It was great to be back in Wellington for the Successful Product Development Seminar. This time we were hosted by Victoria University School of Design, with support from CreativeHQ and VicLink. The seminar presented an informed view on what it takes to develop innovative products that really connect with customers.

Locus Research's Timothy Allan talked through the importance of a structured design process that starts with good research. Tim introduced the concept of the Product System, a framework for insight driven product development. This includes defining a product and associated service and understanding the interactions and activities of users, purchasers, stakeholders, and influencers. Understanding and clearly defining the product system is an excellent start point for uncovering new and valuable insights. Start thinking of your products in terms of the benefits they deliver, solving problems that will really make a difference to the customers through the value chain.

Tim's key points:

• Research is the risk management tool
• Research creates the platform for great ideas and insights
• Product features are not customer benefits – know your customers and what they need
• A good development framework or process enhances creative and business outcomes. Invest in your development process; it's a key instrument to help you navigate your way from insight to market.
• Start marketing when you start your project, don’t wait. Execution is everything - to win on innovation you first need to win on communication

Professor Simon Fraser of the School of Design at Victoria University of Wellington talked about 3D printing and additive manufacturing. Simon gave some inspiring examples of student work and how rapid prototyping can, and is, changing the way things can be imagined and manufactured.

Simon's key points:

• 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing are a revolution in making
• Applications include rapid prototyping and real part production
• Technology is driving innovation and inspiring new products and services

Jonathan Prince of Motovated Design & Analysis, like Tim, talked about the benefit of a good design process to successful product development. He gave some excellent examples of getting it right and getting it wrong. Jonathan talked about the danger of designing products based on perception rather than research and fact. Jonathan also showed how tools such as Finite Element Analysis (FEA) can help companies save time and money by getting the design right before you cut the steel.

Jonathan's key points:

• Implement a robust development process prior to jumping in
• Create a brief or development specification to guide your project
• Spend time in your customer's world - don't assume anything
• Speed is the essence – your market won’t wait and neither will your competitors
• Leverage technology to utilise all the downstream benefits

Paul Davies from EverEdgeIP spoke about strategies for protecting and leveraging your IP. He discussed IP commercialisation – turning IP into economic or strategic value and gave a number of case studies to underscore the advantages of doing this.

Paul's key points:

• IP can be free – there is more to IP than patents and trademarks; trade secrets and other IP forms can be just as valuable
• Understand your IP landscape, both the constraints and the gaps
• Patents don’t equal value – you have to be able to commercialise your innovation for it to have value

The Product System

A Revolution in Making

Developing Products that will Perform

Strategies for Protecting and Leveraging Your IP