Developing profitable technology products

How to Develop Profitable Technology Products

Successful products include these five critical elements (Online and in-person)

Industry career workshop for scientists

Developing profitable technology products is the exciting application of scientific knowledge to engineer a solution to a problem. It’s the activity where knowledge is transferred from books and journal articles into real solutions, and it is where science finds its true value. But strong technical skills are only part of what’s needed to develop a profitable technology product.

Successful products need to be scalable, reliable, and most of all, profitable. How do product development teams come together and turn science into things people need in an efficient and effective way? In this class you will learn some useful and proven systems and how to apply them at your own company.

Upon completion of the course, the participants will be able to:

  1. Describe the 5 critical elements of a product (Definable, Scalable, Reliable, Viable, and Profitable) and be able to answer the question: “Do we have a product?” for their own company.
  2. Explain the purpose and key elements of the Stage-Gate Product Development Process (PDP), and diagram a PDP for their own company
  3. Outline the purpose and agenda of a design review and list the four primary types and when they are used
  4. Describe the Product Manger role and why it is especially important in early-stage companies
  5. Explain how a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) helps to identifying, prioritize, and mitigate product risks, and conduct an FMEA at their own company.
  6. Outline the 8-Discipline (8D) approach to problem resolution and describe how this approach can be used to turn a customer issue into an opportunity.

At TurningScience, we emphasize that most of what is done in the private sector doesn’t have a single ‘right way’ to do it. The slogan we use is It’s a game, not a formula,’ and product development certainly follows this principle. But while there may not be a single ‘right way’, there are definitely good practices and bad practices. In this talk, we’ll tell you about both.  Think of us as your coach, giving you the benefit of our experience, and telling you what we think matters most if you want to play a winning game!

If you are currently a product developer, or if you aspire to become involved in product development, this talk will give you some proven systems and tools and teach you how to apply them at your own company. If you haven’t started your industry career yet, the information that you learn in this talk will be excellent preparation for your first interviews. You will possess insights about product development that most other scientists competing for the same job will not!

Lecturer:

David M. Giltner, PhD – Founder and President of TurningScience

David has spent more than twenty years developing cutting-edge photonics technologies into commercial products in the fields of optical communications, remote sensing, directed energy, and scientific instrumentation. In 2017 he started TurningScience to provide training and support for scientists of all disciplines seeking to enter the private sector as employees, collaborators, or entrepreneurs.

David is the author of the books Turning Science into Things People Need: Voices of Scientists Working in Industry and It’s a Game, not a Formula: How to Succeed as a Scientist Working in the Private Sector and is an internationally recognized speaker and mentor on the topics of technology commercialization, product development, and career design. David has a BS and PhD in physics and holds seven patents in the fields of laser spectroscopy and optical communications.

Contact me about this short-course

This is also offered through NaturalScience.Careers under the title 'Developing Profitable Technology Products'