Tech Concept Validation
What is Tech Concept Validation?
You have an idea for a product – but how much will it cost to build? What are the risks? How can you demo something to investors or customers without a full build?
We will help you define your idea and then validate it, as appropriate for what you need to get to the next stages.
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This could be a fully fledged proof of concept that demonstrates key technologies in action, or it could be a smaller technical investigation and creation of a roadmap.
Either way we will bring clarity on what is and isn’t possible, allowing you to take the next step with confidence.
What You Can Expect:
- Technical roadmap
- Time and budget estimates
- Proof of Concep
- Lessons learnt
- Opportunities and constraints
- Technology selection
Our Tech Concept Validation Includes
Research
Leveraging our 200+ years of combined knowledge and expertise to define and research potential solutions. This includes desk research on related solutions, scenarios and similar projects as well as hands-on technical investigation to understand what is and isn’t possible. This is all documented with lessons learnt and pros and cons of different approaches.
Proof of Concept
Rapid development of very simple versions of the final product to prove that the technology can do what we need it to do, in a way that is practical and cost effective.
This will provide you with proof that what you want to achieve is (or isn’t) possible as well as highlighting potential challenges and constraints before you commit to a full development.
Costs & Roadmap
Using a combination of experience, research and technical investigation to create rigorous estimates for the time and budget required to develop your product – and a sensible roadmap for delivering this, tied to your business goals.
This will provide peace of mind and additional credibility to any funding pitches or customer facing roadmaps.
Briefing and Handover
A full project write-up explaining the methods and technologies used, challenges encountered and the lessons learnt from any technical investigation.
This will include pros and cons of different approaches and considerations if you are to take the product forwards from proof of concept into full production.
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Definition
Understanding what you are trying to achieve
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Gaining a detailed understanding of your vision and how it fits into longer term goals of your business. This helps us map out the problems we need to solve and any areas that might benefit from further investigation. This will all be documented in the Specification, which defines the rest of the project, so it’s important to take the time to get it right.
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Research and investigation
Expanding on the problem(s)
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Before development begins, we’ll add details to the problem(s), look at similar past projects (of ours and others) and brainstorm potential solutions internally. This will often be enough to conclude whether a problem is solvable, what challenges exist and how much effort will be required. If not, this is the first step in creating a full Proof of Concept.
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Proof of Concept
Demonstrating the tech can actually work
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A Proof of Concept is a working demonstration of a novel piece of technology.
This is not a full product with UX, design etc, but it is the simplest, most cost effective way to test whether your idea is technically viable or if it’s a higher risk project that’s likely to fail, and to understand what will need to be done to take it from a concept to a production ready product.
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Roadmap
Getting from Concept to Product
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The Roadmap outlines the steps between concept and full product. It includes time and cost estimates, plus constraints and considerations for the final product. Normally this is broken down into phases to support testing and iterating with customer feedback. It can also be shown to investors or customers to demonstrate the robustness of your product.
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The Benefits of Tech Concept Validation
By working with us on Tech Concept Validation you get access to a team of technical experts to supplement the industry and business specific expertise you are bringing. We can help you quickly understand how viable an idea is from a tech perspective.
With experience supporting hundreds of start-ups and scale-ups we bring a wider view than the purely technical – and can help you define the problem you are solving before diving in to how to solve it.
How People Feel About Working With Us
Frequently Asked Questions
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Is this the same as customer validation?
No – this is about understanding if your idea is technically feasible and what challenges you may need to overcome developing it. Customer validation is about whether the problem you want to solve is one that customers want solving. It’s important to still do customer validation.
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Who owns the IP?
You own any IP created during the process and this will be clearly defined in our contract.
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Do I really need to do this?
If you’re doing something technically new – something that hasn’t been done before where the tech is the IP and expertise isn’t readily available then yes we would strongly recommend you do some tech validation with us or someone else before investing more time and resources.
If you are using tech in a way that is common and the IP isn’t the tech (e.g. an online network/community) then you can skip the tech validation part.
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What do you base your estimates on?
Estimates for further development will be based on an understanding of your requirements, lessons learnt from the tech validation, and remaining unknowns and risks. These will always be clearly defined in the Roadmap.
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What if it doesn’t work?
Innovation isn’t without risk. We will be clear with you upfront about any concerns we have about viability – and will pause and discuss with you if we hit any major obstacles. Failure in innovation is part of the process and even if something doesn’t work you still learn from it. It’s better to have invested a small amount to find the problems than going all in and finding them when it’s too late.