Design Best Practices

Market Sizing is a form of research and analysis that identifies who will buy your product, who might buy your product, and who could be persuaded to buy your product under the right conditions. Understanding this distinction is crucial to a successful product launch. It shows you the sales potential of your offering. Let’s break it down: TAM – Total Addressable Market is how much opportunity is out there for your product, assuming that you could capture 100% market share. S

Product Design Specification (PDS) is a document that outlines the requirements and features of a product, as agreed upon by the designers and the client. The PDS keeps everything on track; it ensures that the design is focused and driven by core goals. It begins with a value proposition: Why make the product in the first place? What does it do, who would use it, who would buy it? Next, the scope: What are the product requirements? Form, function, usability, safety? The PDS s

Quality costs money. Poor quality costs more! Most people look at quality activities as a cost: inspections, audits, training, documentation, supplier evaluations, FAI, control plans, etc. But the real cost comes from situations when those activities are skipped: rework, scrap, line stops, delayed shipments, customer complaints, expedited freight, warranty claims, lost trust, and loss of future business. That is why it’s important to evaluate your Cost of Quality early in the

Ergonomics (designing to fit humans) is fundamental to product design – after all, what good is a product if it doesn’t fit the user? Performing a ‘human factors analysis’ helps us figure out how people interact with the products and systems in their work environment. From there, we can solve real-world problems based on the needs of the user. And it isn’t just about comfort, safety, and knowing our limits. Good ergonomic design maximizes human capability, making users happy

Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (DFMEA) is used to stop failures before they happen – and cost you! It determines all the possible ways a design could fail, then prioritizes the risk level of each. Think of it as putting your design under the microscope. Whatever you do, don’t enter production without performing a DFMEA! Here is the process: 1. Start by defining your parts, their function, and specs. 2. Identify a failure: What would result in a loss of function? 3.

Feature creep, also known as featuritis, happens when stakeholders add too many features to a product.