Ignys are the ‘Design Team of the Year’ finalists who provide companies with innovative ways to bring their great product ideas to life.
As a creative electronics design and embedded software development consultancy based in Nottingham, they regularly see IoT developers tackle design and development issues and help remove the pitfalls of this process.
This article includes some things to watch out for:
What is your product development end goal?
Your product launch is not your end goal. After it succeeds what comes next? Do you plan to use the profits for R&D into the next big IoT device, to grow your team or create a sustainable future for your business?
These opportunities depend on your product being reliable, having good profits and audience appeal. When you view product development through the investment lens instead of a cost one it changes your perspective.
Environmental testing becomes a route to pre-compliance and reliability. Feasibility studies transform into your guide, to avoid extra costs during the design process. Value engineering techniques are your route to higher profit margins without passing that cost on to customers.
The ingredients for IoT product success
Examine your audience closely to ensure your product is really designed for them. Do your research carefully.
It’s also important to watch your features creep. Make a case for every feature you add to your IoT product. What value does each feature add? Will this extra feature make your customers buy your product or are you adding complexity and cost without the rewards, for you or your customer?
Simplicity is key and a successful product can open doors to future development.
Make sure your marketing message is underlined with honesty. Overselling your product is a short-term strategy that ends with negative reviews. You could damage your reputation and even the lifespan potential of your product.
Keep an eye on edge cases or glitches. These can occur during production or within your software code, resulting in a faulty product.
The dangers of a fixed design and development price tag
You want certainty. Not knowing how much product development will cost can drive you mad. But settling for a fixed cost comes with a set of hidden dangers. Electronics and software engineers factor in risks for costings. From experience they may evaluate that a particular testing phase could take three to six days to complete.
For a fixed price quote the following two scenarios could occur. They may quote for six days to accommodate any added risk leaving you out of pocket. On the other hand if they quote for three days this sounds great but in reality a rushed job on testing can be worse than no testing at all.
Price ranges offer another solution. The Ignys team often price for a best- and worst-case scenario. This means you can budget more effectively by understanding both sets of costs. It also means you get your extra costs back if the time needed is less than the higher threshold.
– Originally written by Hannah Ingram, Marketing Manager, Ignys –