The Innovator's Toolkit: 50+ Techniques for Predictable and Sustainable Organic Growth, 2nd Edition

Technique 43

Design Scorecards

Develop a dashboard to track your design and its underlying processes.

 

Functioning like the dashboard of a car, design scorecards provide critical feedback data on three levels: system performance, component performance, and process performance. For example, consider the design of a new washing machine that uses no detergent but works on the principle of ultrasonic waves and electrolysis. We can use design scorecards to record the progress of the design process, enabling necessary modifications to maximize the probability of implementation success.

For innovation, the key benefit of design scorecards is their ability to predict the final quality of a design and recognize gaps so it can be improved before it's implemented. Is there a risk that your design will go wrong? How will you know if and when it does? As well, you'll have to track your new innovation after it's implemented, making sure its performance record is visible to stakeholders so they can prevent malfunctions, if possible, or at least react quickly to fix problems if they do occur.

Naturally, the more valid and robust your design scorecards, the more likely you are to notice and fix production problems or service issues before they lead to serious customer dissatisfaction. In this preventive regard, use design scorecards in conjunction with techniques such as Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (Technique 44), Measurement Systems Analysis (Technique 52), and Robust Design (Technique ...