Product Platform and Product Family Design

5 important questions on Product Platform and Product Family Design

What is a product platform?

A set of subsystems and interfaces that form a common structure from which a stream of related products can be efficiently developed and produced.
The goal is to provide as much variance for the market, with as little variance between products as possible.

What are the benefits and drawbacks of product platforms?

Benefits:
  1. Increased responsiveness & flexibility
  2. Take market share
  3. Improved ability to upgrade products

Drawbacks:
  1. Cannabalization of sales
  2. Too much commonality
  3. Additional costs on product development
  4. While designing, an incorrect forecast of future user needs is a big risk

Name some of the front-end issues of product platforms.

Value perception of product families, optimal amount of variety and customer integration, etc.
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Explain the Voice of the Market and the Vector of Differentiation regarding platform planning.


The Voice of the Market is a customer-grounded ideation process to identify customer requirements and concepts.
The Vector of Differentiation is the characteristic that the platform will deliver to meet the target segment's needs to gain competitive advantage.
Examples are: Innovation, higher performance, breadth and coverage, etc. 

What is platform leveraging?

The ability of a platform to be modified easily and adapted to alternative markets, such as untapped niches.

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