TGFR Consulting LLC Early Concept Confirmation
Concept confirmation follows identification of the final concept. In this step, the concept is realized as drawings, models or other tangible artifacts, and feedback from users and customers gathered to confirm that the concept developed truly meets the user and customer needs. Throughout the concept development process, user and customer needs have been transformed, and this step validates that these transformations resulted in a final concept that meets the original user and customer needs
The confirmation process requires that the fidelity of the concept presented to the users and customers and users allows the users and customers to users to properly evaluate the final concept. Customers are presented with the realized concept and score the concept against the user needs statements and VOC (see VOC Development). The users and customers assess the final concept against the same user needs statement. This confirms the system; understanding, targeting, and verifying the system concept against the needs of users directly affiliated with the entities that purchase the product
Generally, confirmation is against the system derived from the final concept, as defined by the requirements. For some concepts, it may be beneficial to perform a play back the system concept before beginning requirements generation. An early play back of the Super Concept output, when some uncertainty exists, can avoid churn and rework during requirements generation. At this point, the painstaking work of requirements elaboration has not started and this early concept confirmation can minimize the rework of the requirements because of concept misses.
To effectively evaluate the final concept, a set of questions based upon the Likert scale developed and presented to during the VOC development phase (see VOC Development).
The figure below illustrates a radar chart showing the customers evaluation of the concept against the original needs, with the target and best-in-class scoring as benchmarks. Concept scores can be compared to the initial target and the best-in-class scores initially developed. In this case, some of the targets have not been met, and the team must decide whether to adjust the target or to undertake another round of concept development. Many times, the target will be adjusted, but this takes place in a structured manner and the CTQs and concepts are re-evaluated against the revised target.
