IoT product development
From an idea to something you can build again and again
We design the hardware, write the firmware, and take a product through every gate to a real production line. One team owns it from the first schematic to the boxed unit, so there is no seam to throw the work across.
What we hear
Four things that leave a product stuck halfway
An idea, and nobody to design the hardware
A strong software team, but nobody who reads a datasheet, picks a part, draws a schematic or lays out a board — so the work stalls on an off-the-shelf module that does not quite fit.
A prototype that works, and will not manufacture
It works on the bench, then a hundred units run into everything at once — parts gone end-of-life, assembly that only a person can do, no way to test each unit, and no document a factory can build from.
Several vendors, nobody owning the line
The board designer, the firmware developer and the factory are three companies. When something fails each points at the others, and the person who loses the time is the one who owns the product.
Volumes too small for a factory to care
Hundreds to a few thousand a run is too little for a large factory to take on, and far too many to assemble by hand in an office.
How we work
Two things that stop the work falling between hands
One team, schematic to production line
Schematic, layout, firmware, enclosure and the move to manufacture sit with one team, so a problem is fixed along the whole line instead of waiting for another company to accept that it is theirs.
Start from the job it has to do
We start from what the product must actually do on site, then choose the silicon, modules and radio to match — rather than adding capability nobody uses, since every addition is another cost per unit and another thing that can fail.
The process
Five gates, from something proven to something repeatable
These phase names are the standard vocabulary of hardware development, not a process we invented. Each gate answers a different question, and none is worth skipping: a problem that slips past one shows up in production, at a much higher price.
- 1POC
Proof of concept
Answer one question first — does this approach work at all — with no regard yet for shape, cost or finish.
- A prototype assembled from development boards and off-the-shelf modules, to prove the idea before any board is drawn
- Demonstration code showing the core function actually working
- A short report on what is proven and what is still a risk to close in the next phase
- A first cost-per-unit estimate, enough to decide whether to continue
- 2EVT
Engineering validation
The first real boards drawn for this product specifically, built to prove the circuit and the functions are what was intended.
- Schematic and board layout drawn for this product specifically
- The first real boards, enough to test with and for your team to try on site
- A BOM with second sources named for the parts that carry supply risk
- Firmware that exercises every function in the agreed specification
- A test report against that specification, saying what passed and what has to change
- 3DVT
Design validation
Test that it survives real conditions — temperature, humidity, brownouts, interference, and the approvals it must pass before it can be sold.
- A revised board with the EVT findings closed
- Environmental test results — temperature, humidity, and behaviour through brownouts and surges
- Pre-compliance EMC results, with a plan and a cost for the approvals the product needs
- Enclosure design and sample parts that actually fit the board
- 4PVT
Production validation
Build a small run on the same tooling and steps the real line will use, to see that it repeats and that every unit can be tested.
- A pilot run built on the same tooling and steps production will use
- An end-of-line test jig and script, so every unit can be tested without an engineer present
- Assembly documentation a factory can build from
- The pilot run's yield, and the list of what to fix before the line opens
- 5MP
Mass production
Ongoing production at the volume required, with the documentation, end-of-line testing and the support needed when a part changes.
- A complete production package, transferable to another factory if it ever has to be
- Test results reported per batch
- A plan for parts going end-of-life, including finding a replacement and re-testing it
- A route for reporting faults, and a way to update firmware after delivery
Manufacturing and quality
From a board that passed its tests to a unit you can ship
Designed to be built, from the first schematic
Manufacturing is not left to the end. From the moment a part is chosen we ask whether it can actually be bought, whether it has a second source, and whether a machine can place it or a person has to — because what is saved once at design time is paid again on every unit built.
Every unit testable, not assumed identical
A product that repeats has to be checked one unit at a time, without an engineer watching. So the test points on the board and the end-of-line jig are designed alongside the product itself, rather than improvised once units are already coming off the line.
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