Element D: Design Concept Generation, Analysis & Selection

Week 5: Design Concept Generation, Analysis & Selection

PLTW Element D — Design Concept Generation, Analysis, and Selection.

Generate Concepts

• Sketch a minimum of three distinct design concepts that could satisfy your Sprint 1 PRD. Vary the concepts meaningfully — don’t just re-skin the same architecture.
• Log each concept as its own GitHub Issue in your Kanban board, tagged concept, so the comparison trail is version-controlled instead of living on paper.

Score Concepts in a Decision Matrix

• Build a weighted Decision (Design) Matrix: list your PRD criteria as rows, your concepts as columns, and score each concept against each criterion.
• Weight criteria by importance (e.g. feasibility, cost, learner/user impact, time-to-build) and total the scores to justify which concept you’re carrying forward.

Concept Testing

• Validate the leading concept cheaply before committing engineering time: a paper prototype, clickable wireframe, spike/proof-of-concept script, or structured stakeholder walkthrough.
• Record what the concept test told you — what changed, what got confirmed.

My Solution

• Write up My Solution: the selected concept, in plain language, and My Solution Justification — why this concept won the decision matrix over the alternatives.

First Mentor Meeting: Design Review

Early this sprint, present your decision matrix and selected concept to your industry mentor.

• Walk through why each losing concept was cut.
• Ask what a working engineer in this domain would flag as a risk in your leading concept.
• Log the mentor’s feedback as a comment on your concept Issue — this becomes part of your Element J (External Evaluation) record later.

Core Deliverables

• Decision Matrix with 3+ scored concepts.
• Concept test results.
• My Solution + My Solution Justification write-up.
• Logged mentor design-review notes.