I was invited by the IDEO team in Palo Alto to share my product development process for designing systems for optimal efficiency. It turns out that there are a lot of common perspectives and techniques between IDEO’s processes and those of the Skunk Works and that I practice in product development.

1. “Efficient Product Development”
or
“Creating a Revolution”
IDEO
30 May 2002
David F. Taggart, CTO
Hypercar, Inc., Basalt, CO
dtaggart@hypercar.com
DFT 053002 p 1/

2. outline
◊ Efficiency: what’s the difference
◊ Strategy: why is this important
◊ Team: what makes a good one
◊ Revolution: the result
◊ Risk: sure, but what do you do with it
◊ Influence: market and industry pull
◊ Opportunity: the next BIG leap?
◊ Summary: parting thoughts
◊ Questions
DFT 053002 p 2/

3. efficiency
DFT 053002 p 3/

4. efficiency
◊ Improving it requires whole systems thinking
and development
◊ Power available vs power required
◊ It must be a better product, not an efficient
one
◊ Every element of a closed system is
interdependent
◊ Dramatic improvements requires dramatic
change
DFT 053002 p 4/

5. working backwards
◊ Conventional design: from ◊ Hypercar® design: from
fuel to wheels wheels back to fuel
◊ ~7 units of fuel are used ◊ Radically cut the car’s
to deliver 1 unit of energy mass and drag first
to the wheels yielding
compounding losses ◊ Each unit of energy saved
at the wheels saves ~7
◊ Since ~85% of the fuel units of fuel up front
energy is lost in the yielding compounding
engine, en route to the savings
wheels, and in accessories,
focus on incremental ◊ This makes several times
reductions in those losses improvements in efficiency
do-able
DFT 053002 p 5/

6. system efficiency / technology
New applications of technologies:
Reduce platform loads:
• Advanced composite structure
• Mass/inertia • Hybrid-electric drive
• Thermal loads • Electronics & software intensive control
• Aerodynamic drag • Efficient suspension, propulsion, and
accessory technologies
• Rolling resistance
• Power transmission
efficiency
START FROM A CLEAN
SHEET AND OPTIMIZE
THE VEHICLE AS A
SYSTEM
Then provide required
energy in an efficient,
Must consider complete clean, and cost-
production and overhead costs effective manner
as well as cradle to grave costs
to uncover practical solutions
DFT 053002 p 6/

7. strategy
DFT 053002 p 7/

8. going in position
◊ The answer is not obvious, and could be perceived as
having breakthrough performance
◊ The new product must be a better product and not rely
on its efficiency to sell it
◊ Cost is the primary technological breakthrough
◊ The solution must reflect production reality
◊ Concise “functional” product requirements
◊ Design “in the future”
◊ Stack the deck in favor of innovation: process and
people
◊ You only have so much time and money: focus
DFT 053002 p 8/

9. the must haves
◊ Similar in size to a mid-size SUV
◊ Profitable at 50k/year
◊ Greatly reduced life cycle operational costs (fuel, upgrades, depreciation,
insurance, simplified maintenance and repair, on-board diagnostics)
◊ Very low environmental footprint (SULEV, 100 mpg)
◊ Tailorability (software upgrades, peripheral plug-ins, modularity, mass
customization)
◊ Be accompanied by a clear path to production for 2005 start
Hypercar Foundation Platform
Platform #1 Platform #2 Platform #3
?
DFT 053002 p 9/

10. design in the future
Present Paradigm New Paradigm
(macro platform) (foundation platform)
DFT 053002 p 10/