China is known for its manufacturing abilities and many great products are made there. However, it is a different country with different laws and a different culture. These differences can lead to real problems for US-based companies, especially small companies and startups that may not have the experience to manage these differences. One area that… Read More

Many companies made a decision to source product/production in China based on a “myth.” For some of these companies, China turned out to be the right choice, even if the decision-making process was flawed. For others, they now have to spend money and time finding, vetting, educating, and transferring products to new geographies. What are… Read More

Reshoring a product is not as simple as giving the drawings to a new US contract manufacturer (CM). Here is a List of possible design issues to consider: Translation: Don’t just run the words through a Chinese translator — get an engineer experienced in the discipline to create new English words that will make sense… Read More

Although it is true that the labor rate in China is far lower than in the USA, their productivity (the value of the work they do per hour) more than compensates for their lower wage. Productivity is a fancy way of saying how much work can be done in an hour. Price is what you… Read More

Are you thinking of reshoring? Not sure how to go about it. Here is a short list of things you should consider in your plan: ROI: Reshoring is an investment, and like all investments, it will consume cash. Design changes may have to be made, new vendors will have to be sourced and approved, tooling… Read More

Research shows that many product-engineering projects never produce a positive ROI — especially in startups and small companies. Why do some projects succeed and others not so much?  Here are the top five reasons: Not using experts: Sometimes, people confuse price per hour with value.  Price is what you pay, and value is what you… Read More

In the landmark HBR article The Four Things a Service Business Must Get Right, by Frances X. Frei, the author contrasts a product business from a service business. The author opines that in a service business, unlike products businesses, the customer is a key part of the product realization processes. His research leads him to… Read More

I got a call from an engineering friend of mine. He just moved to a new city for a new job. He writes firmware for a small company. Reason for the call? He is bored and wondered if we had any projects he could work on. Good engineers love their jobs and hate just sitting… Read More

Everyone knows that a Requirements Document (RD) is one of the keys to developing a product that has product market fit. Without product market fit, a positive ROI is very unlikely. But what exactly should be in a RD? The answer is simple but not easy: everything that is necessary for the product to have… Read More

Everyone knows that a Requirements Document (RD) is one of the keys to developing a product that has product market fit. Without product market fit, a positive ROI is very unlikely. We wrote about what SHOULD be in a RD here: But are there things that should NOT be in a requirements document? It turns… Read More