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End-to-End Product Design and Development Services

Turnkey new product development, or a flexible extension of your in-house team. We provide value at every step. Explore how we help.

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Video: VP Design, James Henderson discusses Design 1st services

Trusted to Design, Develop, and Engineer Manufacture-Ready Products for Startups and the World’s Most Innovative Brands

  • Motorola
  • Shark
  • SomnoMed
  • Cloud9
  • We-Vibe
  • Ericsson
  • NASA
  • Liberty Pumps

End-to-End Product Development Services

Our skilled team works collaboratively across specialized service areas. From start to finish, we find the right solutions to transform your initial idea into a reliable and useful product.

1. Product Design Strategy

Designer pointing at a design on a whiteboard screen while two colleagues watch

Research your category and lay solid project plans.

Our cost-effective up-front analysis and user value testing provides a clearer picture of your competition, price/cost options, patent strategy, customer valued features, market specific requirements, and more.

Armed with these insights, we can work with you to set your overall innovation strategy, confidently refine product feature priorities, set cost targets, identify the most promising creative and technical directions, and establish a solid project plan.

2. Industrial Design

Marker sketches of fitness wristband concepts spread across a desk

Transform your vision into a useful engaging product.

Our lean process is a proven method for harnessing our creative and technical capabilities to turn ideas into simple to use products that deliver conspicuous customers value.

Whether in the same room or collaborating from a distance with our state-of-the-art conferencing tools, we work closely with you and your team to brainstorm, develop concepts, and iteratively refine these ideas into a business-oriented product solution.

3. Mechanical Engineering

Designer at a workstation with a CAD model of a funnel part and 3D-printed prototypes

Engineer products that perform on every level.

Your new product must exceed user expectations about performance, quality, and cost. It may also need to meet stringent regulatory requirements.

Our expert engineering team has the analysis tools and technical expertise to help you reduce risk and solve tough problems. Tricky assembly; sophisticated materials selection; novel manufacturing processes; complex stress, thermal, or vibration concerns – whatever your technical hurdles, we can help.

4. Electronics Engineering

Collage of an FEA stress plot, a transparent device render and an exploded electronics enclosure with thermal map

Add intelligence and connectivity to your product.

From industrial instruments and medical devices to Internet-connected consumer products and everything between, we have the electronics design experience to reliably deliver the whole market-ready product.

Our engineering team has proven methodologies, intimate knowledge of the latest standards and frameworks, and years of experience designing, testing, and certifying hardware, firmware, and software applications.

5. Embedded Software

Circuit boards in a custom test fixture wired to a microcontroller on a workbench

Seamless integration of electronics into new products.

Embedded software plays a critical role in the optimal function of physical products. Our expert team of software and firmware developers works together to design compact software with a small memory footprint and low power requirements.

Using an interdisciplinary approach to integrating hardware and software into your product’s design delivers energy-efficient, highly reliable systems with built-in redundancy and fault tolerance.

6. Prototype and Test Engineering

Exploded render of a wearable heart-rate monitor beside its phone app screen

Show and validate your design early, reduce your risk.

Prototypes are essential when developing physical products. With our in-house modeling and fabrication capabilities, and our established network of reliable prototype suppliers, we build thousands of models and prototypes each year for all kinds of physical products and demonstration units.

For low cost predictable development, we create virtual renderings, physical bench models and fully functional prototypes to evaluate and assess your products utility to customers prior to manufacturing.

7. Manufacturing Setup and Support

Numbered exploded view of the Levy electric scooter showing deck, stem, wheels and battery

Quickly get your design into reliable production.

To design a great product, you must know the process. 70% of a product’s cost is locked-in during the early design stage, so we apply our extensive knowledge of manufacturing right at the start of your project.

We engage component suppliers and potential contract manufacturers early in the design or work closely with your in-house production team. This removes surprises during the new product introduction process to minimize the development cost and reduce time required to complete manufacturing set-up for full production.

A Tailored Team of Product Development Experts

When you work with Design 1st, you’re accessing a tailored, cross-functional team of specialists customized for your specific project. As your project evolves, so too does the team working on it, so you get only the most expert people providing input every step of the way.

Our Unique Product Development Approach

Your innovation remains your intellectual property

We Recognize Your Ownership

It is your idea, your product, your patents, and your awards. We provide critical guidance to drive your project forward and get our motivation from your success.

Communication is Critical

Our process centres on close collaboration with you and your team. We invest in the best tools to collaborate remotely with you on design concepts and engineering details.

Tools to Save Time and Money

We invest in the most sophisticated tools for design, product visualization, engineering analysis, in-house prototyping, and manufacturing support.

Talented People Work Together

Our multi-functional design and engineering team works closely together with you to find solutions that work. Our manufacturing team guides our design choices.

Reduce Design Risk

Our Lean Product Design Process is based on rapid iterations to produce concrete ideas and tangible prototypes that can be viewed, assessed, tested, and refined.

Pride in Tour Success

By sharing our skills, talent, and network of partners, we are committed to the success of your world-class manufacturable product as you move to market.

Our Product Development Process

Our Proven 4-Step Process Reduces Your Product-to-Market Time and Development Costs by 50%

  1. pedz concept design sketches

    Concept Development

    Turn your concept into a refined design, assess risk factors, and create architecture plans ready for engineering.

  2. Cutaway CAD render of a yellow wearable sensor showing its circuit board and battery

    Detailed Engineering

    Iterate on design features and create full documentation for a pre-production prototype.

  3. Black-and-white prototype parts of a wearable device: housing halves, circuit board and probe cables

    Prototype and Test

    Validate product requirements, confirm usability, secure suppliers and create a fully functioning prototype.

  4. Doctor listening to a young boy's chest with a stethoscope; the boy wears a blue Pedz Tag wristband

    Manufacturing Setup

    Select the most reliable manufacturer, implement quality-control processes, and oversee production — turning your idea to reality.

From Napkin Sketch to Manufacture-Ready Product, Designed Right the 1st Time

Design 1st integrates our knowledge and expertise with yours to bring your product idea to life