Product Innovation for Interdisciplinary Design under Changing Requirements

It is crucial for the development of high quality products that design requirements are identified and clarified as early as possible in the design process. In many projects the design requirements and design specifications evolve during the project cycle. Shifting needs of the customer, advancing technology, market considerations and even additional customers can cause the requirements to change. Because the different parts of a product are usually inter-connected, the requirements and specifications for one part of a product are often dependent on the requirements and the evolving design of other parts of the product. If uncontrolled, the design changes derived from evolving requirements may propagate through a design and disrupt the product development schedule, increase development costs, and result in a failure to satisfy the customers’ needs. The challenge of designing with changing requirements can be even more challenging in a product development environment where a new product is targeted and/or with interdisciplinary teams. The work of this paper explores possible design strategies for product development under changing requirements. Six design strategies were identified and implemented in the development of an insect imaging device for the Bug ID project at Oregon State University. Based on experiences throughout this interdisciplinary project, this paper explores how to incorporate the considerations of evolving design requirements into feasible product development strategies.