Case Study: Start Me Up (Starter Generation Technology)
The Problem
The corporate strategy team at an industrial manufacturing company was looking to build the next generation in starter generators for aviation and aerospace applications. The team was aware of many of the pain points of current starter generators, but needed direct feedback from professionals in the space to make sure they had a complete understanding of the weaknesses of current starter generation technology as well as the potential value of developing the next generation of brushless starter generators. Specifically, the team needed to learn more about the challenges of operating and maintaining aircraft, and how optimizing starter generation technology might improve processes in the industry and performance efficiency. Without these insights, they had no idea if the improvements would merit the cost to develop the new technology.
Critical Issues
Technology Landscaping Multiple Perspectives Cost Benefit Analysis
The Solution
Maven recommended an Electronic Survey as an appropriate first step to acquire basic market insights. The goal of the Survey would be to determine if the benefits delivered to their customers would warrant the cost of the R&D process to create a superior brushless starter generator. The Survey acted as a written interview of over a dozen professionals with experience manufacturing, developing, and maintaining starter generators in the aerospace and airline industries. With the insights gained in just four days, the team was able to confirm a few of their assumptions, adjust some of their hypotheses, and move forward with a much better sense of the return on investment and feasibility of developing a higher quality starter generator.
“We knew we could develop a superior product, we just knew that process was not going to be cheap. This was an incredibly efficient way to hear directly from the horse’s mouth if our efforts would be worth it in the end.” – Director of Corporate Development
