Podcast Archives - Deeney Enterprises

Uncovering Customer Desires: Understanding Benefits in Concept Development

In product development, we often get caught up in the technical specifications and features we’re creating, forgetting the fundamental reason we’re building products in the first place: to provide benefits that improve users’ lives. This foundational concept of benefits versus features deserves revisiting regularly, especially when we’re deep in the weeds of development work. Subscribe…

Blank Flipcharts Don’t Make Magic, But Templates Do

In product development, the “fuzzy front end” of concept development often represents both tremendous opportunity and significant challenge. During this critical phase, teams are tasked with defining problems, understanding customers, and generating solutions-all before any engineering begins. How we navigate this phase dramatically impacts bottom-line results, market share, customer satisfaction, and whether projects even launch…

Why Your Cross-Functional Team Isn’t Communicating Effectively (And How to Fix It)

Have you ever watched a promising product idea slowly die in the fuzzy space between “great concept” and “actual development”? You’re not alone. The journey from product idea to market-ready solution contains a critical yet often overlooked phase: concept development. This is where cross-functional teams must align their diverse perspectives to create a solid foundation…

The Hidden Costs of Poor Concept Development in Product Design

The hidden costs of poor product development can devastate your project timeline, budget, and ultimate market success. Drawing from Dr. Robert Cooper’s research, this episode reveals how skipping proper concept development-the critical “fuzzy front end” of product design-leads many teams into a costly “ready-fire-aim” approach. We also explore “Quality during Design” as a way forward…

Brighten Your Creative Spark

Ever hit that wall where your creative tank feels bone dry? That moment when you’ve been grinding away at your projects, head down for so long that when someone asks for innovation, you come up empty? You’re not alone. Creative slumps happen when we get too immersed in our specialized domains. As engineers and designers,…

AI in Design: Coming Full Circle

As a Generation X engineer, I’ve witnessed remarkable shifts in how we approach design engineering. Recently, I saw an article suggesting Gen X is frustrated because the skills we learned early in our careers no longer apply in today’s technological landscape. This characterization made me pause and reflect. While our tools have certainly evolved dramatically,…

Supplier Agreements: The Good, The Bad, and The Quality

In today’s fast-paced manufacturing landscape, the link between product quality and supplier agreements is more critical than ever. Custom product development can be complex, and regarding suppliers, we can uncover hidden challenges. These come up when suppliers are not aligned with the quality standards necessary for our products to be successful. Join us as we…