You have an idea for a new product. Great. Now what? You should build a prototype, right? Find angel investors? Apply for a patent? Not necessarily. Developing a product is hard and often fails because: Problems are not defined clearly.Projects...
Mechanical Design
Outsource to a Product Development Firm and Speed Up Your Time to Market
It’s no secret that it’s difficult — if not impossible — to make money on an idea if it doesn’t exist as a tangible product. However, the leap from concept to production is a big one. And this is necessary if you hope to hold your product in your hands, get it in...
I’m a New Grad Who Chose Mechanical Engineering — Here’s Why
My path towards a career in mechanical engineering began at home as a kid, in a family where I am the youngest of five. Five children tend to cause lots of problems that can be fixed — from hand-me-down bicycles to packing the car for a road trip — so I had numerous...
How to Research Product Prototyping Companies (And Find the Right Fit)
For many organizations, the decision to research product prototyping companies can feel like a leap forward in the production process. However, hiring such an external resource is often necessary — due to limited time, expertise, and potential budgetary constraints....
Building A World Class Product Development Team
Product Development - it's sexy, it's cool, everybody wants to be involved with it. It is where new ideas are tested, new revenue streams are defined, and businesses turn around. But as an r&d manager or NPD director, what does it really take to build a...
An Intern’s Perspective on Our Team of Engineers
Over the past several months, I've been fascinated by the incredible feats of engineering that were accomplished during the space race. A team of engineers — of all trades — worked tirelessly together to design, prototype, test, re-prototype, and ultimately create...
Industrial Design Company SGW Designworks
In the world of product design and engineering, the term "Industrial Design" is used many different ways, meaning different things to different businesses. Some people use the term referring specifically to the design efforts focused on aesthetics and ergonomics of a...
Should You Hire a Product Design Company?
Many of the smaller businesses we work with understand that in order to get their product from the concept stage to production, they will need to hire an outside product development firm or product design company. The larger businesses that we work with often have...
Virtual Reality Prototyping Can Save you Thousands of Dollars
When you hear the term virtual reality prototyping, do you instantly think of gaming? if you do, you are not alone. But the reality of VR is that there are many other applications than gaming for this technology, from shopping to marketing, training and communication,...
Product Design for Startups: A Guide
We are frequently asked if we specialize in product design for startups. The answer is a qualified yes! While most of our business is with established businesses, we do work with startup companies, ideally when they have realistic expectations about their business and...
Structuring Product Design and Engineering Projects
The success or failure of a product development effort depends on many things. The development work itself will focus on testing and validating features, functions, and designs in order to maximize the likelihood of a successful product. But the structure of the...
Pros and Cons of Outsourcing Physical Product Development in the US
There are advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing physical / hardware product design and development to a US-based company. How product development outsourcing works You contact an outside company to help with design and engineering of your new product. The...
Managing Innovation in Product Development Engineering
Product development engineering in practice, as we have seen, relies heavily on the application of creative ideas into innovative products/processes. How these concepts are supported is where the magic happens in the design development consultancy field. Creative and...
Design Thinking Strategies for an Innovative Product Design Process
The production of creative strategies to use in an innovative product design process is fully dependent on the engineering staff. The following quote from Chang (2016, p.356) helps to round out the point. “It is well known from the literature that the personal...
The Ultimate Goal of Prototyping (and the Importance of Design Iterations)
Design iterations (or prototypes) allow us to work out all the kinks in a product before it is complete. No new product gets completed without some hiccups or bumps along the way. Some testing is as straightforward as taking a product or device and trying it out to...
Solar Product Development and Embedded Systems
There has been a great interest in solar product development in recent years and as a result, product development engineering firms have gained a great deal of experience in designing solar energy products. Our team has been involved in some exciting projects recently...
Mastering Embedded Software Design: A Must-Have for Future Product Design
Embedded software design programming permeates all corners of our modern lives. Any time you pick up your phone or access a web page you are sifting through the hard work of software engineers. Countless products today have some combination of electronics incorporated...
IoT Product Development: Choosing the Right Web Services
If you’re planning to deliver an IoT (Internet of Things) product, you may have a solid concept for the IoT product development process of physical connected products and the software development process, since it’s the centerpiece of your solution. Similarly, you may...
Insight Into Portable and Rugged Product Design
For many, the term rugged product design evokes images of electronics built into thick plastic frames, military equipment, and the OtterBox. However, the term can mean a lot of different things depending on the application. One significant factor in what determines...
3 Things to Consider When Hiring a Prototyping Service Design Company
Prototyping development serves a critical role in a modern product development efforts. Oftentimes, production of a prototype serves as an important development milestone since the testing of that prototype will generate new information that will feed back into the...
Considering New Uses of RFID Technology
Radio frequency identification (RFID) chips have been around for years. They have been used for identification of vehicles, factory equipment, and they are built into plastic access cards for buildings. However, sometimes a new innovation can sound scary, even when it...
How Product Development Budget Affects a Project
Talking about budgets can be uncomfortable. It is common for new clients to try to avoid the topic entirely. Commonly, clients feel that if they tell us what their development budget is,…
The Importance of Use-Case Validation
Over the years, our repeat clients have asked us to get more involved in their product development efforts, as opposed to just providing engineering insight and execution. This has given us a…
Considering a Career in Product Development?
Last week, we gave two University presentations about product development methodologies. For us, it is always energizing to connect with young students that are curious and passionate about what we do as…
Drone Racing Is Here to Stay
This month marked the first ever, National Drone Racing Championships in New York City as well as the first year of the Drone Racing League. The National Drone Racing Championships are showcasing…
Agriculture Technology: Improving on a Long-Standing Industry
Agriculture is the oldest industries in the world. It’s something people have done for generations successfully and yet despite centuries of practice, innovators are still thinking up new ways to make farming…
Ongoing Feature Set Validation Prevents Failure to Launch
We hear it every day, whether we are talking with a startup founder or with an engineering director of a large manufacturing business. Product development is risky. Products often fail to launch.…
In Defense Systems Development, Product Performance Is Imperative
When lives are at stake, quality is not just a perk, it is imperative. Defense products often have a unique demand from their end user. It must be a quality product that…
Kick Off Your Project Right with Specialized Kickstarter Product Design
Kickstarter is fun for consumers. Where else do you get to browse hundreds of listings for cool or fun new products and then get to be one of the first people to…
Product Documentation: Important for Project and Business Success
How do you ensure customers know how to use your product? How can you help an installer avoid breaking components? How can you help yourself avoid litigation? Good documentation and user guides…
IoT Systems Security: How Safe Are Your Products?
by Ken Oakeson (Sr Embedded Systems Engineer) A little over a week ago, a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) left a large segment of the American population unable to access popular websites and services,…
The Key to Avoiding Common Product Design Mistakes
Product strategy helps to avoid common product design mistakes. Aviation, drone, and cool gadget enthusiasts were all surprised earlier this year when Russian company Hoversurf unveiled its product design for the Scorpion-3 Hoverbike. The vehicle was exciting to see...