What you need to communicate is: (a) What is your innovation? (b) How will it be used? (c) Why will people want or choose it? (d) How will you make money with it?

The above can be communicated in the documentation (50% of the marks), at the trade show (30% of the marks) and in the dragon’s den (20% of the marks). For the documentation, the information should be presented in three parts:

a.       Product Description and Technical Specification (information which identifies what the product or service is in sufficient detail to allow a designer to implement the product or service).

b.      User Manual (information which describes how the product or service will be used).

c.       and d. Business Plan (in this context, information which allows venture capitalists to find promising projects to invest in), see the section on the business plan for more detail on what should be included.

There is no required size or format for the documentation.

Guidelines for a Product Description and Technical Specification

1.                 What features it will provide

2.                 Physical aspects (Size, materials used, etc.)

3.                 What other resources, information, equipment, skills, activities need to be in place for the product or service to work

4.                 How does it interact with the above

5.                 An indication of how it will support the different aspects of the business plan

6.                 Environmental considerations

Guidelines for a User Manual

1.                 Who will use it

2.                 How will it be used (for what purpose, in what situations)

3.                 What controls are available

4.                 How will any resources, information, equipment, skills, activities (which needed to be in place for the product or service to work) be established.