...Applies the methodology of organizational strategic planning to your specific product development plan. It takes into account your production and marketing capabilities, your available resources for development, the competition and where they are going to be when your product is released, your vision of what you want the product to say about you and how it will fit in to your product line, what your customer wants and what they need in the product.... Everything that will affect the development and marketing of your next product.

This is not simply a list of criteria- It needs to balance all the items against each other, reconciling contradictory needs and giving you a road map to watch as the project progresses.

A good Strategic Plan can save you a huge amount of time and money in backtracking and rework.

...Looks at the market your product will be going into and at what your customers want and need in a product. This research will go beyond just looking at the feature set and price, to examining harder to quantify things such as "emotional content" which can affect how comfortable the user will be with the product, especially if it is new and unfamiliar.

The research can also be used to detect trends and technologies from other product types that can apply to your market, to enhance your market position and user satisfaction.

...We are very good at distilling your thoughts and planning about your new company and its anticipated products into a set of sketches and models that will explain to your prospective investors why doing so will "enhance shareholder value".

With nearly 30 years experience in design consulting, we can quickly and cost-effectively help to get your operation funded and rolling.

This falls into the category of "A picture is worth a thousand words".

...One of my major peeves as a design consultant is getting involved with a project and finding that R&D staffing and even some basic assumptions made about the product at an early stage are inadequate and ill-conceived. It can be very hard at that point to make needed changes and get the project back on track. I have seen far too many projects get bogged down, sometimes costing investors millions of dollars and valuable time.

By looking at a company that you are considering investing in and evaluating its staffing and technology, I can give you valuable insight into your decision-making process.

It is much easier and less expensive to deal with this early on. (see: "Millions of dollars and valuable time")

...After your product's functionality is perfected, reliability and manufacturability have been addressed, and its housing is made beautiful, it is not complete if you haven t made it easy and safe to use.

At the Kardel Group, this is one of the primary criteria, and is addressed at the very beginning of the development process. Its size and shape, weight and balance, clarity and flexibility of controls, and the logic and understandability of menus must work for all your product's users.

The product should "explain" to the user what it does, the function of every control should be clear and unambiguous, while allowing users maximum flexibility in personal preference of use.

The user is what the product is about.

...Are the meat and potatoes of the design process: what the user sees and feels on a primary level.

At the Kardel Group, there's no argument over form or function coming first. If they are not worked on together, one or the other will be shortchanged. There are always several ways to make a product work, and as we develop the various concepts, we are looking at the aesthetic possibilities inherent in each. That way, when we present the concepts to you, you can evaluate them from both sides and more easily decide which approach best works for you.

Function + Form = more than the sum of the parts.

...Are really a continuation of the Form + Function process. When the desired approach has been chosen from the presented concepts, the same people already familiar with the program continue to develop your product. Appearance and function still go hand-in-hand while the product is made manufacturable. In this way, we can combine parts, simplify assembly and reduce costs while maintaining the product's desired appearance and functionality.

Our years of hands-on experience with materials and processes help us quickly work out the optimal configuration of parts without having to agonize over your product's engineering. We know when a quick functional model will be more effective than "running the numbers", and when it really is rocket science, and the math is important. This gives us the time to "iterate" the design for cost reduction, "feel", and aesthetic detail.

The details can make a good product great.

We work in 3-D, both on the computer and in models you can hold, touch, and use, because pictures don't always tell the whole story.

We will make sure that all the careful design and detail make it to your customer. Our 30 years' experience helps you avoid the pitfalls inherent in the production process.