Without adequate risk management, the development of a new hardware product might extend the project’s timeline, postpone the product’s release, and rack up significant expenses for the business.
Large corporations typically have the necessary experience, connections, resources, and manpower to deal with such threats, but this is not the case for startups and sole proprietors. This post will provide some advice and resources that may help you stay on track with your project’s development so that you don’t have to start from scratch. Check out John Teel’s entire guide to creating electronic products if you’re new to the product development process.
However, some fairly standard wisdom exists and can be deployed to guarantee that most of the eventualities on the road to product development are well planned for, despite the fact that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to mitigating the risks posed by uncertainties due to differences in the type of products and their requirements. In order to make our evaluation clear, we will divide it up into four sections.
- User Research
- Mitigating Risks During Design and Engineering
- Manufacturing and Establishing Relationships
- Certifications
User Research
While user research is an ongoing process, you must have a thorough consultation with potential users and an understanding of all the fundamental features needed before you start working on getting the first version of your product to market.
It’s vital to remember that the term “users” encompasses more than just the people who might eventually buy your product.
Even if your product’s initial release lacks “killer” and “awesome” features, it still needs to include the basics that will make it appealing to its intended audience. Failing to do so could result in costly redesigns further down the line.
Creating a product requirement document is the typical next step, either in tandem with or after user research. Everything from the product’s intended features and functionality to the distribution channels and retail locations will likely be detailed in the product requirement document. Historically, this document has been fairly lengthy and detailed in order to serve as a reference for programmers and engineers. If these are in place, designers will be better able to communicate their vision for the product and make well-informed decisions throughout the design process.
Mitigating Risks During Design and Engineering
More time is lost during the design phase than any other part of the product development process, second only to Manufacturing. For the sake of clarity, I’ll address each of the issues and suggestions associated with this section individually (and in no particular order).
Spend more time sharpening the ax than cutting:
It is recommended to perform a predesign of the project before choosing the components to be used. Create product-specific criteria for choosing critical components (such as price, power consumption, input/output support, and so on). Utilize the microcontroller, integrated circuit, sensor, etc. recommendation applications provided by some component manufacturers. Below are some articles you may find helpful as you go through the hiring process.
- How to select a Microcontroller for Embedded Applications
- How to select the right PCB Design Software
- How to select an IoT Platform for your devices
- Selecting between Microcontroller and Microprocessor
Leverage on Reference Designs:
The entire purpose of reference designs is to aid developers in cutting down on design time. Reference designs are provided by component manufacturers, and these can range from microcontrollers to conventional ICs and Sensors. These designs often include schematics, source codes (if appropriate), and a sample application or use case. All of this may shorten the time needed to determine the optimal placement and function of each part.
Design for Manufacturing:
Startups sometimes create prototypes without thinking about the time, cost, technical complexity, practicality, or availability of the components needed for mass production because of the pressing need to test a large number of ideas early on.
As the project nears manufacture, the faults become more apparent, and the requirement to substitute components A or make changes to B could create delays in the product launch, both of which are unaffordable for a startup with limited resources. Risks associated with these factors can be reduced by;
- Prototype using evaluation kits and breakouts boards of the major components that will be used in mass production.
- Use components with a large ecosystem of potential replacements
- Understand the capacity of your proposed manufacturers, and the specifications they work with.
Leverage on Design Automation/Assistance Tools:
Numerous design automation instruments, utilizing rule engines, artificial intelligence, and other technologies, are currently under development. While the features of these apps vary, they all have the potential to speed up the creation of your product. Assuming you agree Providing an exhaustive list of such tools is beyond the scope of this article, however two that I’ve recently enjoyed using are InspectAR and Circuit-Tree.
Simply enter your project specifications and choose the components you’d like to use, and Circuit-tree will generate Schematics and PCBs for you. Although it is still in its early stages of development, this tool has the potential to be extremely helpful to teams whose founders are interested in reducing the time and money spent on electronics design.
Manufacturing and Related Relationships
Poor planning before or during the design process is always the root cause of manufacturing risks for startups. They take a poor “cart before the horse” strategy by not contacting manufacturers and suppliers until after the product has already been designed. You should begin working to build supply chain relationships for the essential components you will be employing as soon as possible after finishing your user research and pre-design (better yet, during it), and you should also identify potential manufacturers, who should have experience creating goods like yours.
You can learn a lot about the potential design of your product and the specifications of the machines and other equipment used by the manufacturers you’ve identified early on by having casual discussions (protect your IP) with them about the products they make.
Parts procurement and supply chain management benefit greatly from having these conversations early on. Many production delays have occurred in the past when essential materials were unavailable. Sometimes, once a product’s design is finalized, a crucial component is suddenly no longer available from the manufacturer, which drives up the price.
These risks can be reduced and product development plans can be maintained in several ways.
- Ensure there is someone on the team with experience around manufacturing a similar product. This could be a core member of the team or a consultant.
- Establish relationships (casual, if you like) with potential manufacturers early.
- Bring on a supply chain expert. Inhouse or consultant.
- For first-time hardware founders, talk to as many people in that space as possible. By leveraging on their experience, you will most likely save yourself thousands of dollars in time and mistakes.
Certification
The certification process is one of the most time-consuming and complex aspects of releasing a new piece of hardware. There are specific commercial rights and validation processes that must be met before a standard product can be marketed in a standard market. No clue about the legalities of commerce (I’m only an engineer, after all), but one way to lessen anxiety over certification exams is to make use of already-verified modules and parts.
This would not only lessen the likelihood of failing the tests, but also the cost and complexity of building the necessary modules to ensure compliance with the requirements.
Instead of creating your own electronic components, you may opt to use some off-the-shelf parts instead. Creating a custom charger, for instance, can cause certification issues that can be avoided by designing your product to work with standard, commercially available USB chargers.My EMI/EMC article provides more details on the certification process.
In conclusion, it’s nearly difficult to completely avoid obstacles that could delay your product’s release date.