There is certainly an appetite for innovation and product development in the Waikato. We recently hosted an event at the Waikato Innovation Park with Motovated Design & Analysis, Tompkins Wake, and Callaghan Innovation to present an informed view on what it takes to develop innovative products that really connect with customers.
Locus Research's Timothy Allan talked us through the importance of a structured design process that starts with good research. Tim introduced the concept of looking at the Product System - this includes the 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.
Tonia Brugh from Tompkins Wake spoke about intellectual property. In every day language she explained how to identify and protect intellectual property. She also talked us through the commercial issues surrounding intellectual property and the methods used to commercialise intellectual property. Her message: value your IP!
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.
To close the evening, Peter Maxwell of Callaghan Innovation talked us through the recent changes and gave us an overview of how Callaghan Innovation can help businesses wanting to succeed through innovation and product development.
We had support for this event from the Waikato Chamber of Commerce and the Waikato Regional Partners. A big thanks to them and to all the people who attended.
