Design Reviews. Priceless, when done right
Let's talk about the elephant everyone like to avoid in the meeting room: Design Reviews (DR).
First thing is first, Design reviews are NOT:
A design session
A brainstorming event
A project management status meeting (although development timelines are presented and discussed)
Design reviews ARE well prepared, all hands events in which the technological and technical aspects of a product, which is a result of a meticulous design process, are presented and then discussed.
There are four types of Design Reviews that I insist on having in every product development I lead:
CoDR - Concepts Design Review. In this event, all the R&D describe the various concepts they came up with and tested as a response to the Product Management request. Preferably, a chosen concept will be presented, including the tradeoffs, risks and reasoning of choosing it. Once approved, the project moves to the high level design phase.
PDR - Preliminary design review. In this design review, the chosen concept is shown in much more detail. Main components, Long Lead Items (LLI) and rough estimation of the product cost are presented. Once approved, the project moves to detailed design phase.
CDR - Critical Design Review. This is where the product is presented at the highest detail. Simply put, the design team should be able to answer every question that is raised about the product’s functionality and structure. More important, the operations and service organizations resent their plans for the product. The criticality of this review is simple: once approved, the project moves to the final prototype phase. In other words, this is where the real expenses start.
PRR - Production Readiness Review. On this occasion the project is handed over from the R&D/Engineering to Operations. This is where all the testing results are presented as well as the product’s final, and frozen, configuration. The costs of serial production should be known too.
Here are some basic DR guidelines I recommend my customers to follow:
Prepare the DR in advance. A well prepared DR is delivered using a presentation. Avoid the temptation to open a design software (I.e. CAD software), as it will derail the whole conversation. Also, using a presentation forces the engineers to find the best way to communicate their reasoning.
Review the whole product, not a subsystem. Breaking down the system to multiple components with dedicated DR per each is tempting (less preparation needed etc.) but it defeats the purpose. Of course, during the DR every subsystem is presented but reviewing all the subsystems in one event allows for holistic view of the product.
Take your time and manage it. Most well prepared design reviews of multidisciplinary products will take 3-5 hours. Large and complex products might require DRs that take several days. Been there, done that. Worth every minute.
Invite representatives from all the company’s departments. It is not an exclusive R&D event.
If there are external partners (like a key manufacturer) make sure that they are in the room too. Actually, in CDR and PRR, such external partner might also need to present their preparations.
Be prepared to pull out the plug… really. It is totally ok to decide in a DR that the product actually doesn’t make sense, or not a good fit to the market, and just decide to stop the development. After all, R&D is an exploration process. You learn as you go. At least in one occasion I took a decision at the end of a CDR to scrap the design and go all the way back to the concepts phase; it saved us months and a lot of money.
And back to the elephant: many will read this and will think: this is great but it doesn’t fit our dynamic/startup/timeline environment.
Nothing is farthest from the truth.
Professionally prepared and executed DRs are the BEST guarantee one can have to get to the right product at minimum time and effort.
