Product Design Strategy Training Course

Participants can gather and structure evidence about customer needs, behaviours and buying criteria.

• Voice of Customer interviews structured around behaviours, needs and frustrations
• Observation plans distinguish stated preferences from actual user behaviour
• Customer journey maps identify moments of effort, delay and failure
• Segment needs by user context, purchasing authority and usage frequency
• Evidence strength assessed through source quality, recency and sample relevance
• Assumption logs separate validated facts from untested product beliefs

Participants can use customer jobs and value attributes to prioritise product opportunities.

• Jobs to Be Done statements capture functional, emotional and social progress
• Job maps reveal steps, obstacles and desired outcomes
• Kano analysis distinguishes basic, performance and attractive product attributes
• Outcome statements specify importance, satisfaction and unmet customer needs
• Prioritisation matrices compare customer value, strategic fit and delivery effort
• Switching barriers examined through habits, contracts, risks and alternatives

Participants can convert customer needs and constraints into testable product requirements.

• Requirement statements use measurable conditions, thresholds and acceptance criteria
• Functional requirements separated from non-functional performance requirements
• User stories and use cases specify interactions and expected outcomes
• Constraints documented for regulation, safety, compatibility and available resources
• Traceability matrices connect customer needs, requirements and validation evidence
• MoSCoW prioritisation clarifies mandatory, desirable and deferred requirements

Participants can translate customer requirements into prioritised technical design characteristics.

• Quality Function Deployment links customer needs with engineering characteristics
• House of Quality relationships scored using consistent evidence-based ratings
• Technical correlations expose reinforcing and conflicting design characteristics
• Competitive benchmarking identifies performance gaps against customer alternatives
• Target values set from customer priorities, feasibility and competitor evidence
• Requirement priorities updated when technical trade-offs change design choices

Participants can generate diverse product concepts without losing sight of strategic constraints.

• Divergent thinking separates concept generation from early judgement
• TRIZ contradiction analysis resolves conflicting performance and cost requirements
• Morphological charts combine functions with alternative technical solutions
• SCAMPER prompts systematic modification of existing products and service elements
• Analogous solutions sourced from adjacent industries and comparable user problems
• Concept descriptions define target user, value proposition and operating principle

Participants can select product concepts using transparent, weighted evaluation methods.

• Pugh matrices compare concepts against a defined reference solution
• Weighted decision matrices score value, feasibility, cost and strategic fit
• Selection criteria distinguish threshold requirements from competitive differentiators
• Sensitivity analysis tests whether rankings withstand changes in criterion weights
• Concept portfolios balance short-term improvements with higher-uncertainty opportunities
• Decision records document evidence, dissenting views and approval conditions

Participants can plan prototypes and tests that reduce the most important product uncertainties.

• Prototype fidelity matched to the uncertainty being tested
• Learning objectives define what each prototype must confirm or reject
• Usability test scripts measure task completion, errors and user confidence
• Technical proof-of-concept tests examine performance under realistic conditions
• Experiment cards state hypotheses, measures, sample and decision rules
• Validation evidence informs requirement changes, concept revisions and investment decisions

Participants can identify design choices that affect manufacturability, assembly effort and production quality.

• Design for Manufacture reduces process complexity, variation and specialised tooling
• Design for Assembly minimises parts, fasteners, handling and orientation errors
• Tolerance analysis identifies dimensions driving fit, function and production yield
• Process capability considered when setting critical product specifications
• Supplier involvement improves material choices, tooling estimates and production readiness
• Production pilot criteria confirm repeatability before volume release

Participants can identify cost drivers and improve value without compromising essential customer outcomes.

• Value engineering compares required functions against total lifecycle cost
• Function analysis separates primary functions from supporting product features
• Should-cost models estimate materials, labour, overhead and supplier margins
• Target costing works backward from market price and required margin
• Cost-driver trees expose expensive components, processes and service commitments
• Trade-off decisions protect customer value while removing unnecessary cost

Participants can assess product design risks and define proportionate preventive controls.

• Design FMEA identifies failure modes, causes, effects and controls
• Severity, occurrence and detection ratings prioritise design risk actions
• Fault tree analysis traces critical failures to contributing causes
• Reliability requirements define operating conditions, life expectations and failure limits
• Control plans assign verification methods, ownership and escalation thresholds
• Residual risk decisions record acceptance rationale and follow-up actions

Participants can incorporate lifecycle, accessibility and responsible design criteria into product decisions.

• Lifecycle thinking considers materials, energy, use, repair and end-of-life
• Circular design options include reuse, repairability, remanufacture and recycling
• Accessibility requirements address physical, sensory, cognitive and digital access
• Responsible design reviews identify foreseeable misuse and exclusion risks
• Material selection weighs performance, availability, toxicity and recovery pathways
• Sustainability claims require evidence, boundaries and defensible measurement methods

Participants can establish decision rights, reviews and information flows across product development functions.

• RACI matrices clarify accountability for design decisions and approvals
• Stage-gate reviews align evidence requirements with investment commitments
• Design review agendas address requirements, risks, costs and unresolved trade-offs
• Change-control procedures assess effects on scope, cost, quality and schedule
• Configuration management maintains approved versions of requirements and specifications
• Escalation paths resolve conflicts between customer value and technical constraints

Participants can create a product development roadmap linking milestones, dependencies and resource needs.

• Product roadmaps sequence discovery, development, validation and release decisions
• Milestone plans define outputs, owners, dependencies and approval criteria
• Critical path analysis identifies activities constraining target launch dates
• Resource plans match specialist capability to development work packages
• Risk-adjusted schedules include contingency for uncertain technical and market assumptions
• Release planning separates minimum viable scope from later enhancement opportunities

Participants can define post-launch measures and feedback loops for product improvement decisions.

• Product scorecards combine adoption, quality, margin and customer outcome measures
• Leading indicators identify early signals before financial results materialise
• Field feedback systems classify defects, requests and emerging usage patterns
• Post-launch reviews compare assumptions, actual performance and corrective actions
• Design metrics distinguish product outcomes from delivery activity measures
• Improvement backlogs prioritise fixes using impact, urgency and implementation effort

Participants can build, review and present a complete product design strategy dossier for a defined product opportunity.

• Opportunity statement grounded in customer evidence and strategic business priorities
• Customer jobs, segments and value priorities synthesised into design direction
• Requirements baseline includes measurable criteria, constraints and traceability links
• Concept selection rationale supported by weighted evaluation and feasibility evidence
• Cost, manufacturability, sustainability and design risks documented with actions
• Roadmap sets decision gates, resources, milestones and validation activities
• Stakeholder presentation communicates recommendation, trade-offs and approval requests