What is a Feasibility Study?
The feasibility study service is tiered to suit different needs and goals. Maybe you need a focused go/no-go review to quickly assess whether an idea is worth pursuing from an engineering perspective. Equally you may need an in-depth investigation for full confidence in a concept at a technical, strategic, manufacturing and geometric level before committing significant resource into development. Different tiers are offered to suit anyone wherever you are in your product journey.
Committing to developing a product is a significant decision, no matter the size of your business. Many new start-ups jump straight into the exciting development stage where the product comes to life quickly only to realise too late significant technical, financial or strategic problems are insurmountable. In the best-case scenario, these business make heavy compromises, worst case, the project fails. One of the best ways to mitigate these disaster outcomes is to carry out a robust feasibility study before committing large funds and resources to manufacture.
Even with unlimited funding, projects without a deep understanding of the inherent risks can get bogged down in endless iterative product development. Carrying out a feasibility study early will almost certainly save time in the long-run.
Each feasibility study is tailored to the specifics of your product while following a consistent engineering framework. The aim is to reduce technical risk early, clarify development direction and allow you to move forward into product development with confidence.
I'd love to discuss more about how I can offer specific help to your personal project, feel free to get in touch below with an initial call to discuss your needs. I'm always happy to start with an non-disclosure agreement before chatting about your idea.
What Does a Feasibility Study Involve?
What Are The Objective Outputs?
The subjective goals are always to build confidence, reduce technical risk and the likelihood of big mistakes as early as possible, define design direction and invest short term resources to save long-term and more costly resource. This means that I work with you to take your project from a great idea to a proven product proposal ready for investment.
Translated into objective outputs this might include some or all of the following:
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A Product Requirements Document which is Essential for Product Development
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A constraints and requirements trade-off matrix
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Design Direction with evaluation and reasoning
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A report on the technological viability of the proposed design
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A list of critical components needed and rough size of the product needed to accommodate these
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A report on the advised manufacturing methods and material selection with trade-off evaluation
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A full condensed feasibility report for taking to investors
Idea for Design
Feasibility Study
- Theoretical Proof of Principle
- Design Direction
- Investor Ready Reports
Which Tier is Right for Me?
Basic
Any size of company needing a rapid go/no-go decision on development from an engineering perspective
Perfect for Entrepreneurs or founders without engineering expertise looking for a basic assessment of their idea in terms of technical feasibility and looking for basic development of requirements
Core
Great for small teams that don't have dedicated engineering resource needing all of the technical documentation for product development to take to investors as well a concept exploration and design direction.
Also a good fit for any company needing more resource for feasibility analysis on a specific project.
Comprehensive
Great for more established companies needing a technically rigorous analysis of technological and geometric aspects of a new project before investing significant costs into development. Perfect for products with high performance or safety requirements.
Also ideal for single Entrepreneurs needing comprehensive product development support and advice on manufacturing, development strategy and more.
Cost:
I like to be transparent about the work I do for accountability and for building great relationships with partners. Get in touch and I'd love to have a chat about timeline and pricing quotations for your specific product. I quote by estimating a timeline of engineering hours needed for the service and apply an hourly rate. To give an idea of the costs involved here are some rough prices and timelines based on varying complexity and demand of the products:
Basic
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1 - 4 Weeks
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~£1500 - £6,000
Core
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4 - 9 Weeks
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~£6,000 - £13,500
Comprehensive
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8 - 20 Weeks
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~£12,000 - £30,000
Services Timeline
Below is a typical timeline of where each stand-alone service typically falls in the product development process. If you choose to go through the whole product development process with me, the services are far more integrated and iterative meaning that design verification and design for manufacturing considerations are baked into the detailed design and prototyping phases.
This reduces duplicated work in scope overlap and ensures smooth knowledge transfer throughout the process as well as a more natural, although still structured, development process.
Click on the buttons below to explore the Product Development service and find out more about how it works. Alternatively, if you know you need a specific stand-alone service, click the individual service buttons below to find out more
(All Services Integrated)