Micro product development methods - how do we focus on the right issues?

The development of micro and nano products or systems is considered to be a very difficult and challenging task. The manufacturing technologies used are emerging or pushed to the limits of their capabilities. The physical working principle is often not in the same area as common engineering. Moreover, very little knowledge is available outside of the research and development context. Packaging and interaction between micro and macro worlds is one issue that could be specific. But is it actually true that developing a product in this scale framework is very different? The main problem is to focus on the right issues for each required part of the design steps and have the available knowledge and technologies. To that extent, both a technology pushed approach and a product/customer driven approach have to be used in order to conduct to a level of knowledge which can lead to actual production and to bring up a line of future technology research. An analysis of the differences and similarities between macro and micro/nano in topics such as product design, industrial organization, etc. is conducted. The general discussion is supported by case studies of both down-scaled products and products only available at micro scale.