Turning Technology Into Customer Demand

Technology and technological advancements are at the root of innovation, but customers don't buy a technological advancement - they buy a product that incorprates technology to deliver value. "Commercializing a technology" is the process of understanding the customer, understanding the need, defining the value, and delivering.

It's not enough to assume "customers just see the value"
It's not enough to hope your technologists can spin and communicate a compelling story
It's not enough to think your compelling story will be automagically carried through the design and development of the product

Product strategy is an essential part of finding your way from a technology that works on the bench to a manufactured item in someone's hand, on their lab bench, or anywhere in their life.

Product Behavior Consulting (PBC) principals have 30+ years of market research, user experience design, product concept development, market and product requirements development, and program management, in markets as diverse as medical diagnostics, EV charging systems, drug delivery, and astronomical instrumentation. Whatever the context, our tools and techniques bring a team from "that's a neat technology" to "that's a successful product."

From Technology to Product

What’s the roadmap from here’s a technology to selling a product? When you know what the technology is, how does that get packaged into a compelling product?

Turning Market Situations into Market Needs
- Question: Here’s what’s happening in the market today. What can this technology provide that would make it better?
- Activities: Market evaluation; customer identification; contextual & ethnographic research; competitive landscaping; price analysis
Turning Market Needs into Market Requirements
- Questions:: Who is the market? What would meet the market? What would change the market?
- Activities: Market requirement documentation; competitive benchmarking; pricing strategy
Turning Technology Capabilities into Product Story
- Questions: You know what the tech can do, but what’s the product? What does it offer the customer? What’s the benefit beyond the function? How does the customer think about the product and its benefits (and its drawbacks)? How do we frame the conversation with funders, customers? How do we excite our team?
- Activities: Technology evaluation; benefit ranking; storytelling tools
Turning Market Requirements and Product Story into Technical Product Definition
- Questions: What must the product do in order to meet the market need? What’s the minimum viable product? What are the nice-to-haves? What do we want to avoid? How do we talk about negatives? What are the regulatory requirements and hurdles?
- Activities: Development of feature traceability matrix; risk analysis (technical, schedule, cost)
Turning Product Definition into Product Requirements
- Question: How do we ensure the product definition and spirit are carried through the design process?
- Activities: Formal definition of the product requirements; Formal identification of risk and risk management strategies
Turning Product Requirements into Development Plan
- Questions: What are the right tools for design, development, and manufacturing? How are we going to actually build it?
- Activities: Team design for design; engineering; manufacturing; Partner identification and engagement; Schedule and budget development; Regulatory strategy; Development roadmap
Execute!
- Question: How will we control development?
- Activities: Schedule and budget monitor and control; Risk management; Documentation.

What is Product Behavior?

Product Behavior encapsulates our approach to product strategy and design:

A common-sense view of a product as an active partner in getting a job done, not just a “thing”
A process for understanding the point of a product. What’s the story that connects with the customer? What’s the story that motivates the team?
A set of tools for capturing requirements that maintains the explicit personality of the product
A balance of design thinking (for broad consideration of market need and product possibility) and systems engineering (for formal definition and process execution)

Consulting Services

PBC provides fractional Product Strategist, Technical Product Manager, and Systems Engineering services, including:

Pitch deck development
Product concept development
User & market research
Market requirements documentation development
Competitive analysis and benchmarking
Product and product roadmap definition
Product requirements documentation development
Risk analysis and documentation

About

Aaron Oppenheimer has been a product designer and developer for over 35 years. He has worked with a wide variety of companies in markets including healthcare and medical devices, scientific instrumentation, and consumer products. He has provided insights to some of the largest - and smallest - companies on the planet.