Kelly has made many assumptions that Pat does not know anything about how the iScanner product works and the basics of quality control. He thinks that Pat is trying to undermine him by talking to one of his programmers and appears to be basing, in part, some of the requirements for the retail product on products used at airports that may require higher security features. Pat assumes that Kelly and his team do not share the same vision and commitment as the rest of the company. With little evidence presented for likely market acceptance, Pat is convinced that the retail solution will be a dream product. She believes customers will be happy that the company is first to market even with a product that has incomplete features. Pat also believes that the product should be able to meet delivery times based on one conversation with a programmer that mentions an installation that is down. Like Kelly, Pat thinks that she is being undercut by conversations taking place with other employees. She assumes Kelly's assessments are based on his desire to do things the same way he always has. She doesn't believe there's much complexity with simply adding an additional database to the existing product and believes she has the knowledge to develop the product concept and design objectivess. Pat has also jumped to the conclusion that an outside software design firm will fix the problem.

c.Cliff has made the leap of faith that Pat's experience in the cereal industry will translate into valuable contributions to the retinal scanning business. To implement budget cuts, he assumes that department management are the best people to make the decisions because they know the situation better than anyone else. He also believe the deadline can be accomplished even with a 2/3 decrease in budget.

d.Chris has assumed that Secur -- A Corp. can come to market in only a few months based on the limited knowledge that the company is in the development stage. His enthusiasm for the product is based on Pat's description of a dream product rather than the usual market requirements assessment. Chris has recommended that Pat give Kelly a copy of the product concept after marketing tests are scheduled, showing that he assumed Kelly's agreement wasn't that important.

2. a.Cliff fully supports the new retail product, viewing it as a way to recapture AcuScan's market position. He reasons that extreme action is necessary to cope with an extreme decline in revenue. And, he wants to move quickly, keeping to the August launch despite budget cuts.

b.Pat is set on her believe that the retail market will be highly receptive to her product concept, stating the retailers will want to be able to identify their customers and know what they are looking for. Based on her belief that adding additional databases to the existing product isn't that difficult to do, she blames Kelly for not being optimistic about the launch date, claiming that he does not know how to do iterative development or utilize his programmers effectively. Therefore, she sets her sites on an outside software design firm to remedy the situation.

c.Kelly argues that it is only possible to deliver a product with one feature by launch deadline. Kelly asserts that the alterations to iScanner are complex and will take time to provide a quality product. His notions of quality are high, particulary in light of recent airport security issues.

d.Chris is on board with Pat's retail concept and in many respects has an even greater sense of urgency because of perceived threats for market entry by the competition. To get to market as soon as possible, he lobbies for a significant increase in the budget of product development.

a.Cliff's argument that the company needs to take action is sound. With both sales and service revenue sinking, it's only natural that company would seek out new opportunities. However, the need to move so quickly given that the company is recovering and has revenue growth appears to reflect Cliff's emotions.
b.Pat is relying mostly on her own emotions to rationalize the retail product rather than sound market research. The decision to turn to outside help seems to be inspired by her emotional encounters with Kelly rather than any real justification that this action would speed development.

c.Kelly is logically concluding that a launch including all features isn't possible. However, his assessment may not be based on reasonable customer requirements in the retail industry.

d.Chris may be overestimating market entry by a competitir, after all it may be in the same shape as AcuScan. He appears to be emotionally charged, calling for more budget to make the launch happen, even though he is aware that relationships are a huge contributor to the slow down.

4. a. There is a proven potential to sell iScanner in the retail industry.

b. Databases can easily be built on top of the database scanner.

c. Secur -- A Corp. will come to market with a retail product in a few months.

d. Turning to outside contractors will translate into faster development.

1.a. Market opportunities and competitive threats have not been adequately evaluated.

b. Kelly and Pat have a terrible working relationship characterized by mistrust, a breakdown in communications and a lack of respect for each other's competencies.

c. The company has limited resources given past and planned labor and cost reductions, placing an additional burden on product development to meet the launch schedule.

2. a. There is no evidence of sufficient market opportunity evaluation, only concept evaluation. Because Kelly did not participate in the product concept, it's not even clear if the right concept is being tested. More competitive information is needed to determine where Secur -- A Corp is in the development cycle to forecast its market entry.

b. The problem between Kelly and Pat stems from a conversation they had about adding databases. Pat interpreted Kelly's "not usually" response to mean that they could quickly move forward in retail. As it became clearer that this wasn't going to be the case, both avoided each other. Pat developed the product concept on her own and Kelly resisted Pat's meeting requests.

c. Just a year ago, AcuScan laid off 500 people which cut costs by 15%, Now, the company is asking for another 15% from each department and believes it can achieve this without layoffs. Product development is already resource constrained with its support of the existing product.

3. The underlying problems are poor interpersonal communications and the tendency to jump to conclusions based on these faulty interactions and inadequate research.

4. a. The opportunity and the concept need to be adequately evaluated and competitive intelligence must gauge development activities at Secur -- A Corp. In particular, AcuScan must assess market acceptance of a mutually agreed upon product concept and the real window of opportunity given competitors and the minimum level of functionality and quality required to make customers happy in an initial release.

b. If the retail market is truly as important to the success of AcuScan as executive management states, it needs to exempt product management from budget cuts and perhaps even increase the budget. The use of outside consultants might still be a good idea, to ramp up quickly where needed and to bring in retail domain expertise.

5. a. More due diligence would delay product launch even further, but would increase the chances of success because decisions would be based on more accurate data.

b. More budget and staff could remove resource constraints in product development, thus moving the company to product launch more quickly. However, the company may have to recover at least some of this budget from other departments in the company.

6. The company should exercise better due diligence for market opportunity, product concept and competitive progress. Succeeding in a new market is always difficult, but making moves based on faulty assumptions almost always leads to failure. This information may take some of the pressures…