Chinese Manufacturers Read Requirements Docs

According to Mattel and the NYT, the flap over recalled Chinese-made toys was actually a failure of design on Mattel's part. Bob Corrigan at ack/nak brings it back to the product manager's requirements. He says, in part:

Let's go over the Mattel designs - the product requirements - and see where it says "the system shall not employ toxic materials for any coating or other user-accessible interface where those toxic materials are present at a level known to present a health risk to the user as defined by the following US Government safety specifications."

And we all thought no one ever reads our requirements documents. I can't give the Chinese a pass for using lead and kerosene in toys they knew were meant for children, but here is a very graphic argument for thorough documentation - especially when outsourcing work.

Ever filed a bug for some obvious flaw and had the developer come back and say "works as spec'd?" You think it's obvious the product shouldn't work like that but you go back and find you never actually specified whether it should or shouldn't. 

Comments

[Bob Corrigan]

Amazing, isn't it. It also goes to the sort of relationship you get with suppliers who get as the result of "lowest cost" RFPs. When you don't pay someone to think, they won't - even if they can.

[Ivan Chalif]

Bruce:

Your post (and the original one on ack/nak) bring up an interesting point about the type of developers (or manufacturers) that one works with.

In many job interviews, I have been asked how I have worked with engineers (software , in my case) in past jobs. I have had the opportunity to work with some engineers who follow product specs to the letter and others who spend more time questioning every feature than they do actually coding. To be sure, there are benefits and trade offs to working with both types, but I prefer the engineer who asks questions to the one who follows the spec blindly. You get to have more painful conversations, but you end up with a better product.

[Bruce McCarthy]

Thanks, Ivan. I agree. I remember the first QA manager I worked with. He drove me nuts with crazy-sounding what-ifs about features I had in my requirements. It all sounded like doom and gloom to me until I realized he was performing a valuable service by helping me make my product bullet-proof before it was made.

That doesn't mean we as PMs shouldn't do our best to be thorough and think things through before we hand over the specs.