The familiar concept of ‘Technology Readiness Level’ was developed by NASA in the 1970s and is now used to evaluate the progress of any invention to a successful product. But a simple TRL score can over-simplify the journey from laboratory to factory.
Product development might begin with intellectual property. Then your technology must be integrated into a solution for a known problem. Products using physical resources need consideration of production issues too. Your technical challenges might be much broader than you realise.
‘Commercial Readiness Level’ is a more recent concept, building on recent academic work. This aims to assess the commercial evolution of a new product from customer need to a viable business model. As a high-level scoring system, it also suffers from subjectivity.
The commercial drive for a new product might start with an analysis of the target market. It should also consider typical customers’ needs. The product concept can then be specified and positioned in its target market to achieve customer acceptance.
Your commercial and technical strategies should converge to deliver a product with competitive benefits using protected technologies, which match customers’ needs in a growing market.
To provide more objective assessments of both measures, I’ve developed a tool inspired by academic work which breaks them down into components. This scores different aspects of Commercial and Technical Readiness, to indicate their progress and balance.
I hope this adds something to the debate on how to commercialise technologies, and I would appreciate your comments and feedback.
(Written: April 2024)