Product Design Best Practices – a compendium of 50 industry-inspired best practices for quality products, written for design students and practitioners.

What are the design best practices?
What are the elements of a good design process?
How can I learn them?
What methods and tools are helpful?
How can I design quality products in the least time possible?

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Authors

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The 50 Best Practices (BPs) are broken into 10 sections.
Click on a section for a list of Best Practices, then click on a Best Practice for details:

Introduction
To The Design
Process

Section 1.
Introduction To Product
Design Best Practices
Section 2.
Design Process
Fundamentals
Section 3.
Develop
Design Teams

Have a Good Appreciation for the Design Process.

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BEST PRACTICE
1.1

Successful Product Development Organizations

Have a Good Appreciation for the Design Process.

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READING TIME

BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

The design process is the managed structure of people’s knowledge so they can make the best possible design decisions, successfully fulfilling a need with objects.
Many different design processes are used.
Many factors make product design difficult.
The design process is highly recursive; there are usually tasks within tasks.
The design process is iterative, even in the most mature situations.

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Focus The Design Effort On The Entire Product Life Cycle.

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BEST PRACTICE
1.2

Successful Product Development Organizations

Focus The Design Effort On The Entire Product Life Cycle.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

The design process not only gives birth to a product but is responsible for its life and death.
Decisions made by designers affect virtually all the stages in a product’s life cycle.
There are four stages in a product’s life cycle: Design, Production and Delivery, Use, and End of Life.
The designer must address all four.
The Design stage is further broken into phases: Product Definition, Project Planning, Conceptual Design, and Product Development.
The Production and Delivery stage consists of Manufacture, Assemble, Distribute,and install.
A product is often designed for many different uses.
The end of life is usually a combination of the product being retired (taken out of use), then some combination of disassembly, disposal, recycling, or reuse.
Modern products are designed cradle-to-cradle.

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Focus on Function During Product Development.

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BEST PRACTICE
1.3

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Focus on Function During Product Development.

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READING TIME

BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

Function is what an object does.
Action verbs communicate function.
During design, function is in terms of the product’s desired performance.
As form evolves, function is in terms of the product’s behavior, what it actually does. Behavior is realized performance.
Mechanical design engineers work from function to form, where the form can be of many different shapes and alternative materials.
Electronics engineers work on functions in various fixed forms (PC boards, components, and connecting wires).
Software engineers operate exclusively on function.

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Consciously and Continuously Balance Product Cost, Development Time, and Quality.

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BEST PRACTICE
1.4

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Consciously and Continuously Balance Product Cost, Development Time, and Quality.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

Designers cost little but have a significant impact on product cost and quality.
Design decisions affect the cost of a product as much as the manufacturing processes used.
Product cost is committed early in the design process.
Product quality is designed into products.
Best practices help keep time, cost, and quality in balance.

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Develop Mechanical, Electronic, Software and Manufacturing Systems Concurrently.

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BEST PRACTICE
1.5

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Develop Mechanical, Electronic, Software and Manufacturing Systems Concurrently.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

Most modern products rely on mechanical, electronic, and software to make them function.
Mechatronic engineering is the simultaneous design of a product’s mechanical, electronic, and software elements.
No single person is an expert in all these fields; therefore, teams develop virtually all products.

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Use Design Tools to Support the Product and the Process.

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BEST PRACTICE
1.6

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Use Design Tools to Support the Product and the Process.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

There are many types of tools that support product design: communication, planning, product lifecycle, CAD, performance analysis, human interface, AR and VR, information relationships, and measurement.
Tools take learning effort to be useful.

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Use Information Relationship Management Tools.

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BEST PRACTICE
1.7

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Use Information Relationship Management Tools.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

Mind Maps help develop relationships amongst people, objects, places, concepts, or events.
Affinity Diagrams are ideal for generating, organizing, and consolidating product or process information.
Flow Charts help organize anything that flows, such as information, energy, control, materials, task work, and data.
DSMs are used to determine the sequence of tasks or functions and to cluster items into work or structure modules.

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Develop and Leverage Societal and Technological Advances.

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BEST PRACTICE
1.8

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Develop and Leverage Societal and Technological Advances.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

Artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing, and internet communication are changing the design process in unforeseeable ways.
Design process tools and methods constantly evolve to utilize these new technologies, generating new best practices.

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Treat Design as a Learning Process.

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BEST PRACTICE
2.1

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Treat Design as a Learning Process.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

Individual engineers, the team, and the organization learn throughout the design process.
Learning is a spiral, building on what was learned before.
Every action taken during the design process results in new knowledge about the product and process.
What is learned is reflected in the fidelity of the analytical and physical models.

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Value Documented Design Information.

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BEST PRACTICE
2.2

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Value Documented Design Information.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

Design information ranges from sketches on paper to the hardware and software of the final product.
Information not documented is often lost to the individual and always lost to the organization.
Document all artifacts and decisions, as these are part of the organization’s intellectual property.
Documents need to capture what is in the engineers’ heads and communicate it to other engineers.

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Manage Information Uncertainty and Risk.

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BEST PRACTICE
2.3

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Manage Information Uncertainty and Risk.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

VUCA is widely used to describe information uncertainty: VUCA = Volatile + Uncertain + Complex + Ambiguous.
Volatile information is changing and evolving. Uncertain information has a distribution about a mean.
Complex information causes change in unexpected places.
Ambiguous information is subject to each individual’s interpretation.
VUCA leaves out two additional forms of uncertainty: incomplete information and Black Swans.
Incomplete information is missing key data.
Black Swans are unforeseen events that have a significant effect on the product.
The combination of all forms of uncertainty is referred to as VUCA+.
Product and project risk is dependent on managing VUCA+.

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Make Rational and Transparent Design Decisions.

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BEST PRACTICE
2.4

Successful Product Development Organizations

Make Rational and Transparent Design Decisions.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

Design is a series of interdependent decisions.
The activity of decision-making creates information and facilitates conversation and understanding.
ALL decisions have five essential parts: understand the issue, develop measures, generate alternatives, evaluate alternatives, and decide what to do next.
Addressing the basic decision-building blocks fosters learning.
ALL decisions are based on VUCA+ information.
Methods to help engineers make decisions include pro-con lists, pairwise comparisons, and decision matrices.
Successful organizations know when decisions are final.

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Use Product-Centered Design Teams.

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BEST PRACTICE
3.1

Successful Product Development Organizations

Use Product-Centered Design Teams.

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READING TIME

BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

A team is a group in search of a common understanding. Successful teams have identifiable characteristics.
Simple team building activities can set the pattern for team success.
Often, teams are part of a hierarchy of teams. It is helpful to have a team contract.

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Support Each Individual’s Roles, Expertise, Creativity, and Style.

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BEST PRACTICE
3.2

Successful Product Development Organizations

Support Each Individual’s Roles, Expertise, Creativity, and Style.

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READING TIME

BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

There are many roles on a design team, and successful organizations ensure that all the important ones are filled.
Engineers are on the team primarily for their expertise.
Successful organizations ensure that the right expertise is on the team.
Successful organizations foster creativity.
Each member of the team has their own problem-solving style.
Successful teams get the best out of all their members regardless of style.

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Ensure the teams have a work environment that fosters success.

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BEST PRACTICE
3.3

Successful Product Development Organizations

Ensure the teams have a work environment that fosters success.

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READING TIME

BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

A good physical workspace can help a team be successful.
Engineers need a realistic workload without many distractions.
Successful organizations enfranchise their teams to make decisions.
The right tools help engineers to do their jobs effectively.
People work best in a positive company culture where everyone wants to contribute and do well.

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Maintain Good Team Health.

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BEST PRACTICE
3.4

Successful Product Development Organizations

Maintain Good Team Health.

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READING TIME

BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

Team health means getting the best from the team and the individuals.
Recognize the symptoms of poor team health and poor team member contribution.
Base remedies on a clear identification of the causes.
Use retrospection as a part of continuous design team improvement.

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Build
Understanding

Section 4.
Building Problem
Understanding
Section 5.
Planning And Managing The
Design Process

Ensure They Understand the Design Problem.

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BEST PRACTICE
4.1

Successful Product Development Organizations

Ensure They Understand the Design Problem.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

There are many types of design problems.
Design problems focus on all levels of product granularity, from entire products to minor details.
Some problems depend on mature technologies, and others on those just evolving.
The process of addressing problem understanding is the same regardless of discipline, type, granularity, or maturity.
Work yet to be done on the design problem is managed in a Problem Backlog.

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Keep the Stakeholders at the Forefront of the Project.

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BEST PRACTICE
4.2

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Keep the Stakeholders at the Forefront of the Project.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

A stakeholder is a person or organization that interacts (directly or indirectly) with the object being designed.
Stakeholders are the main source of requirements.
The primary stakeholders are customers and users.
Two practical methods to find the stakeholders are Journey Maps and Stakeholder checklists.
Stakeholders may evolve and change their product needs.
Providing safety for the stakeholders is a key design responsibility.

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Work to Understand the Design Requirements.

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BEST PRACTICE
4.3

Successful Product Development Organizations

Work to Understand the Design Requirements.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

Design requirements are statements about what the stakeholders want.
There are many types of design requirements.
The stakeholders’ interaction with the object directly determines its perceived quality and, to a great degree, its salability and success in the marketplace.

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Use Many Methods to Develop Design Requirements.

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BEST PRACTICE
4.4

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Use Many Methods to Develop Design Requirements.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

There are many methods used to develop design requirements.
Requirements need to be sufficiently developed and no further.
Requirements are not equally important to each stakeholder.
Requirements change over time (adding, deleting, decomposing, modifying), but only with review and care.

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Dissect Products to Gain Product Understanding and Find Market Opportunities.

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BEST PRACTICE
4.5

Successful Product Development Organizations

Dissect Products to Gain Product Understanding and Find Market Opportunities.

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READING TIME

BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

Organizations dissect competitors’ products to learn about them.
Product dissection is often called product decomposition or reverse engineering.
The goal of dissection is to identify the individual components, how they are manufactured and assembled, the interfaces between them, and their function, as well as find market opportunities.

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Develop Engineering Specifications That Measure the Design Requirements.

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BEST PRACTICE
4.6

Successful Product Development Organizations

Develop Engineering Specifications That Measure the Design Requirements.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

Engineering specifications are refined customer requirements that are testable.
Engineering specifications are structured as (object) (measure) (units) (target) (threshold).
A fully refined problem backlog is composed entirely of specifications—only possible for very mature products.

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Use Quality Function Deployment (QFD) to Develop Problem Understanding.

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BEST PRACTICE
4.7

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Use Quality Function Deployment (QFD) to Develop Problem Understanding.

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READING TIME

BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

QFD is a major method for building problem understanding.
QFD is widely used in the automotive industry.
QFD integrates stakeholders, requirements, and specification development.

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Develop Test-Driven Design Tasks with Clear Deliverables.

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BEST PRACTICE
5.1

Successful Product Development Organizations

Develop Test-Driven Design Tasks with Clear Deliverables.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

Tasks describe what needs to be delivered (new information/knowledge) by each unit of work in the design process.
Test-driven development focuses task attention on the deliverables.
Each task must have a clear owner—without a single owner, no one is responsible.
Prototypes are developed to support task learning and testing.
It is important to design the tests to be "good enough for now."

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Enable Teams to Make Realistic Task Estimates.

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BEST PRACTICE
5.2

Successful Product Development Organizations

Enable Teams to Make Realistic Task Estimates.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

Engineers need to estimate the resources needed for projects.
There are many methods to make estimates.
All estimates are inaccurate—they are uncertain forecasts.

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Manage Backlogs with a Planning Model.

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BEST PRACTICE
5.3

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Manage Backlogs with a Planning Model.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

Develop a plan to work on the most critical tasks first.
A plan is a proposed sequence of tasks to develop a product that meets the design requirements and specifications.
Linear design processes with a rigid sequence of tasks are best used for well-understood tasks.
An Agile process provides a loose structure for the tasks and is best used for poorly understood and under-defined tasks.
The design process followed in industry is often a mix of linear and agile.
Too much planning leads to waste; too little planning leads to chaos.
Successful organizations document the processes that work for them so they can be repeated consistently.

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Design the Task Plan for Each Project.

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BEST PRACTICE
5.4

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Design the Task Plan for Each Project.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

Projects are managed with a combination of Gantt charts and Kanban boards.
Too much planning leads to waste; too little leads to chaos.
Successful organizations document the processes that work for them so they can be repeated consistently.
Plans are intended to be modified, updated, and extended.
Change due to learning is good; reworking (fixing a mistake) is bad.

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Make Design Reviews Part of Product Development.

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BEST PRACTICE
5.5

Successful Product Development Organizations

Make Design Reviews Part of Product Development.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

Design reviews are part of learning.
Frequent small reviews are much more useful than occasional large reviews.
Frequent small reviews ensure work is not conflicting or duplicated by different people.

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Generate
Concepts

Section 6.
Alternative Generation

Systematically Generate Alternative Options.

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BEST PRACTICE
6.1

Successful Product Development Organizations

Systematically Generate Alternative Options.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

Problem or subproblem options can be generated using the same methods.
Generating many ideas helps avoid premature design fixation.
Generating many ideas helps in exploring the option space.
Using systematic methods increases the likelihood of developing promising ideas.

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Develop and Explore Multiple Concepts in Parallel.

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BEST PRACTICE
6.2

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Develop and Explore Multiple Concepts in Parallel.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

All design problems have many different answers.
Generating many varied ideas builds confidence in the final developed solution.
To create parallel concepts using set-based or dark horse design approaches.
To use concepts to generate new understanding of the requirements and specifications.

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Design from Known Stable Interfaces.

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BEST PRACTICE
6.3

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Design from Known Stable Interfaces.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

Most products have many of their components grouped into modules—functional entities.
Modules physically and functionally interact at their interfaces.
Designing fixed, stable interfaces allows for the independence of modules and better products.

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Develop Function Models.

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BEST PRACTICE
6.4

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Develop Function Models.

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BEST PRACTICE KEY CONCEPTS

Function modeling sets the foundation for the development of form and code.
Function primarily happens at interfaces.
Systems and the assemblies, components, and code that make them function are usually designed from interfaces—from the outside in.
The activity of function modeling extracts new requirements, affords comparison of optional configurations, and provides a foundation for transforming to hardware and software.

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Refine Concepts into Simple, Viable Products.

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BEST PRACTICE
6.5

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Refine Concepts into Simple, Viable Products.

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READING TIME

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Function drives interfaces while interfaces drive the form of components and assemblies.
Design is like peeling an onion, working from the outside inward.
Refining a product requires iteration for continuous improvement of performance.
During iteration, there is a significant difference between refining and patching.
Safety must be designed into a product. Design work is only as good as what the documentation captures.

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Systematically Prune Alternatives.

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BEST PRACTICE
6.6

Successful Product Development Organizations

Systematically Prune Alternatives.

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Alternatives should be pruned, not selected. Pruning methods foster discussion, learning, and decisions.
Engineers make decisions with methods that support the decision-making process.

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Evaluate
Concepts

Section 7.
Uncertainty Evaluation And
Management
Section 8.
Evaluate For
Performance
Section 9.
Product
Evaluation For X

Assess Each Technology’s Readiness.

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BEST PRACTICE
7.1

Successful Product Development Organizations

Assess Each Technology’s Readiness.

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Every technology used in a product has a "readiness," a measure of how easily it can be integrated into the product.
Successful organizations are aware of the readiness of each technology proposed and used.
The assessment process yields much information about the state of product development and provides a structure for communication.

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Begin Risk Assessment During Conceptual Design.

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BEST PRACTICE
7.2

Successful Product Development Organizations

Begin Risk Assessment During Conceptual Design.

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Risk is the likelihood of something happening times its consequence.
Risk is caused by uncertainty and thus cannot be fully mitigated.
Designers need to be aware of product, project, and decision risks so they know what to spend time addressing.
A product failure can result from poor risk management during the design process.
Product liability is the area of law where organizations and individuals are held responsible for product failures.

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Use the Factor of Safety and Margins as Design Variables.

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BEST PRACTICE
7.3

Successful Product Development Organizations

Use the Factor of Safety and Margins as Design Variables.

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Factors of safety and margins account for uncertainty during design to reduce product risk or give room for growth.
A factor of safety is the ratio of what is allowed to what is applied.
Margins are the difference between the allowed and the applied and are equal to the factor of safety minus one.
Factors of safety and margins are commonly used in mechanical design, and margins are used in electrical engineering and computer science.

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Develop Tolerances Consistent with Needed Function, Fit, and Manufacturing Methods.

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BEST PRACTICE
7.4

Successful Product Development Organizations

Develop Tolerances Consistent with Needed Function, Fit, and Manufacturing Methods.

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Costs generally increase exponentially with tighter tolerances on mechanical and electronic components.
In mechanical assemblies and electronic circuits, tolerances stack up to affect fit and function.
There are three ways to calculate stack-up: additive (worst case), statistical, and Monte Carlo.

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Have a Clear Performance Evaluation and Optimization Plan.

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BEST PRACTICE
8.1

Successful Product Development Organizations

Have a Clear Performance Evaluation and Optimization Plan.

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Evaluation determines how well a concept works and guides its optimization. Evaluation is the culmination of Test-Driven Development (TDD).
Since the design specifications' targets and thresholds are numerical values, TDD requires the product to be refined sufficiently to make numerical comparisons to them physically or analytically.
Care must be taken with analysis tools: the results are only as good as the user’s knowledge of the tools, the values input, and the underlying physics.

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Optimize their products to Improve Performance.

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BEST PRACTICE
8.2

Successful Product Development Organizations

Optimize their products to Improve Performance.

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Sensitivity analysis is one technique for managing trade-offs and improving performance.
Trade-offs are used to identify the most balanced technical solutions among a set of proposed viable solutions.
During design, “optimization” usually refers to the informal methodology used to make a system as effective as possible.
It is seldom possible to use formal mathematical procedures (such as finding the maximum of a function).

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Use Design of Experiments (DOE) to Support Product Development.

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BEST PRACTICE
8.3

Successful Product Development Organizations

Use Design of Experiments (DOE) to Support Product Development.

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Design of Experiments (DOE) methods can be used to understand the effect of variables on the key performance indicators (KPIs).
DOE is a powerful design optimization method.
DOE is both the exploration of the design space and is used to find “nominal-is-best,” “more-is-better,” or “less-is-better” performance for KPIs.
DOE “experiments” can be physical or analytical.
DOE makes use of the Analysis of Means (ANOM).

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Develop Robust Products.

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BEST PRACTICE
8.4

Successful Product Development Organizations

Develop Robust Products.

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A robust design is insensitive to noise.
Noise is what the designer cannot or chooses not to control.
Noise is uncertainty typically caused by manufacturing variations, use, aging, and environmental conditions.
Uncertainty due to noise makes the design space fuzzy.
Robustness can be designed into products.
Design of Experiments (DOE) methods can be extended to produce robust designs.
The "experiments" can be physical or analytical.

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Design for Cost.

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BEST PRACTICE
9.1

Successful Product Development Organizations

Design for Cost.

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Cost requirements drive many products.
The cost of machined parts is a function of their size, tolerances, and the number to be produced.
Injection molded part cost is tied to the complexity of the mold.
Regardless of the manufacturing process, the cost usually decreases with volume, asymptotically approaching a fixed value.
The cost of additive-manufactured components is generally not very dependent on the quantity.
The cost of PCBs depends on the size, the number of layers, and the components.
The cost of code depends on its function or the number of lines of code.

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Design for Manufacture.

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BEST PRACTICE
9.2

Successful Product Development Organizations

Design for Manufacture.

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Injection molded parts need thin walls and features that allow them to be easily removed from molds.
Machined parts can get expensive as the features on them are increased.
Printed components can have intricate features and are suitable for low-volume production.
Printed circuit boards must be designed to support components and be easily mounted in physical structures.

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Design for Assembly.

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BEST PRACTICE
9.3

Successful Product Development Organizations

Design for Assembly.

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Design for Assembly evaluation is only important if assembly cost is a significant part of the product cost.
For hand, automatic, or robot assembly, thirteen DFA guidelines are used in industry to streamline assembly.
DFA guidelines include part retrieval, handling, and mating.
Estimating the time and cost of assembly is particularly challenging.

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Design for Reliability.

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BEST PRACTICE
9.4

Successful Product Development Organizations

Design for Reliability.

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A reliable product has a low risk of failure.
Failure renders a component, assembly, or system incapable of performing its intended function.
Faulty Tree Analysis (FTA) is a method to discover failure events and their logical relationships.
The Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) is the average elapsed time between failures.
Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) is a quantitative method to analyze the risk of failure.
There are four avenues for risk mitigation: avoidance, reduction, transfer, and acceptance.
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is widely used to understand potential failures.

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Design for Test and Maintainability.

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BEST PRACTICE
9.5

Successful Product Development Organizations

Design for Test and Maintainability.

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Maintainability is the ease of replacing parts or assemblies.
The ability to test product function is a significant element of maintainability.
Test and maintainability are important for expensive consumer products and all industrial products.
In a throw-away society, there is little need for testing and maintaining many consumer products.

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Design for Sustainability.

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BEST PRACTICE
9.6

Successful Product Development Organizations

Design for Sustainability.

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The Earth does not have a pollution problem; it has a design problem.
Most products end up in landfills.
Measuring a product’s greenness or sustainability is possible by developing a Design for Sustainability (DFS) score.

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Post Design
Consideration

Section 10.
Post Design Consideration

BP
10.1

Manage Product Change.

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10.1

Successful Product Development Organizations

Manage Product Change.

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Product changes naturally occur during the design process.
Product changes occur after product release.
Product changes after release can be very costly.
Ongoing product change can be part of a design philosophy.

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BP
10.2

Value and Manage Their Intellectual Property.

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BEST PRACTICE
10.2

Successful Product Development Organizations

Value and Manage Their Intellectual Property.

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All the ideas, analyses, and drawings are an organization’s intellectual property.
Organizations work hard to protect their trade secrets.
Unique ideas can be protected through patents.
Patents make ideas public. Patents reflect bets on unproved invention value.
Patents give bragging rights and a license to litigate.
The patent process is not difficult.

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Product Design Best Practices

50 Industry-Inspired Best Practices for Quality Products

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The 50 Best Practices (BPs) are broken into 10 sections.Click on a section for a list of Best Practices, then click on a Best Practice for details:

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The 50 Best Practices (BPs) are broken into 10 sections.
Click on a section for a list of Best Practices, then click on a Best Practice for details:

Introduction
To The Design
Process

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Understanding

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Generate
Concepts