Product Development for Established Companies
Industrial Design and Product Development for Established Companies
An experienced external product development team that works alongside your design, engineering, R&D and manufacturing groups.
We have run programs for manufacturers whose products carry regulatory approval, installed bases, service networks and a design language that has to hold across a portfolio. We adapt to how your organisation already works — including your CAD standards, your suppliers and your stage-gate reviews.
- Running programs alongside internal engineering teams
- Since 2000Running programs alongside internal engineering teams
- Confidential development is the normal case, not an exception
- Under NDAConfidential development is the normal case, not an exception
- Multi-product platforms sharing architecture and design language
- Product familiesMulti-product platforms sharing architecture and design language
Where You Are Right Now
Extra Capability Without Adding Permanent Headcount
The teams we work with are rarely short of talent. They are short of bandwidth, or short of one specific capability, at a moment when a program cannot wait for a hire.
01
Internal resources are committed
The roadmap is full and the program cannot wait for a hire. We add senior capacity for the duration and then step out.
02
A program needs a specific capability
Ergonomics, CMF, a new manufacturing process or a category you have not designed for before.
03
A mature product needs modernising
Still selling, starting to look its age. Updating form and interaction without disturbing what works.
04
Product cost has to come down
Value engineering on a product already in production, with its installed base and service network intact.
05
The next-generation platform
A new architecture intended to carry several products and several years. Worth an outside perspective early.
06
The line has drifted
Products designed by different people at different times no longer read as one family. We rebuild the language.
07
A new process is coming in
New tooling, materials or an automated line, and the product has to be redesigned to suit it.
08
Confidential development
Work that cannot involve internal chatter or a large vendor. We are used to running quietly under NDA.
Constraints We Design Inside
The Realities a Mature Product Program Carries
A greenfield concept is the easy version of this work. Most of what we do for established manufacturers is constrained on every side, and being useful means respecting those constraints from the first sketch.
Stakeholder alignment
Engineering, marketing, manufacturing, service and sales rarely want the same product. We make trade-offs explicit and reviewable rather than deciding them quietly in CAD, so decisions survive the next meeting.
Legacy and backward compatibility
Existing mounting, accessories, interfaces, fixtures and installed base all constrain the new design. These constraints are usually non-negotiable, so they belong in the requirements set on day one.
Manufacturing continuity
You already have tooling, lines, processes and trained operators. A redesign that ignores what is amortised and working is a redesign that will not be approved.
Portfolio and design language consistency
A single product has to look like it belongs to the family, and the family has to be describable as a system rather than a collection. Extending an existing language is more disciplined work than inventing one.
Regulatory and standards requirements
Safety, EMC, medical and industrial standards shape geometry, materials, markings and documentation. Designing to them from the start is dramatically cheaper than remediating a failed test.
Serviceability and long lifecycles
Products that live for a decade need parts availability, field service access, wear management and documentation that outlasts the people who wrote it.
Supplier constraints
Approved vendor lists, existing contracts and qualified processes limit the solution space. Good design inside those limits beats an elegant solution that requires requalifying a supply chain.
Documentation and handover
Our work has to leave your organisation able to build, service and revise the product without us. Production CAD, drawings, specifications and rationale are part of the deliverable, not an afterthought.
Engagement Models
How We Work With Internal Teams
Our role is set by what your team already covers. These four shapes account for nearly every program we run with an established manufacturer.
01
Full Development Partner
We lead the industrial design and product development program end to end, reporting to your product or engineering leadership, and manage the path through DFM and manufacturing.
Typical when
A new product or platform where internal bandwidth for a full program does not exist.
02
Integrated Design Partner
We work inside your process, alongside your engineering, product and manufacturing teams — your CAD standards, your PLM, your stage gates, your suppliers, your review cadence.
Typical when
A capable internal team that needs design and development capacity rather than direction.
03
Specialised Project Support
A defined problem with a defined deliverable: a usability issue, a housing, a CMF program, packaging, a serviceability fix or a manufacturing constraint.
Typical when
One problem is holding up a program that is otherwise on track.
04
Product Optimization
We evaluate a product already in market and improve it for usability, unit cost, assembly, appearance or consistency with the rest of the portfolio, then document the changes for production.
Typical when
A profitable product whose cost, quality or aesthetics need to move without a full redevelopment.
Scoping a program for next fiscal year?
We are comfortable starting under NDA, and comfortable being one part of a larger internal program. Thirty minutes with our design director to test the fit.
Proof
Programs Run With Internal Teams
Long relationships, multiple products, and other people's engineering departments in the room.
Entertainment / Commercial
Via-12, Quattro & Modular Switches
Pathway Connectivity — Acuity Brands
A multi-product relationship with an established manufacturer: network switches, DMX gateways and architectural wall stations developed to share a design language and work inside the client’s engineering, supplier and production realities.
View Case Study
Ag-Tech
Blue-DIN & Blue-Node
OPI Systems
Two hardware products in one monitoring platform, designed for field durability and for efficient tooling and assembly at the volumes an established ag-tech business needs.
View Case Study
Industrial Safety
LUCI
Six Safety Systems
A safety device developed against industrial standards from the ground up, engineered to seal out contaminants and integrate into operator workflows rather than disrupt them. Compliance and manufacturability handled in the same program.
View Case StudySome of our longest programs cannot be shown. Several established clients prefer their use of an outside design partner stay private, and some work remains under NDA.
FAQ
Questions From Product and Engineering Leaders
Procurement-relevant answers on scope, confidentiality and how we plug into existing workflows.
Can you work with our internal industrial design or engineering team?
Yes, and we do it regularly. We adapt to your CAD standards, file management, review cadence and stage gates. The arrangement can be us leading, us embedded in your process, or us owning one defined part of the program.
Can you work under NDA?
Yes. Confidential development is normal for us, including programs we cannot show in our portfolio. We sign your agreement rather than insisting on ours, and we manage supplier disclosure carefully.
Can you take responsibility for only part of a program?
Yes. A housing, a user interface, a CMF program, an ergonomics study, packaging or a DFM package can all be scoped as discrete deliverables with clear interfaces back to your team.
Can you redesign an existing product?
Yes. Modernisation, cost reduction, manufacturability improvement and next-generation development on existing products are a large part of what we do for established manufacturers.
Can you help reduce manufacturing cost?
Yes. Part consolidation, assembly simplification, process and material change and tooling strategy, assessed against your existing investment. We will tell you when the achievable saving is not worth the requalification effort.
Can you work with our existing suppliers?
Yes, and usually we prefer to. Designing to a qualified supplier's processes is faster and lower-risk than moving work, and their DFM feedback makes the design better.
Can you help create a consistent product family?
Yes. We define and document a design language and product architecture that can be applied across a range, including rules your internal team can follow on future products without us.
Can you support international manufacturing?
Yes. Our Calgary and Newcastle studios cover North American and Asia-Pacific supply chains, and we produce documentation packages built to be built from at a distance.
Can you work with an established CAD and PLM workflow?
Yes. We work to your native formats, naming conventions, revision control and release process so what we deliver drops into your system rather than sitting beside it.
How do you typically structure larger programs?
In phases with defined deliverables and decision points — discovery and requirements, concept, detailed design and engineering, DFM and documentation, manufacturing support — mapped onto your existing gates so approvals happen where your organisation expects them.
Discuss Your Next Product Program
Thirty minutes with our design director to test the fit against your program, your constraints and your internal team's workload. Happy to sign an NDA first.
Book a Free Discovery Call