Delivery
A focus of this unit was considering the reality of product development and the stages from concept through to commercialisation of a product. Colin used his own product development as an example of the various stages in the process.
Colin spent time talking with the class about the development process of his own product, a toilet he designed which uses only two litres of water to flush and is much quieter when flushed. He started developing the toilet in 2002 and it is being launched on the world market in mid 2007.
He was able to use this to demonstrate the reality of product development at all stages of the process. The students had the expectation that they would be designing and developing a product, but were not aware of the various aspects a technologist would be considering in the 'real world'.
Colin has developed a lot of products for a lot of people during his career, as well as working on his own. This allowed him to introduce the concept of intellectual property (IP) and its value, and to discuss with the class how this applies to a technologist working for a company and one working for himself.
This led naturally onto how much of the IP Colin had developed was now making money for the company concerned, and why people might want to stop and take more control of IP themselves. He talked with the class about opportunities for product developers and what type of company they might want to be involved with. "Do you want to be involved with a small company which you control that does maybe only $100,000 business in a year or would you prefer to have a 2% stake in a company that does $20 million a year?"
Colin Lawrence: "I want to make the process for Year 11 this year as real as possible. I tell them that the only thing separating them from a successful entrepreneur is the ability to recognise an opportunity and knowing what to do with it once is has been identified."
Students gained an understanding of the financial burdens which accompany product development and the need for business investors.
Colin was also able to draw on his own experience to demonstrate the importance of patents when developing a product. He had been looking for a point of difference to make his toilet marketable and spent a lot of time searching New Zealand and international patents and prior arts.
Students were able to document their process using the computer, leaving the workshop to do this when necessary, which made it much easier to complete all the requisite paperwork. Colin also used email to send his students up-to-the-minute information and feedback on their work.
In term 4 Colin utilized the expertise of a friend who runs a local zinc plating business, having him come and do a class demonstration on one of the projects for free.
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