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How We Develop Products

Every product we develop follows a five-stage process. The same team carries the work from scoping to manufacturing, with access to the full bench of engineers when needed. That depth of focus is what makes the process work. The same process applies to new product development and redesign for manufacturing.

There are many product development firms, but few are structured the way we are. Because we’re vertically integrated with mechanical, electrical, software, prototyping, CNC machining, PCB assembly, fabrication, and final assembly all under one roof, you get:

Speed: No coordination delays between separate firms. One team, one building.

Control: Key technical leads and account management dedicated to your program, with full bench access behind them.

Consistency: The same people from scoping through manufacturing. Tacit knowledge builds with every iteration.

Accountability: No blaming vendors, and no handoffs between firms. One point of responsibility.

Longevity: Products that get better over time because the team that builds them keeps learning.

Start With Scoping

Customers and Partners we’ve worked with

Where DEVELOP Lives

Most product development firms are strong in one or two of these. They can make something that works. They can make something that looks good. But they rarely find the point where function, design, and manufacturing all converge.
DEVELOP operates at the intersection of function, design, and manufacturing. The highest-value products exist where all three align. That alignment is built into every stage of the development process.

That internal debate between function, design, and manufacturing is constant. It happens every day on every project. And it’s what produces products that don’t just work but feel right, look right, and are built to manufacture.

PROCESS

Product Development Process

Scope

Understand your product requirements, your market, and your manufacturing path

Prototype

Build functional prototypes in-house. EVT verifies component-level functionality.

Design

Production-ready CAD, PCB layouts, firmware architecture, BOM finalization. DVT confirms the system.

Validate

PVT at pilot scale. Manufacturing documentation, test protocols, quality specifications.

Manufacture

Production-ready handoff to your manufacturing team, or transfer to DEVELOP’s automation department.

Extension of Team — Your Product Development Department

A bolt-on, siloed division of your company. Key technical leads dedicated, full bench behind them.

PROCESS

Product Development Process

Scope

Understand your product requirements, your market, and your manufacturing path

Prototype

Build functional prototypes in-house. EVT verifies component-level functionality.

Design

Production-ready CAD, PCB layouts, firmware architecture, BOM finalization. DVT confirms the system.

Validate

PVT at pilot scale. Manufacturing documentation, test protocols, quality specifications.

Manufacture

Production-ready handoff to your manufacturing team, or transfer to DEVELOP’s automation department.

Extension of Team — Your Product Development Department

A bolt-on, siloed division of your company. Key technical leads dedicated, full bench behind them.

Why Staying With One Team Matters

Products developed by the same team over time don’t just get built faster. They get better. The SOPs refine, the design language becomes consistent, and the operator experience becomes cohesive across your product line. That’s what happens when you stop switching firms and start building with a team that compounds.

When teams switch product development partners, context resets. Manufacturing constraints, component preferences, and operator standards have to be relearned.

When you stay with one team, the tacit knowledge builds. Some of it can be documented in SOPs and design standards. Some of it just lives in the team, the kind of knowledge that comes from building the same types of products and machines over years. The first engagement is the most expensive per dollar of value. By the third product, our team already knows your manufacturing constraints, your preferred components, your operator interface standards, and your brand requirements. The cost to create value goes down. The quality of what we create goes up. That compounding effect is why our best client relationships are measured in years, not projects.

Teams that reset with each project lose that accumulated context. Over time, the gap in efficiency and product quality widens.

Start With Scoping

Two Ways to Engage

Work typically starts with scoping and continues through one of two paths.

Scoping

Project-specific. We analyze your product, your business, and your customer to find the convergence of value. Approximately three months. Your investment is credited toward the project, up to $25,000.

Extension of Team

Extension of Team is what it sounds like: we become a siloed, embedded product development team, focused on a specific project or product vertical. We operate as a focused product development division with key technical leads and account management dedicated to your program, backed by our full bench of engineers.

Your team doesn’t have to manage the convergence between mechanical, electrical, and software. We do. Your team doesn’t have to source expertise across multiple firms. We have it under one roof. The result is a product development function that operates at the pace and quality of an internal department, without the hiring timeline, the overhead, or the ramp-up.

This is where the compounding effect is strongest. The team never resets. Every product in your roadmap benefits from everything we learned on the last one. By the third project, we already know your constraints, your components, your standards, and your manufacturing path. The cost to create value drops. The quality goes up.

Scoping

The Full Circle

No other company designs products AND builds the machines that manufacture them. That full lifecycle means the product, the tooling, and the machine are designed to work together from the start. Function, design, and manufacturing, all converging under one roof.

How We Work

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

These are the questions that come up once a product moves from concept into development. They focus on process, timelines, validation, and what it takes to reach manufacturing.

Five stages: Scope, Prototype, Design, Validate, Manufacture. Each stage has specific deliverables and validation gates (EVT, DVT, PVT). The same team works on the project throughout, with full bench access for specialized expertise.

Scoping takes approximately three months. A focused product (single PCB, firmware, enclosure) typically takes 6-12 months through validated prototype. Complex systems take 12-18+ months. Full manufacturing readiness can extend to 18-24+ months.

EVT (Engineering Validation Testing) verifies component-level functionality. DVT (Design Validation Testing) validates the complete system under real conditions. PVT (Production Validation Testing) tests the full assembly process at pilot scale. These gates ensure the product is ready before moving to the next stage.

DEVELOP’s approach sits at the center of three converging priorities: Function (does it work), Design (is it designed with intention), and Manufacturing (can it be built efficiently at scale). The highest-value products exist where all three overlap.

Tacit knowledge compounds. By the third product, the team already knows your constraints, components, standards, and manufacturing path. The cost to create value drops and quality increases. Switching firms resets that learning curve every time.

Yes. That’s the full circle. Same engineers, same building. Product designed, machine built, production running.

Product development focuses on designing the product itself, including mechanical, electrical, and software systems. Automation focuses on designing and building the machines that manufacture that product.

Both follow structured, stage-gated processes and are carried out by the same team. For products that require automated production, the two connect at the manufacturing stage, where the product design transitions directly into system and machine development.

We become a siloed, bolt-on division of your company focused on a specific project or project set. Key technical leads and account management are dedicated to your program, with our full bench of engineers behind them. We handle the convergence between mechanical, electrical, and software so your team doesn’t have to. The longer we work together, the more value we create because the team never resets.

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