Chicken or Egg – Product Design or Product Engineering?
Developing any new product from an “idea state” requires design and engineering.
It’s a blend for sure. It can get blurry as the terms -technical design- and -innovative engineering- are commonly used in this industry.
But which is most important and what should be done first?
In 36 years of new product development, we at IDP have learned the following:
1. Basic design is essential until an “innovative concept” can be simply described. Design, however, should usually pause at this point.
2. The more complex a new product is, the more early engineering is required. It must work well. It must be cost-effective and it must be manufacturable. Full stop. If these areas are not addressed no amount of designing can make a product successful.
3. But a new product needs to be compelling and unique and aesthetically pleasing? 100% correct. But only after 2 above.
4. We have seen countless designs that are beautiful and look amazing with great claims, that probably cannot work or make money or are not manufacturable. There are companies that do design work with no engineering, produce nice images and descriptions and create product sell sheets and try to license or sell these designs for their clients. “Here’s what it looks like, here’s what it does, and all the benefits.- BUY IT.”
Could a couple of those ideas be so exceptional that someone would pay for the idea alone? Yes/Sure. But that is rare in our experience. Most smart people will ask – Does it really work as claimed? And do you have a working prototype? BUT you cannot know if it works or have a real working prototype without engineering!
5. Once initial engineering feasibility has been determined, and this can take some time, important design elements can be addressed. And yes NOW exceptional design can make a product better and more successful.
6. The trade-off development dance can now begin on equal footing. Design innovation comes with possible additional costs and maybe a lot of extra engineering work, but may increase sales by a large factor or may allow for a sales price premium.
Bottom line:
Design is important, very important, but engineering is more important in most cases of new product development.
Note:
New Products are just that, they have never developed or have never been manufactured before. A new coffee maker or a new cell phone is not a totally new product.
