Overview

Product concepts change and evolve during product development. To help manage this, we use:

1. A Stage Gate Model
2. An evolving Product Proposal

both of which are described in more detail below.

1. Stage Gate Model

A Stage Gate Model organizes product development into stages with specific activities. The results of these activities are evaluated using a set of criteria that constitute a gate. A gate review has four possible outcomes:

1. The product passes, and proceeds to the next stage.
2. The product doesn’t pass, and returns to the same stage to repeat activities and try again. This is a minor iteration.
3. The product doesn’t pass, and returns to an earlier stage to repeat activities and try again. This is a major iteration. (e.g. from Stage 7 to Stage 4).
4. The product doesn’t pass, and development stops (at least temporarily).

We will use (some of) the following stages and gates:

#	Stage & Gate	Stage Highlights
1	Exploration	identify potential opportunities
2	Elaboration	concept development, market analysis
3	Venture Proposal	mockups & models, financial analysis
4	Design	requirements, functionality, design
5	Development	prototyping, development, testing
6	Validation	review assumptions & risks, market feedback, directions
7	Business Plan	ROI, timeframe, outcomes

2. Product Proposal

A Product Proposal is a written document that describes the current status of the product, and what needs to be done to make it a (commercial) success. Developing a full business proposal can be an enormous amount of work, so we iterate through several multiple versions of it, using the stage gate model.

The following table indicates the approximate size (in words) of each section of the proposal, in each version. See the Product Proposal: Template for details and see below for examples. These are guidelines, not requirements; the actual length will depend on the concept and your project plan.

#	Section	Elaboration Proposal	Venture Proposal
1	Executive Summary	300 w	400 w
2	Overview	- - - -	- - - -
2.1	Introduction	200 w	400+ w
2.2	Abbreviations & Definitions	as needed	as needed
2.3	Background	as needed	as needed
3	Market Analysis	- - - -	- - - -
3.1	Needs Analysis	200 w	400+ w
3.2	Competitive Analysis		4 comps, 10+ features
4	Requirements	- - - -	- - - -
4.1	Actors & Use Cases	4 actors, 10 cases	4 actors, 15+ cases
4.2	Requirements	20	40+
4.3	Deliverables	as needed	as needed
5	Design	- - - -	- - - -
5.1	User Interfaces	as needed	as needed
5.2	Diagrams (UML, etc)		as needed
5.3	Other Design		as needed
6	Product Plan	- - - -	- - - -
6.1	Team & Organization		200 w
6.2	Estimates & Schedule		as needed
6.3	Resource & Budget		as needed
6.4	Risks		10+
7	References	5	10+

3. Setting Priorities

Each proposal should seek to identify the most important issues for the proposed product, learn as much as possible about those issues in the time available, and then decide whether it makes sense to continue investing time and money in the proposed product.
The Product Proposal: Template provides a framework for organizing this information,
but the most important issues may be different for each proposed product.
For example, the most important issues might include:

• How would people learn about it? (advertising, word of mouth)
• How many people would use it? pay for it?
• How much would they pay for it?
• How will it work?
• What new or improved technologies are required?
• What patents could be obtained or licensed for it?
• What will it cost to create, manufacture, and distribute it?
• What grants or loans are available to move this project forward?

4. Example Proposals

Elaboration Proposal - Evaluation Rubric

Date:
Reviewer:
Presenter & Project: