Your challenge in the project portion of this course is to design a new product and to produce a prototype version of it. The goal of this exercise is to learn principles and methods of product development in a realistic context. Most product development professionals work under tremendous time pressure and do not have an opportunity to reflect on the development process. In this course, the project stress level will be low enough that there will be time to experiment and learn. Project ideas come from the students in the class and from opportunities presented by industrial sponsors. Guidelines for reasonable projects are given below. The project proposal process is explained in the Project Schedule section of this syllabus.
Project Teams
In the second week of the course, we will form project teams on the basis of expressed student preferences (see the Project Schedule for details). Teams will consist of about seven students. Once you are assigned to a project team, we expect you to stay in the course for the entire term.
Project Materials and Expenses
There is a limited amount of funds to cover students' out-of-pocket expenses related to the course projects. Each team will be allocated a budget of $1000. Instructions and forms for purchasing and reimbursement are given in the document "Buying Things for Class." If your project requires additional expenditures, your team is expected to cover these expenses personally.
Guidelines for Projects (PDF)
Some Project Examples from Previous Classes (PDF)
Schedule (PDF)
Project Schedule
All assignments must be handed in at the beginning of the class session in which they are due. Note that these assignments are intended to pace the development process for your product. There is virtually no slack in this schedule and so assignments must be completed on or before the scheduled due date in order to maintain the project schedule. All assignments except the project proposal are to be completed as a team.
Individual Assignment: Project Proposal
Part 1: Proposal Handout
Prepare a project proposal in any format that fits on one 8.5x11 page (one side only). Two sample proposals are included in the course reading packet. We will photocopy the proposals and distribute them in Class 4 (the same day). If you miss the morning deadline, you must bring 90 copies to class. Proposals should include:
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A brief, descriptive project title (2-4 words). This is critical!
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Your name, phone number, email, department/degree program, and year.
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A description of the product opportunity you have identified. Your description may include any of the following: documentation of the market need, shortcomings of existing competitive products, and definition of the target market and its size.
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Please do not present any of your own product ideas at this point ; our strict focus in this phase of the course is on the market opportunity and not on solution concepts.
Part 2: Proposal Presentation Due Class 4
Prepare a 60-second presentation to be delivered in class. Your presentation should include:
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Your name, department/degree program, and year.
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A verbal or visual demonstration of the product opportunity you have described in your proposal. Given that the audience will be able to read your proposal at their leisure, you might spend your time explaining the richness of the market opportunity and demonstrating the existing competitive products.
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Any special skills or assets you have (marketing expertise, access to a shop, a car, electronics wizardry, etc.)
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Showing one or two overhead slides is recommended. You may also use video. However, note that the 60-second time constraint will be ruthlessly enforced. (Think about how much can be presented in two 30-second television commercials.)
Part 3: Project Preferences
Submit your project preferences on a project selection card (handed out in Class 4). List the ten projects you would most like to work on, in order of preference. If you would like to work with a particular group of classmates (up to 7), you should all list the exact same project preferences and clip your cards together. We will assign the rest of the team. Team and project assignments will be sent by email to the class.
Guidelines for Team Assignments
Please adhere to the following guidelines for your team assignments:
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Be concise. Most assignments can be completed in very few pages. One exception to this guideline is concept sketches, which should be formatted with one concept per page.
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Please provide a short (less than one page) description of the process your grou adopted in completing the assignment. However, there is no need to repeat a summary of the textbook if you adopt the exact approach in the text. Also comment on what worked well and what did not.
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Hand in two copies for your team so that two of the course faculty can provide comments. Keep a copy for your records.
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Black ink is preferable to blue ink or pencil for most assignments. (This is because some assignments are photocopied.) However, if the use of color is important to your presentation, please feel free violate this guideline. To facilitate copying, please use standard 8.5x11 sheets of paper, single sided, whenever possible.
Assignment: Mission Statement and Customer Needs List Due Class 6
Hand in a mission statement and an organized list of customer needs for your product as described in CHAPTERS 3 and 4.
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Describe your team's processes for getting organized and for identifying customer needs. Comment on this process and on your results.
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You do not need to have completed an importance survey by this time, although if you feel the need to further understand preferences and tradeoffs, you should do this soon and turn it in for review.
Assignment: Concept Sketches and Target Specifications Due Class 8
Hand in sketches and bullet-point descriptions of 10 to 20 alternative concepts for your product. For each sketch, note which of the important customer needs it addresses and which it does not.
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Choose a few (perhaps 3 or 4) critical customer needs from your list. For these critical few, prepare a list of the target specifications and provide documentation to support these decisions.
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Describe some of the steps of your concept generation and target specifications processes. Comment on the process and the results.
Assignment: Preliminary Concept Selection Due Class 10
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Hand in sketches of the two or three concepts you believe are most promising.
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Show the concept selection matrix (screening or scoring) that you used to make these choices.
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Include a simple description or sketch of each of the concept alternatives considered.
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Prepare a list of the key uncertainties or questions you still need to address to determine the viability of your product. For each one, specify an associated plan of action (such as analysis, mock ups, interviews, experiments, etc.)
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Describe your team's process. Comment on the process and the results.
Assignment: Review: Final Concept, Model, and Schedule Due Class 12
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Prepare a 10-minute (maximum) presentation of your (single) selected product concept. The presentation should include a review of your mission statement, customer needs, selected concept, and your key target specifications.
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As part of your presentation, demonstrate some form of “proof-of-concept” prototype model.
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Hand in a one-page description and sketch of your selected concept.
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Draft a schedule in Gantt-chart form (see page 326 of the text) showing the plan of work to complete the project over the next two months. Include at least the following activities: detail design, materials and components selection, vendor selection, procurement of materials and components, testing, and completion of assignments. Hand in this schedule—you do not need to make it part of your presentation in class.
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Describe your team's process. Comment on the process and the results.
Assignment: Drawings, Plans, and Revised Schedule Due Class 15
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Prepare an assembly drawing of the alpha prototype you intend to build. An assembly drawing shows all the parts in their assembled positions.
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Prepare dimensioned sketches of each piece part for your planned prototype.
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Include a bill of materials indicating whether the prototype parts will be purchased or fabricated, and a description of the assembly process. Indicate the material and fabrication process you have selected for each prototype part.
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Provide photocopies of the vendor specification sheets for the purchased materials and components. On catalog pages, identify which items you have selected for purchase.
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List the web resources and vendors you have found to be helpful.
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Make a drawing or sketch of the production version of the product. Describe the differences between the prototype you will build and the production product. Briefly explain how the production product would be manufactured.
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Summarize the important decisions you have made since the previous assignment. Describe your prototyping plans. (By this time, you should have price quotes and should be ready to place orders for any parts to be fabricated or purchased.
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Revise the schedule of your project work for the remaining weeks. Include your planned design work, vendor interactions, prototyping, testing, redesign, photography, and preparation of the presentation.
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Describe your team's process. Comment on the process and the results.
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Solidworks and ProEngineer CAD software is available for your use. See the course web page for instructions to access the software. However, you may use any drawing package available to you.
Assignment: Financial Model Due Class 18
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Prepare a financial model as described in CHAPTER 13 of the text. Document the assumptions you have made in the analysis. Perform a sensitivity analysis of the key economic uncertainties you face. Note that you will require estimates for the production tooling and variable costs.
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Describe your team's process, including a brief status report on your prototyping and testing progress.
Optional Assignment: Patent Review Due Class 18 also
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Prepare background information for our patent attorney to review. To do this, you need to explain what invention within your product may be patentable.
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Include a statement of the invention's novelty, utility, and non-obviousness.
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Provide references to any US patents related to your invention.
Assignment: Alpha Prototype Due Class 22
Assignment: Final Presentation and Demonstration Due Saturday May 11
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Prepare a 15-minute presentation describing and demonstrating your product. Your presentation should concentrate on the product itself, although you may wish to emphasize any particularly impressive portions of your development process. An effective presentation includes color photographs or video presentation along with a live display of the hardware. This presentation should be of the quality you would make to convince a top management group to purchase the rights to your product or to fund its final development and launch. A panel of experts will observe your presentations and evaluate the products. Be prepared to answer questions about all aspects of your project.
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Create and demonstrate a web page designed to promote your product (optional).
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Turn in a copy of the slide presentation, URL of the web page, and several highquality digital photos or 35mm slides of the prototype hardware (including photos of the product in use, if possible).
Project Timeline
Here is a Gantt Chart showing the types of project activity underway during the project.
