The first step in the product development plan is to use the Design Thinking methodology to develop the first concept of the product.

 Although this will be the strategy used to do an initial approach at the product development, this methodology will persist along the later stages of the project. Here is a brief overview of this concept to understand why this will be present in the long term.

Design Thinking Overview

Design thinking is a process that is used to do a deep dive into users' experiences and use that as a reference to develop a product. It is an iterative, non-linear methodology to create innovative ideas and follows through the prototyping and testing phases. It is best used when exploring uncommon problems or fields.

 There are five stages in the process: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test.

Design Thinking in Project RoboCook

The first three steps will be done throughout the first stage of the problem, which ends with the deadline of the first submission (9/27).

 The first step (empathize) is what triggered this project. Through a discussion with people with a passion for cooking and people who don’t enjoy cooking alike, a common complaint was how troublesome can be planning for a proper defrosting process of scheduled meals.

I found it interesting that this was an issue present through different dietary preferences. Initially, it was thought it would perform best with people that are going through a diet meal plan and know what they plan to eat for the rest of the week. A device that could properly defrost ingredients according to a dietary meal plan was the objective.

Nevertheless, others commented that even when not being on a diet or having scheduled meals, being able to remotely initiate a defrosting process for same-day consumption would be valuable for them.

These are the considerations for the user preferences as far as food preparation goes. It is also important to consider that this device will be meant for residential use. Restaurant kitchens tend to have higher-grade equipment to support cooking, so an additional purpose of this project is to elevate the quality of the technology used in home-cooked meals.

Further detail of the design specs on coming log!