Whenever a new product is to be introduced into the market, it needs to undergo lots of trials and changes before the final product is manufactured. When an idea comes up into a brilliant mind, it is then pondered over to create a design. The design is then considered from every angle, and the required changes are made before a prototype is made. But, even after the prototype is built, it isn’t a guaranteed sample of the final product. There are many changes made even in the prototype before the final design is confirmed. Through all of this, there are specific steps to be followed, ultimately culminating in full-scale manufacturing.
Step 1 – Proof Of Concept (POC)
POC or “proof of concept” is the first step of the process, which gives you a chance to qualify whether your idea about the new product is feasible or not. It helps narrow down the important signal integrity, power integrity, and DFM requirements that are needed for your new product. The POC can help identify any layout problems and manufacturability challenges with your new product before you put it into full-scale production. In this way, by defining the functionality requirements for your new product, the POC significantly impacts the prototype and MVP design process (about which you will learn later in this blog).
Step 2 – Prototype
Once a basic board has been developed for initial testing, and any errors in the POC are identified, a functional prototype is ready to be designed. The prototype should be made such that it can be tested for functionality in its intended environment. Just like the POC helps identify issues that affect electrical behaviour, similarly the prototype helps to test things like overall function of the product, the embedded software, and the user experience – all in the intended environment. Because a POC is tested in a lab, every kind of functional issue cannot be identified. But, when a prototype is made to work in a real environment, it helps identify every design problem, and completely qualifies the components and functionality of the new product. Once all the design issues are identified, the final changes are made before producing an MVP.
Step 3 – Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
This is the final design phase, the first scaled production run, where a new product is produced with the minimum level of desired functionality. It will resemble the final product to a large extent, but will be a limited release, before a huge scale production. You can that an MVP is when you produce a small amount to test the market for your new product and gather more detailed feedback from the users, than you would receive in earlier design phases.
With all of these complexities, and an understanding of every phase of designing, it is advisable that you have an experienced professional take care of every new product you want to invent. Miracle Electronics is one such experienced and reliable manufacture who can help you every step of the way when you are looking for a new product introduction. It isn’t for no reason that Miracle Electronics is considered as the best PCB, transformer, inductor, and wire harness manufacturers from India.