Discover: find the right problem, define the right solution
The idea is evaluated with the Design Compass, our Innovate UK-backed innovation framework, covering commercial viability, technical feasibility and environmental and social responsibility. For an electronic product this is also where the architecture choices that drive the whole design are made: battery and power budget, connectivity, sensors, and which standards the product will eventually be tested against.
Develop: prove the market needs your solution
Early electronic prototypes use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) electronics such as Arduino or Raspberry Pi to prove function quickly and cheaply, while detail design brings the electronics and enclosure together in CAD with design for manufacture and assembly in mind. The compliance strategy set in Discover starts being executed here: test houses engaged, requirements mapped against the developing design. The phase ends with a Market Validated Prototype (MaVP): something you can put in front of your market and say it will work like this, look like this and cost this much.
Engineer: make it manufacturable, make it certifiable
The custom PCBA is engineered with our electronics partners: component selection for supply chain reliability, board layout suited to automated assembly and test, and pre-compliance EMC testing to catch problems before certification money is spent. A Pre-Manufacture Prototype (PMP) built from production data is tested and approved before tooling capital is committed, and tooled parts culminate in the Final Engineering Prototype (FEP) for sign off.
Deliver: production, to agreed quality and cost
The Beta production run validates the tooling, the assembly line and the product coming off it against the Minimum Acceptance Quality Level (MAQL) agreed earlier in the project, with certification completed before sale. We then hand-hold your team through production or manage it entirely on your behalf.
The four phases are the same for every product we develop; for the general version of these stages, see what are the stages of the development process.