Concept Development

Initial development of your product idea.

Concept Development uses rapid sketching, sketch models and early stage computer aided design to develop the concept. Only after some early stage feasibility work should concept development commence, find out more with this link: commercial viability.

For textile products use this link: textile product development as this page focuses on non-textile products. D2M have developed hundreds of products over the last decade and our team is highly experienced in designing innovative products that sell.

What is Concept Development?

The concept development stage fully explores the idea and attempts to deﬁne a future direction for the project, including creative thinking around further functionality or features. This stage rapidly starts to visualise your project, with product sketches that consider styling direction, usability, core functionality, materials and production methods.

This initial sketch development stage takes into account production processes and materials to ensure that a realistic sketch concept is developed that could actually be taken into production, albeit after significant further development. This stage seeks to capture the vision for the product, whilst appreciating the limitations of what is actually achievable.

What happens during this stage?

Detailing Design Brief
Clarify Product Definition
Competitor Product Review inc. key features and RRP
Prioritising Consumer Requirements of the Product
Storyboarding user interaction with the product
Creation of a Styling Direction Mood Board
Initial Sketch Concepts
Sketching Further Innovative Ideas or Technical Solutions
Early rough Card/Foam modelling
Initial Review of Potential Materials and Production Methods
Basic CAD modelling overall geometry
Client Review of PDF outlining all of the above.

This is a complete list of all potential requirements of this stage. It does depend on your project and your specific requirements and therefore all of these elements might not be necessary in your case.

What value does this stage add to my project?

This stage takes the initial ideas and turns them into visual concepts for review that bear in mind what is possible to manufacture.

This enables key decisions to be taken which will determine the future direction of the project.

Often new Intellectual Property for the idea is created in this stage and that can become part of your patent or registered design.

Click here for further information: Protecting your product idea.

How much and how long?

Generally this stage should take two to four weeks to be done thoroughly. Cost depends on complexity but varies from around £1200 to £6000. Generally a small product with only a few components and no electronics would be at the lower end and a complex product with inbuilt electronics and mechanics and over 50 components would be at the top end.

This stage affects the overall direction of the project substantially and so the more time and money spent here, the lower your overall development costs as the project is less prone to change direction later on.

Why use D2M to do this stage?

Three simple reasons:

We are focused on your success not on winning design awards.
We’ve spent years developing a process that manages the risk of new product development and gives you the best chance of success.
We have a diverse experienced team that can bring new innovation and creative thinking to your product during this stage.

Once concept development is complete, the next step is often more detailed consideration of the user, functionality and ergonomics. Click to read more about Industrial Design.