Reqlify: Requirements Management for Regulated Industries

The Challenge

In regulated manufacturing industries, small to mid-sized companies and their extensive networks of small suppliers face significant challenges in requirements management. Information about product specifications and regulatory compliance is often scattered across emails, documents, and disparate systems. This fragmentation leads to:

Communication Breakdown: Difficulty for both OEMs and suppliers to track the status of required specifications.

Costly Delays: Misaligned information causes cascade effects, slowing down product development and increasing costs for all parties.

Market Stagnation: The market for requirements management tools is dominated by expensive, legacy systems with clunky interfaces, leaving a gap for agile, modern solutions.

The core problem was a pervasive inefficiency driven by poor information flow between numerous, interconnected entities.

My Solution

I designed and developed Reqlify, a web application conceived as a modern solution for streamlined requirements management. The platform aimed to provide a centralized, intuitive system where companies and their suppliers could collaboratively track, implement, and verify compliance with product specifications and regulations.

Key features included:

• A unified interface to manage requirements status and implementation progress across multiple small suppliers.
• Tools to overcome fragmented communication, reducing reliance on informal channels like email.
• A user-friendly alternative to the outdated, feature-deficient legacy systems prevalent in the industry.

Crucially, my process involved direct market research, including in-depth conversations with an industry expert in requirements management. These discussions provided invaluable insights into the nuanced pain points and workflow challenges faced by professionals in this highly conservative sector.

The Outcome

Validated a Critical Problem: The project confirmed a genuine need for better communication and tracking between OEMs and small suppliers in regulated environments.

Gained Deep Market Insight: Provided firsthand experience with the challenges of market entry into highly conservative, legacy-dominated industries, and the specific hurdles in engaging potential customers.

Demonstrated Product Conception & Development: Showcased the ability to design and build a complex, specialized SaaS solution from problem identification through to functional application.

Learned Entrepreneurial Resilience: Navigated the difficulties of achieving market traction despite building a relevant solution, highlighting a key learning curve in business development.