The sensor tradeoff
A medical hardware startup reconsidered its sensor to reduce development risk.
The situation
I recently spoke with two founders who spent several years developing a medical device designed to help prevent diabetic foot amputations.
As they worked through different prototypes, they identified a sensor technology that offered significant advantages for the product. It could provide a better user experience and support capabilities they wanted to introduce over time.
But developing that technology would require considerable engineering work, and the founders had to decide whether it was the right direction for their company.
The plan
The founders initially pursued the sensor because of what it could enable. They saw an opportunity to develop a product that would serve patients well and provide a foundation for future improvements.
As they evaluated the development work more closely, they began to understand what it would take to bring the technology into production.
The sensor required substantial upfront engineering investment, carried technical uncertainties, and would likely need a larger development team than they had available.
They also explored whether changing how the sensor was manufactured could reduce some of those challenges. That approach appeared more manageable from a development standpoint, but it would increase the cost of each device.
Where uncertainty remained
The founders now had two possible approaches, each with significant tradeoffs.
Continuing with the original sensor meant accepting more development time, engineering expense, and technical risk. The alternative manufacturing approach reduced some of those risks but created a different problem: the device would become too expensive to support the business model they were building.
They needed a way to get the product into customers' hands without committing resources they couldn't afford or creating a cost structure that would make the business difficult to sustain.
What needed to be proven first
The founders ultimately chose a different sensor technology that required less engineering investment and could be developed with their existing team.
They accepted some compromises in user experience and future capabilities, but the decision allowed them to move toward commercialization and validate the remaining parts of the business, including product performance, operations, and economics.
More advanced capabilities could be reconsidered once those fundamentals were proven.
The pattern
Hardware founders often evaluate technologies based on performance, features, and what they could eventually enable. But those decisions also determine development costs, manufacturing economics, resource requirements, and how quickly a product can reach customers.
At Hardware Velocity, we evaluate technical approaches alongside the business requirements they need to support. Understanding what must be proven at each stage helps founders decide where to invest engineering resources and which capabilities can wait.