i3 Product Development
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Over the past decade or so, the promise of an interconnected world has undeniably fascinated us all, and the internet of things (IoT) is the latest development in this evolution. Today, IoT is rapidly sweeping into every aspect of our lives, inserting itself into a vast array of devices, ranging from wearable electronics, home appliances, and even business machinery. Being able to deliver a broad range of capabilities, including cost reduction, efficiency, productivity, customer experience, and agility, IoT promises the next paradigm shift in how we live and work. As such, most companies now, irrespective of their industry verticals, are emphasizing IoT and including it in their core competencies. A study conducted by Juniper Research estimates that IoT connections will reach 83 billion by 2024, an increase from 35 billion connections last year! Helping businesses tap this demand curve for IoT and stay ahead of the competition in today’s interconnected world is i3 Product Development.

This Wisconsin-based product design company specializes in developing dynamic IoT solutions for today’s connected world. Team i3 Product Development is always committed to providing clients with robust solutions that holistically combine emotions, human-centered design, engineered precision, quality craftsmanship, smart technology, and design for manufacturability.

In an interview with CIO Applications, James J. Grogan, the Director of IoT at i3 Product Development, shares his insights on how the company leverages its expertise and experience to build unrivaled IoT devices for clients.

Could you elaborate on the genesis of the company?

Established in 1995, i3 Product Development started as a mechanical engineering and industrial design shop well recognized for its prowess in prototyping and designing. But, as we recognized a growing need for connected devices in the business environment, we took a strategic turn to redirect our focus towards building IoT solutions. To do this, we incorporated electrical and software engineering capabilities into our core competencies. We’ve created a dedicated team of both electrical and software engineers to help us take a giant leap towards this new endeavor, which has tripled the size of our company. Today, we have an expert team of more than 70 engineers and pioneers in a wide range of niches, including electrical engineering, industrial design, software engineering, mechanical engineering, user experience, design research, analytical engineering, prototyping, and testing. The ability to integrate several such capabilities under one roof gives us an edge over the competition.

At our core, we’re a boutique design firm that ensures seamless collaboration between mechanical, electrical, and software teams, providing clients with a cradle-to- grave solution for their varying product development needs. Unlike our competitors, who rely on external collaborations for fulfilling various product development needs, we excel at performing end-to-end operations in-house. Furthermore, as a leading design firm, we always strive to ensure a balance between design and engineering that leverages evolving technology and trends to come up with ideal solutions for our clients.This way, we’re strategically positioned to serve a broad range of industry verticals and cater to numerous solutions, including medical devices, agricultural equipment, consumer goods, and commercial equipment, to name a few.

How does i3 Product Development’s client engagement process look like?

The business model at i3 Product Development is designed primarily around three major pillars—inspiration, innovation, and integrity. Adhering close to these values, we always strive to build a combined effort to develop meaningful solutions, enhance our processes, reduce manufacturing costs, and add value to our clients’ businesses. The company always ensures professionalism and integrity in its interactions with clients and adopts a traditional but comprehensive product development process that helps meet their needs in today’s connected world.

A typical client engagement begins with our dedicated project managers gaining a holistic view of their product requirements by conducting upfront planning and architecture review. This way, they gather necessary insights that help them plug in the right resources at the right time, handholding clients throughout the entire process—, which I’d say is the key to our success. We also run a comprehensive project assessment in order to ensure what the client wants to build is the right solution that suits their product. Upon validating the project’s scope, we move on to the various stages of product development, where we leverage our decades-worth experience to build something meaningful to clients.

Could you provide us with a real-world example that exemplifies i3 Product Development’s value proposition?

As a leading strategic design company in business for almost three decades, i3 Product Development has an extensive track record of helping various clients with their most complicated and challenging needs. Our collaboration with Propeller Health, where we helped build a blue-tooth sensor for their asthma inhaler that tracks time and locations of use, well exemplifies our value proposition. Since the client was facing a plethora of challenges pertaining to the manufacturing and quality of the device, they approached us to assist them in making it manufacturable. We leveraged our DFMA [Design for Manufacturing & Assembly] approach and integrated our design and engineering capabilities to develop a robust blue-tooth sensor for the client.

Our extensive plastic injection molding experience and tooling design knowledge allowed us to reduce the 23 components, multiple secondary processes to eight components while reducing the size by 20 percent. Not only did this help clients reduce their overall manufacturing and assembling cost but also improve their efficiency and productivity, making a significant leap in their business. This helped us solidify our partnership and still collaborate with them to develop several solutions.

What are some of the factors that differentiate i3 Product Development?

One of the many aspects that really makes us unique is our dedicated team of experts who hold longstanding experience in their respective niche areas. We’re always open to talents and strive to hire engineers and designers who have an expert set of hands to meet our clients’ requirements. This is the secret sauce behind our success and the key element that empower us to explore the uncharted territories when it comes to product development. We also pride ourselves on having the resources and technical expertise to help our clients ensure the sustainability of their products. i3 Product Development is now collaborating with a software-as-a-service company, Cygnus and leveraging their solution to empower customers to support their devices during production. In a nutshell, we’re always dedicated to ensuring our clients’ success by providing them with the industry-best services.

How does the future look for i3 Product Development?

With innovation embedded in our corporate DNA, we constantly strive to enhance our capabilities and service portfolio in a way that aligns with our clients’ dynamic requirements. The next big thing that we’ve on our horizon is integrating AI, machine learning, and Big Data into our core competencies to align with the increasing need for automated solutions. In addition, we’re planning to add staffing services to help clients hire the right staff to meet their in-house designing and manufacturing requirements. DevOps and system management are other areas that we’re planning to extend our footprints to. We’re always driving towards augmenting our capabilities aiming to serve as a one-stop-shop solution for our client’s needs, including product development, 24/7 support, creating a product roadmap, and fixing bugs, to name a few.