This two- to three-day workshop is intended to develop the practical skills to determine customer needs and derive product requirements and critical to quality characteristics. It is intended for product managers, project managers, design engineers and marketing personnel responsible for developing a product definition or product requirements document. The workshop uses a series of exercises with a real product to develop a practical understanding of the requirements definition process. The three-day version of the workshop is intended for more complex products that require a flow-down of requirements and further requirements definition at a subsystem, module, or key component level.
1. INTRODUCTION
- Product Planning and the Fuzzy Front End
- Requirements Definition Process
- Critical to Quality (CTQ) Characteristics and Definitions
2. CAPTURING THE VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER (VOC)
- Defining the Customers and the Market – How Broad or Narrow?
- Methods for Capturing the Voice of the Customer
- Planning the VOC Investigation
- VOC Information Needs Over the Course of Development
- Market Research Considerations and Needs
- Steps for Constructing and Conducting Effective Surveys
- Steps for Effective Customer Interviews
- Steps for Effective Focus Groups
- Gemba and Ethnography – Observing the Use of the Product in Its Environment
- Getting to the Root Need – Asking Why
- Methods for Determining Customer Priorities: Analytical Hierarchy Process and Conjoint Analysis
- Gathering and Synthesizing Customer Needs and Requirements
- Organizing Requirements – the Affinity Diagram
3. DEVELOPING THE PRODUCT SPECIFICATION
- Finalizing a List of Critical Customer Needs or Requirements
- Performing Competitive Analysis
- Developing the Product Strategy
- Exercise 1: Organizing Customer Requirements, Evaluating the Competition and Developing a Product Strategy (Team Development of a New Pocket Calculator Product )
- Determining Measurable Critical to Quality (CTQ) Characteristics to Satisfy Customer Needs
- Exercise 2: Developing Critical to Quality Characteristics for the New Product
- Establishing Initial Specification Values and Benchmarking the Product
- Exercise 3: Performing a Technical Evaluation (Product Benchmarking with Competitive Calculators)
- Analyzing Specification Trade-offs and Setting Specification Values
- Exercise 4: Considering Trade-Offs and Establishing Specification Values
4. CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT AND REQUIREMENTS FLOWDOWN
- Systems Engineering and Requirements Definition
- Concept Development – The Next Step in Requirements Definition for a Complex Product
- Developing Concept Alternatives
- Determining Criteria for Screening and Evaluating Concept Alternatives
- The Concept Selection Matrix
- Building Upon and Refining the Concept
- Exercise 6: Develop & Select a Product Concept – Concept Selection Matrix
- Defining Subsystems, Modules, or Key Components
- Requirements Flowdown and Allocation
- Determining Critical to Quality Characteristics for Subsystems, Modules, or Key Components
- Setting Specification Values for CTQ Characteristics
- Assembling a Comprehensive Requirements Definition Document or Product Specification
- Finalizing and Reviewing the Product Specification
5. APPLICATION AND SUMMARY
- Managing the Requirements Definition Process
- Avoiding Common Pitfalls
- Planning and Organizing Requirements Definition
- Cross-Functional Participation and Responsibilities
- Summary
- Questions and Answers