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Product Requirements: Do You Know What You Need?

A reoccurring issue that Pegmatis sees when engaged by a new customer to develop a new product is that the customer often has not thought through the product requirements. This situation happens more often than not when the customer is new to product development. Many studies have shown that requirement errors are costly, so imagine the potential costs and liabilities that may result when someone attempts to develop a product without a thorough understanding of the requirements. Pegmatis, a design and development company with a seasoned team of hardware, software and manufacturing specialists, can help.

What are product requirements?

There are two very separate and distinct types of requirements: business (base) requirements and solution requirements. Think of it this way: a base requirement is a product need, and a solution requirement is a response designed to satisfy that need or a part of that need.

Lets use a scalpel design to illustrate this. Scalpel designers will often use stainless steel to build ascalpel. When someone new to the field wishes to design a scalpel, they might consider the use ofstainless steel to be a “requirement,” which is not correct. The use of stainless steel is a solution requirement rather than a base requirement. Examples of some base requirements might include: thescalpel shall be constructed from a material that must maintain a very sharp edge; must be resistant tosterilization processes; and will not break during medical procedures.

If this were the extent of the base requirements, stainless steel would likely be adequate to construct the scalpel. However, a deeper investigation of the product needs might find that this particular scalpel is being designed for use during MRI procedures. Therefore, this new base requirement would make the use of stainless steel inadequate given the magnetic interaction between stainless steel and MRI
technology.

Following are some essential areas of concern that should be explored for product requirements: Durability, usability, certification, functional, environmental, security, safety and scalability.

Pegmatis capitalizes on experience and technology to engineer a better future. For more information, visit www.pegmatis.com 

About Pegmatis

Pegmatis began as a Fortune 500 company’s elite design center working with their top-tier customers from design ideation, cost-driven design architecture up to launching scores of high-volume products into the market. Chances are you have used or worked with a product that we have designed. We have developed high-tech products from smartphones and connected streaming devices to ultra-high-end audio and medical products. As of 2016, Pegmatis has been operating under its own banner and has continued to provide high-fidelity design and manufacturing services to customers, leveraging our network for mass production. Same Dream Team, but add an elite software team, and you have Pegmatis. Truly a complete end-to-end design partner in hardware, software, or both.