Fen engages with a number of different customer types. Some have very limited funds focussed on very specific product requirements. Others are looking at more speculative product development where although the vision is clear, product requirement detail is something they expect to evolve during the development process. Either way there will be a budget gatekeeper who will need convincing of both the product viability, and the capability of the candidate development partner.
In practical terms this drives the need for a low cost, fast turnaround (sometimes in days or weeks) proof-of-concept which will help build technical and commercial confidence, and act as a springboard for a detailed product requirements specification.
The key to success at this stage is to seek off-the-shelf solutions to very quickly construct a functionally representative sample that will also serve as a development platform for engineering effort that can be re-used in the subsequent phases.
Where the detailed requirements are less well defined, the proof-of-concept can often serve to represent the minimal viable product from which an Agile development can emerge, guided by the client’s product champion.
Most product developments at Fen involve a proof-of-concept staging post as part of the design process.
