Moving from a successful prototype to a real-world hardware pilot presents a very different set of challenges from making one prototype, or manufacturing thousands.

For hardware SMEs, the need to build 5, 10 or 50 units often arrives at an important point in development: the technology works, but the business now needs evidence. That may mean deploying products with users, running a field trial, validating performance, gathering data, demonstrating the technology to partners, or learning what needs to change before manufacture.

Making this small batch can be challenging. The product may still be evolving, production tooling may not yet be justified, and not every part of the final product needs to be replicated. The challenge is to decide what must be representative, what can be simplified, how the trial itself should be designed, and what evidence needs to be gathered.

Why attend?

• This practical session will look at how hardware teams can plan and build effective pilot programmes, from defining what needs to be learned through to deciding what to manufacture and how.

• We will explore how prototype fidelity, manufacturing process and batch size affect what can reliably be tested; how to simplify hardware without compromising the purpose of the trial; and how to design testing and data collection around clear questions.

• Real project examples will illustrate technology demonstrations, user deployments, engineering validation, small-batch manufacture and the practical problems that emerge when products leave the development bench and enter real use.

• The session will also consider how evidence from pilots can feed back into product specification, engineering development and preparation for manufacture.

Who should attend?
The session is intended for founders, technical leads, product teams and innovation managers developing physical products or hardware-enabled services. It will be particularly relevant to teams that have demonstrated a technology or working prototype and are preparing for user trials, pilot deployments, engineering validation or a first small batch.

About the speaker
Jim Reeves is a Product Design Engineer and founding partner at Studio Matter, where he supports hardware startups and SMEs through product strategy, engineering, prototyping, testing and preparation for manufacture.
He has more than 20 years’ experience developing physical products, including co-founding and leading the technical development of GravityLight, as well as work across consumer products, connected devices and assistive technology. Much of his work focuses on helping early-stage teams turn promising prototypes into robust, testable products and small batches that can generate the evidence needed for the next stage of development.

If you have any questions please contact events@cp.catapult.org.uk