Engineering 185 EW

Week 2 – Lecture 3
Unmet Need, Key Attributes and
Price Performance Charts
 Today’s Lecture
• Homework Assignment #1
• Unmet Need, Key Attributes & the Price
Performance Chart
– Expository Writing
– Key Attributes
– Outlining
• Homework Assignment #2
 Team Sock-Mate
• The proposal was written by a team of 6 UCLA
engineering students
• Each individual was expected to invest 4-6
hours searching for competition
• After 4 weeks, they found no competition and
submitted this draft proposal to Jon & Don Inc.
 HW Assignment #1: Sock-Mate
Sarah, while on vacation in San Diego, took a morning trip to the beach, and soaked
her socks through on the trail there. She needed to pack up her things and head home
soon after she returned, but didn’t want to put her wet socks in her suitcase, because
they’d get smelly and could get other clothes wet. If she had a Sock-Mate, she wouldn’t
have to worry--she could quickly dry her socks and toss them in her luggage without a
worry.
Scott wears a suit to work, and walks every day. One morning, he stepped in a puddle
outside the office. He didn’t expect this to happen, and wouldn’t normally think to pack
extra socks for his desk job. If he doesn’t own a Sock-Mate, he’ll either have to sit
barefoot all day or uncomfortably in his wet socks. If Scott keeps a Sock-Mate in his desk
drawer, he can dry his socks out in no time at all, and go about his day as usual.
The Sock-Mate can be plugged in to any outlet. You can keep it in your desk at the
office or take it in your suitcase on vacation. It will save you from an uncomfortable day
at work, a soggy-footed dinner, or a smelly suitcase. Its small fan and heating elements
can warm and dry a soaking sock in 20 minutes, and its small size and portability makes
it an ideal product for anyone looking to avoid a long day with wet socks.
You have been assign the task of making the
primary assessment of this product concept for
Jon & Don Inc. As a first pass screen, you are to
determine if there are products on the market
that can be used to quickly dry wet socks.

1. There is no competition out there (X=0)

2. There are a few products out there (0<X<=2)
3. There is a plethora of products out there (X>2)
 Class Answers
• 135 Students are enrolled in the class
– 123 students submitted answers on time
– 9 students submitted answer late
– 3 students did not respond

• Only 87 students answered the question

correctly (64%), this is a significant difference
compared to past quarters
Winter Quarter’s Results
 Notes on HW #1
• How much time does this assignment take? This is a difficult answer as
UCLA does not teach students how to effectively search the internet
• Since we are focused on consumer products, you might search Amazon &
eBay
• I personally find that searching using images is effective
• Pay attention to the keywords that you select in your search parameters
• Later on for advance searches, Boolean searches can be quite effective
• You should be able to complete this assignment in 30 minutes or less
• Get use to UCLA OPT as that will be the primary submission site for
homework
 Search Examples
• Google
– Dry Socks
– Electric Sock Dryer
– Electric Sock Dryer – images
• eBay
• Amazon
Google - Sock Dryer
Google - Electric Sock Dryer
Designed for shoes but dries many other
items
Electric Sock Dryer - images
eBay – Electric Sock Dryer
Amazon – Electric Sock Dryer
 Sock-Mate Competition
• Other than limited internet access, if you
answered No Competition (X=0) or Few
Products out there (0<X<=2), you made an ethic
violation: Accuracy & Rigour
• Team Sock-Mate had an ethics violation and
had to pivot away from their idea in Week 4
• My expectation is that as a UCLA Engineering
Student, you should have been able to find the
correct answer in 30 minutes or less
 Sock-Mate
• These search results could have several possible
explanations
– You had poor internet connectivity that limited your ability to
do searches
• Talk to Jon & Don as all assignments will require internet access
– You did not understand the homework assignment
• This can be solved by asking questions and seeking clarity, talk to
Jon! (Don may be able to help you a bit, the TA’s have not been
trained in New Product Development & Ethics)
– You need to develop / improve your search skills
• Future assignments will require robust searches (time and
technique)
 Due Diligence
• You are working for “Jon & Don Inc.” as a due
diligence investigator: this proposal asked for a
$350k investment
• Key words will need to evolve and expand as
you learn more about the product and the
competition
• Google is good, however; you will have better
success if you use Google Advanced Search or
Boolean searches (AND, OR, NOT, *)
It all starts with the Unmet
Need!
It is not about technology, its about
effective communication
 The Unmet Need
• The Unmet Need is something that a customer
wants but is not available, think of it as a
problem statement
– How can I get my roommate to wake up without
waking me up as well?
– How do I know if my drink has been dosed?
• Think about the problem first, independent of
technology: customers don’t but technology,
they buy solutions!
 Recent solutions
• Uber / Lift
• Air BnB
• Lime & Bird
• Zoom
 Key Attributes
Since the Unmet Need has not been addressed,
customers are selecting alternative products to meet
their needs. Key Attributes are the top features or
characteristics that are important to solve their Unmet
Need or problem statement. By reviewing the
competition, you can determine the features that add
value. By refining this list down to major themes, you
can define the top 4-6 attributes that are important to
this particular group. For clarity, you need to include a
brief written description (definition) each key attribute.
Unmet Need Story – Expository Writing
• Educating the reader/audience to a situation
that they may never have know about before
– Clearly defining the problem statement
– Using competition as an example of deficiencies is a
great way to emphasis your points
– Discussing the repercussions of not having a
solution helps to define the magnitude of the issue
– Focus on the Unmet Need and not on potential
solutions!
 Practice Exercise
• Reread the Unmet Need story from Team
Cubozoa
• Identify what you think are the Key Attributes
• List the Key Attributes in rank order and assign
a magnitude of that ranking, the sum of all Key
Attributes should add to 100%
 Deck Box: Cubozoa
Spike has been preparing for the Magic the Gathering Vintage Tournament for the past
month, including purchasing the $7000 “Black Lotus” card. In his first game, he is paired up
against Timmy. Timmy plays the card “Stolen Goods” and reveals Spikes “Black Lotus” on the
top of his deck. This allows Timmy to play the “Black Lotus” as if it was his for the game, but
he must return it once the game ends. As the game drags on, both Timmy and Spike
eventually forgot that the “Black Lotus” is on Timmy’s side of the table. An hour later, the
tournament timer goes off, signaling the end of round 1. Both Timmy and Spike shake hands
and frantically pack all their cards laid out on their sides of the table back into their deck
boxes as they rush off to meet their next opponent before round 2 starts. Little did either
player know that Timmy accidentally packed the “Black Lotus” into his deck box by mistake.
(although in other cases, this has been done intentionally) Spike is now paired up against
Johnny, and plays the card “Fabricate”, which lets him look though his deck for the “Black
Lotus”, only to realize that it was no longer in there. Luckily, Timmy was an ethical man and
returned the card to Spike. Resuming his second game, Spike is now hyper focused on all the
cards that are being played in front of him, making sure none of them get misplaced or
accidentally stolen, which to his downfall, caused him to neglect his deck box by his side.
 When the round ends, Spike goes to return his cards to his $100 custom made
Skull-shaped deck box, only to realize that someone had stolen it! Not only has his
deck box been stolen, but the box also contained all his extra cards that he had
brought as replacement options for his deck, including a $900 “Time Vault”. Frantically,
Spike asked around if anyone had seen his very flamboyant deck box, and to his relief,
someone had claimed to have seen it abandoned three tables down. When Spike goes
to retrieve it, however, he discovered it had been emptied. The thief had been smart,
for they knew that the box would be easy to spot, so instead, they decided to only
keep the cards, which would be impossible to determine who the original owner is.
This is because are thousands if not millions of exact copies of each card that exist, and
those cards must be indistinguishable from their copies in order to be tournament
legal. Spike half-heartedly stored his deck away into his box, and set it onto the table in
front of him, mourning his lost “Time Vault”. In that instance, someone at the side of
the table accidentally bumped into it, knocking it over and into the busy walkway of
the hectic convention hall. Spike froze with dread as he saw his box shatter, spewing
the cards across the floor, getting trampled by the numerous shoes of contestants
rushing to their next table. By the time Spike was able to reassemble his deck, his
“Black Lotus” has been thoroughly wrinkled with shoe imprints, rendering it illegal for
play and worthless.
 Magic the Gathering has been around for over 25 years, and there have been
thousands of tournaments held worldwide for this game. These tournaments tend to
be hectic, crowded events, where players from all over the world attend. With
hundreds of people crammed into small convention halls, each carrying up to a few
thousand dollars’ worth of cards on them but often blinded by tunnel vision during
games, these places are prime locations for thieves to thrive. Because of this, players
need a secure method to keep track of their decks for them, as their focus will
generally be on the game, especially because the first few moments after a theft are
the most crucial. The longer the gap between the theft and attempted recovery, the
more time the thief has to conceal the stolen goods or even leave the premises.
 STOP HERE!

Identify the Key Attributes, place them in

rank order and assign a weighting for
each before continuing (sum to 100%)
 Compare your impressions of the Key
Attributes to what Team Cubozoa said

• Card Loss Detection – 35%

• Deckbox Detection – 35%
• Notification – 15%
• Durability – 15%
 Key Takeaways
• It doesn’t matter what Team Cubozoa says, what
maters is what the reader / audience walks away
with
• A key to clear communication is to “say what you
mean and mean what you say”
• For this proposal, Team Cubozoa was evaluated
as having good continuity between the Unmet
Need story and the Key Attributes
• How did you compare?
 Outlining
• It is important that the engineering proposals are
continuous and that the Unmet Need story thread
is continuous throughout the document
• A way to check this is to work backwards: develop
an outline starting with the Key Attributes and
write a paragraph over each attribute
• Compare this draft to the Unmet Need story, they
should match
 Outline
1. Background history if needed
2. Paragraph about the Key Attribute #1
3. Paragraph about the Key Attribute #2
4. Paragraph about the Key Attribute #3
5. Paragraph about the Key Attribute #4
6. …
7. …
 Team Cubozoa

Is their Unmet Need story continuous

and in alignment with their Key
Attributes?
Expository writing & presentations
• A vast majority of cooperate decisions are
made during presentations, written reports
are used as backup information
• Manager will usually form an opinion about a
proposal at the presentation and will follow up
(due diligence) with the report
• In presentations, it is critical to influence your
audience in the first 3 minutes
 Practice Exercise
• Meet Rusty: go to Amazon and purchase Shark Tank
– Season 4, Episode 21 Week 21 (~$2.99 USD)
(
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C867UB6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_titl
e_o06?ie=UTF8&psc=1
)

• Fast Forward the video to 29:30 and watch the

video until Rusty starts to hand out the bottles to
the Sharks: @ 31:20 it is important that you pause
the video!
• Do not do any research on Gobie or Rusty Allen
STOP HERE AND WATCH THE
VIDEO!
Segments 29:30 to 31:20
 Rusty’s Unmet Need
• From Rusty’s presentation, what were the Key
Attributes that Gobie was addressing?
– Identify the Key Attributes
– Rank order the Attributes and assign a weighting
for each attribute (totals to 100%)
• Do not continue the video until you have
documented your impressions of the Key
Attributes based upon the words that Rusty
said
Before you watch the rest of the video…
• Note that the Sharks are not technical; they are
business people
• Observe the Sharks as they are performing due
diligence on Rusty’s proposal
• While not particularly technical, they will quickly
and clearly ask probing & thoughtful questions
• Watch their reaction to Rusty’s answers
• Observe Rusty’s body language and words
 Review
• After watching the rest of the video, identify
and rank order the Key Attributes for Gobie
• In your opinion, were there ethics violations
with this presentation and if so, what were
they?
– List specific areas where Rusty may have violated
Ethics
 National Society of Professional Engineers:
Code of Ethics
• Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the
public.
• Perform services only in areas of their competence.
• Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful
manner.
• Act for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees.
• Avoid deceptive acts.
• Conduct themselves honorably, responsibly, ethically, and
lawfully so as to enhance the honor, reputation, and
usefulness of the profession.
 The Royal Academy of Engineering:
Statement of Ethical Principles
• Accuracy and rigour
• Honesty and integrity
• Respect for life, law and the public good
• Responsible leadership: listening and
informing
 STOP HERE!

Make your list of what you think the real

Key Attributes are for Gobie in rank order
and determine if Rusty violated ethics
 Jon’s review
• Implied that tap water needs filtration – misleading, accuracy & rigour
• Implies that Gobie’s filter is better than the competition – misleading
(more like lying, see later comments)
• Implies that Gobie’s has better filtration because you can pressurize the
water – This is incorrect, perform services only in areas of their competence
• In answering the filtration question, he side stepped the answer “different
answer to a different question” misleading
• Early on, implied a custom filter design and later admitted that it was off
the self technology – misleading
• Said that he approached “Big Box Stores” – he flat out lied about this:
accuracy & rigour
• Again he claims that the filter is more effective than the competition -
perform services only in areas of their competence as well as accuracy &
rigour
 Key Attributes
• Gobie’s key strength was having the
robustness of a rigid bottle with easy of
dispensing of a soft bottle (65%)
• A secondary attribute was that if you needed
to filter water, Gobie would be easier to use
(35%)
• Re-watch the video and observe the missteps
and ethics violations in real time
 Rusty Allen
• This presentation has been considered one of
the worst Shark Tank presentations. Ever.
• From an expository presentation standpoint, it
failed on all levels
• Don’t be a Rusty
 Gobie
• 2013 - Launched the product
• Sold on Amazon: reviews were terrible
– Leaks
– Expensive
– Poor durability
– Poor design
• Gobie closes it’s door a few years later
 New Product Development & Ethics

• We are using the New Product Development

process to teach you about ethics
• You work for “Jon & Don Inc.” and are
responsible for conducting Due Diligence
investigations for us
• Your decisions will determine if we should
invest in a product proposal or abandon it
 Welcome to the Murder Board!
• 185 EW (pre-COVID-19) consisted of a team of
engineers pitching a new product to address an
Unmet Need
• Most of these projects ranges from $250k to $850k
• Your job this quarter is to advise Jon & Don as to if
these presentations are robust and if they have
any ethics violations
• Your answers will determine if we are profitable or
will loose money on a bad investment
 Welcome to the Murder Board!
• Jon & Don Inc. will have projects reviewed by
this class
• We will present and discuss the results as well
as the distribution, this is the start of
developing a culture
Price Performance Charts
 Research
• Become the customer! Define the top 4-6
attributes
• To define the Unmet Need, you will need
to do market research: understand the
competition!
• Take your initial project concept and create
a price performance chart: you may need
to adjust some of the major features
Unmet Need: Safe water while backpacking

• Backpackers typically hike in areas where they

can use the local water supply
• Water quality is unknown
• While not necessarily an immediate danger,
bacterial and viral infections are a concern
• Some dangers cannot be treated: arsenic,
lead, chemical contaminates
 Water Treatment for Backpacker
• Water should be treated for protozoan cysts
(Cryptosporidium and Giardia lamblia) and
bacteria (E. coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter
and Shigella)
• Viruses are less of a concern (Domestically)
• Researched multiple, portable water
treatment products, literature & reviews
Water Treatment Competition
 Water Treatment Key Attributes
• Reliability / Effectiveness
• Weight
• Ease of use / operation
• Time required to treat the water
• Total pack volume impact
 Water Treatment Key Attributes
• Ease of use / operation 35%
• Time required to treat the water 25%
• Reliability / Effectiveness 20%
• Total pack volume impact 15%
• Weight 5%
 Evaluating Backpacking Water Treatment
Options: Interpolate Values
• Review the literature
• Evaluate the attributes
– Agree on “best in class”
– Agree on “worst in class”
• Review as a team in order to resolve or
understand differences
Evaluating Backpacking Water Treatment
Options: Best in Class

Chemical Treatment

UV Treatment
Top Customer Driven

Sawyer Filter
Team Project
Attributes

BeFree
Boiling
Ease of Use 35%
Time 25%
Reliability 20%
Volume 15%
Weight 5%
Evaluating Backpacking Water Treatment
Options: Worst in Class

Chemical Treatment

UV Treatment
Top Customer Driven

Sawyer Filter
Team Project
Attributes

BeFree
Boiling
Ease of Use 35%
Time 25%
Reliability 20%
Volume 15%
Weight 5%
Evaluating Backpacking Water Treatment
Options

Chemical Treatment

UV Treatment
Top Customer Driven

Sawyer Filter
Team Project
Attributes

BeFree
Boiling
Ease of Use 35%
Time 25%
Reliability 20%
Volume 15%
Weight 5%
 Filling in the Matrix
• After deciding Best & Worst is class, you need to assign a
numerical value to the Matrix
– The best of the best is not always a 10
– The worst of the worst is not always a 0
– Avoid / minimize ties
– If all of the values across a Key Attribute are basically the same, then eliminate the Key
Attribute as every product is performing the same

• The sum of the Key Attribute weightings will add to 100%

• The Performance value for the product is the sum of the
products of the Key Attribute multiplied by the Rating
(note that since I am using a 1-10 scale, that sum need to
be multiplied by 10)
Evaluating Backpacking Water Treatment
Options: Interpolate Values

Chemical Treatment

UV Treatment
Top Customer Driven

Sawyer Filter
Team Project
Attributes

BeFree
Boiling
Ease of Use 35% 9 5 2 7 10
Time 25% 8 1 3 9 10
Reliability 20% 10 9 9 7 3
Volume 15% 8 10 6 7 9
Weight 5% 7 10 5 6 8
87 58 44 74.5 83.5

Note: Out of habit, I rate competition on a 10 scale to force segregation

of values. This needs to be compensated to bring the total score up to
100%.
You need to understand absolute and relative references
[=($B$28*D$28+$B$29*D$29+$B$30*D$30+$B$31*D$31+$B$32*D$32)]
 Water Treatment
• For the water treatment chart, there is a mix of
single use products as well as products with
consumables
• Price is based upon the cost to operate the
system over a 3 year period (cost +
consumables)
– Boiling water = fuel cost
– Chemical Treatment = (cost per tablet)*(number of tablets)
– UV Treatment = cost plus batteries
– Sawyer & BeFree = purchase price
Price Performance
 Test your assumptions
• Do the attributes align with the Unmet Need?
• Do other people understand your chart (peer
review?
• When you make small changes to the
percentages does the chart still make sense
 Price Performance Charts
• This is a simplistic way to evaluate product
value
• Market Research can be subjective
 HW #2

Due Diligence
Matrix Evaluation
You are the manager of a small engineering team. Your
team just completed the first draft of a project proposal
for KleanKat: an automated cat liter box. The team create
a Price Performance Chart along with the associated Key
Attribute matrix. Your plan is to present this data to upper
management at the end of the week and you want to
make sure that the document is accurate. In reviewing
the chart and matrix, you discover:

1. There are no errors or mistakes

2. There are 1-2 errors in the document
3. There are 3-4 errors in the document
4. There are 5-6 errors in the document
5. There are greater than 6 errors in the document
 HW #2

UCLA OPT
185 EW HW #2 / Password – 1234
Due Friday @ 8:00 am (4/10)
 Guidance
• Spelling and grammar mistakes are not counted as
errors
• We are interested in the initial error, if the error
propagates additional error it still only counts as
one
– If the total for KleanKat summed to 81.5 and not to
80.5 that would be a single error. We would not count
the change in the linear regression line
– Swapped values could be considered a single error as
to change one you would have to change the pair
 Time Management Guidance
Urgent Not Urgent

Important

Not Important
 Time Management Guidance

Urgent Not Urgent

Important Lectures & Homework

COVID-19 Dental Checkup
Accidents
Exercise

Not Important Phone / Text Video Games

Knock on the door Instagram