Element C: Requirements

Introduction

In the process of developing any product, considering the needs of your users is a very large concern. This is why the Edison Co. team took the time to ensure that every feature our users could want had been accounted for. In the search for this high goal, the company wrote some user stories, which are a development tool that "describes something that the user wants to accomplish by using the product." For example, a user story from "Insomniac" may say something like "As an insomniac, I want a good alarm clock to help me get up sooner so I can create a more concrete schedule." As the team went through all the potential features, users, and uses for the product, they ended up writing over 30 separate user stories, all covering a multitude of features and use cases.

However, just writing user stories is not enough. After writing the user stories, one must consider the acceptance criteria, which are the series of requirements that must be met before the user story can be declared finished. After Edison Co. finished writing the user stories, the team went through and added acceptance criteria to every user story, carefully considering every user story to ensure that it was completed. Lastly, after finishing the acceptance criteria, the team combed through the user stories one last time to add details to them. The details were expansions on the acceptance criteria, and were the specific goals that needed to be met in order to fulfill the acceptance criteria. For example, if "Hotel Manager" said "As a hotel manager I want quality aesthetics for the clock so that hotel patrons will like the appearance of their hotel room.", then the acceptance criteria would be "Clock is aesthetically pleasing according to a sample body of users," and the details would be "Pass aesthetics by group of users", "Modern looking display", and "sleek profile."

What is a "stakeholder?"

"Stakeholder" is a common term used to describe the interested parties for a given company, invention, or idea. A common misconception is that a stakeholder must have some sort of ownership over the idea or company in question in order to be considered as such. However, one must consider this: the user is often impacted just as much by the success of a solution as the creators or investors. Thus, any involved individuals are indicated as stakeholders. Below Edison Co. has outlined several potential stakeholder groups for our alarm clock, and the more specific individuals involved under each category.

Primary Stakeholders

Users

It's pretty self-explanatory, but potential users of Edison Co.'s product are well-invested in its success. As explored in industry market research, individuals ranging from teenagers to adults set alarms in the morning, so this is a pretty broad category. Due to this expansive nature, users will be further elaborated on in the "User Story" section. For now, know this about users as a stakeholder: the functionality is the key thing to look for when considering this group. Alarm clock users want a wide variety of features at their fingertips to fit all of their morning routine needs. Of course, a user will pay especially keen attention to how the Edison Co. alarm clock addresses the primary problem of jarringness. In order to satisfy the user stakeholder group, Edison Co. wants to design an alarm clock properly integrates a solution to jarringness alongside many other features in a way that is both convenient and logical to operate.

Second-Hand Users

The idea of a "second-hand" user is probably a bit more unique to a product like Edison Co.'s alarm clock. This term refers to someone who is exposed to the product and would benefit from certain features, but does not directly interact with it. Namely, Edison Co. is very interested in providing an alarm clock that offers more "localized" features. In pursuing various personas to be used in user stories and patent research, Edison Co. found mention of individuals being woken by their partner's alarm. This individual being woken by a partner's alarm perfectly fits the definition of a second-hand user Edison Co. has offered. While Edison Co. does not plan to focus on this challenge in early development, they would ideally like to provide an alarm clock that is able to wake only the intended user if they are sleeping with another individual. As a general rule, the second-hand user Edison Co. is describing doesn't want to interact with the product, and they would like to meet this goal as much as possible.

Manufactures

Unfortunately, Edison Co. will never be able to mass-produce a wakeup solution on their own. A third-party manufacturer must be employed, and the person contracted would naturally enter into the domain of a stakeholder. First, it is worth bringing up customizability as a goal the team want out of our manufactures. Users would want a customizable outer shell, so, ideally, Edison Co. would work with a flexible manufacturer who would be able to provide support for custom alarm clock orders (i.e. the buyer chooses the material/design they would like). However, when considering stakeholders, it is important that one thinks less in what that stakeholder can do for their company, but rather what the company can do for the stakeholder. Happy stakeholders generally leads to benefit for the company. So what goals can Edison Co. outline for supporting manufacturers? A simple design for the wakeup device is key; while Edison Co. would hope to use high quality and premium materials, the design of the electronics and overall body of the device should not be excessive. This constraint will also help the company itself in prototyping, and surely will aid the manufacturer easier.

Retailers

In many ways, the retailer stakeholder and the needs of Edison Co. are closely intertwined. A retailer will not merely be satisfied for Edison Co. to stock their shelves with an innovative alarm clock or other wakeup device; the device must sell. Thus, Edison Co. aims to provide an alarm clock that appeals to aesthetics as well as functionality. The product should "jump off the shelves" so to speak.

Buyers

It is easy to forget that, in many cases, the individual using a product didn't necessarily buy it for themselves. Perhaps the product was a gift, or purchased by a parent/guardian. In both of these cases, speaking from a sales perspective, it is nearly as important to satisfy the purchaser; if the buyer doesn't see potential in the product, it won't ever spread past shelves to users. Thus, Edison Co. has two goals in mind for the buyer as a stakeholder. First, the alarm clock the company produces should be relatively high value to compete with the smartphone. The buyer should think "Yes, I'd rather spend money on Edison Co.'s alarm clock than have the user I'm buying for use their smartphone as an alarm." If, at some point in the design process, choices must be made to compromise the raw affordability of the alarm clock, value should remain unchanged. In other words, if certain features require the charging of a premium, premium quality should result. Secondly, Edison Co. wants to design the alarm clock or other wakeup device with customizability in mind, even if it is not initially implemented. A wide variety of material options should be available at purchase to satisfy all palettes and rooms.

It is also worth bringing attention to several other buyer stakeholders in office managers and hotel managers. Almost all hotels rooms are outfitted with an alarm clock of some sorts, and some office buildings may furnish their cubicles with a basic digital clock (and usually, a digital clock will feature some sort of alarm). In both these cases, the above stated goals stand, but Edison Co. may have to consider options that allow companies to buy in bulk.

Next Steps

After completing drafting the available user stories, Edison Co. had a solid idea of what their users would want and need from the product. For each prototype, they would first adjust, add, or remove user stories to better address the design requirements of the product based on testing. Then, the group would narrow it down to only a couple important user stories that represented the majority of buyers, which would then be used to make

Prototype I

User Story Adjustments

Given that this was the first prototype, Edison Co. tried to keep all the user stories in mind. The teams first goal was to create a functional prototype so it didn't matter if it was difficult to use as long as the light turned on and the sound played.

Prototype II

User Story Adjustments

For prototype two, Edison Co started taking into account the first hand user stories like parents, teacher, students, heavy sleepers, light sleepers and all other first hand users. In order to satisfy these user stories, the team knew that they would have to accomplish what they had set out to do: dim a light. Thus, Prototype II

Prototype III

User Story Adjustments

For the final prototype the Edison Co team wanted to make sure that the criteria of all the users was met, so they considered all the user stories. In particular the team focused on the second hand users, hotel owners, manufactures. In the final prototype the product had to have all the features like a dimmable light, easy to use interface and overall clean look.

Epics/Themes/Stories of Focus

Epic

These user stories are those that have large stories and have been broken down into a multiple, more specific user stories. These user stories have one unified goal.

Theme

These user stories have a shared common attribute. Each of the user stories have a different end goal in mind

Story

These are user stories are those written by the end perspective of the end user. Each user story has reached their goal after implementing the product

Artifact/Image References

Banner image - "Lt. Governor Host MBE_Small Business Stakeholders Roundtable Discussion" by MDGovpics is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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