up with solutions, then 2.Generate several ideas before choosing one to develop further.

Borrow solutions from other industries or nature

Generate ideas in a systematic way, and set yourself a goal on a number of ideas to be generated

Think User Value, Novelty and Cost-Effective Implementation



User

Requirements

Business

Requirements

Successful

Product

Technical

Requirements

SCENE What is “well designed” product?

Every commercially successful products is a result of finding a “golden middle” of the business requirements, user needs, and technology available.

"what to do before project starts?" or problem definition for innovation

Technology

bytics engineering agbachweg

mechanical engineering

ideal system

existing system

future system

tothe system

milway userdriven innovation

harms step