If you’re involved in the development of a hardware product, I want to help you get off to a good start. Having developed scores of consumer electronic products, I’ve seen it all, and can help you avoid the common mistakes many companies make. What’s counterintuitive is that it’s possible to develop your products faster and at a lower cost by following my rules. While my advice is much deeper than the few items listed below, these are something to consider. For more information, give me a call or send an email to phil@techspertsinc.com. Or check out my book, From Concept to Consumer.
Six Basic Rules
- Small experienced teams are better than large ones. Find specific, experienced expertise and avoid large development organizations.
- Leverage heavily. Don’t staff up when you can find experts in development and manufacturing from around the world.
- Find a strong program manager that can drive the project.
- Run in parallel. Do things in parallel and have contingency plans to avoid risk.
- Spend time up front to define the right features and try to avoid making changes once the design is underway.
- The invention is the easy part. Be prepared for much more work once the product is done.
