Introduction

One of the most important steps in product design is identifying who are the stakeholders of the product and what are their wants and needs. Stakeholders are any individuals or groups who have an interest in or are affected by the product, such as customers, users, manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, regulators, competitors, etc. Their wants and needs are the problems they face or the goals they want to achieve with the product.

However, wants and needs are often vague, subjective, and conflicting. They may not be explicitly stated or easily observable. They may also change over time or vary across different contexts and situations. Therefore, product designers need to have effective methods and tools to elicit, analyze, prioritize, and validate the wants and needs of different stakeholders.

Once stakeholder wants and needs are clearly defined, they need to be translated into technical specifications that can guide the design process. Technical specifications are measurable and testable requirements that specify what the product should do, how well it should do it, and under what conditions it should do it. They define the performance, functionality, quality, reliability, safety, usability, and aesthetics of the product.

By correctly gathering needs, developing specifications, and then designing to those specifications, we can design successful products that satisfy the stakeholders and meet their expectations. This chapter will introduce some of the key concepts and techniques for identifying stakeholders, determining their wants and needs, and interpreting those into technical specifications.