Product Strategy
From Own Hardware to Platform
How an entrepreneur found his real problem before development started.
Starting Point
An entrepreneur from a mid-sized company wants to develop his own connected device. He knows the problem behind it first-hand: in his own business it regularly costs him money and nerves. He already has the hardware in mind, and a budget for development too.
What is missing is proof. Does exactly this device solve the problem? Does it pay off for customers? And does he need to build it himself at all? Before money flows into prototypes, he wanted these questions answered. That is where we started.
What We Did
1. FIRST THE PROBLEM, THEN THE TECHNOLOGY: In the first workshop, every technology idea went into a parking lot. Then we walked through the last real damage case step by step: what happens, what does it cost, who is involved? It turned out that the planned device does not help in exactly the situation in which most damage occurs.
2. FINDING THE PROBLEM NEXT TO THE PROBLEM: While walking through the case, we noticed a process nobody had thought about before: for a simple handover, someone has to drive out every time. That costs 30 to 60 minutes per handover, and it happens very often.
3. CALCULATING THE BENEFIT IN EUROS: We weighed both problems against each other, based on public statistics, a competitor analysis and the values from the workshop. Result: the handovers cost the industry many times more than the original problem. The first idea alone does not carry the product, the saved time does. The biggest open assumption is stated clearly in the document: how often a handover really means a trip.
4. BUY WHAT ALREADY EXISTS: Suitable devices are already on the market. Building own hardware would have required development and certification before a single customer pays. In systems engineering we therefore compared 13 variants and checked make or buy for every component. The result was a platform that works with purchased devices. The value lies in the software, not in the housing.
5. HE DECIDES, NOT US: In the end, two paths lay on the table, each with costs, risks and open questions. We deliberately did not write a recommendation into it. The entrepreneur decided himself to continue with the handovers.
Result
A decision document with figures, assumptions, costs and two paths, backed by 79 sources.
A variant comparison across 13 system variants with a make-or-buy decision for every component.
A small first test instead of a long development project: two purchased devices from different manufacturers, before money flows into own hardware.
What You Can Take Away
Do you already have the hardware in mind before it is clear which problem really costs your customers money? Then start there, not with the first prototype. In the Accelerator Sprint we clarify exactly that with you and put it into a document you can use to decide whether and what to build.
30–60
minutes per handover, because someone drives out every time
13
system variants compared, with a make-or-buy decision per component
79
sources behind the decision document