Process | Krakul | You bring the concept, we’ll make it happen

You bring the concept, we’ll make it happen

We’ll provide the talented people, the best tools for analysis and product development, and create a lean product design process that transforms your idea into a winning new product.

01. Analysis

Solution development

The first step to an excellent end-user experience is nailing down the constraints and challenges specific to the problem at hand. Once we understand the specifics of the challenge that our client wants to solve, we can start narrowing down the features of the perfect solution.

Our approach is always, and has to be end user-focused:

How would the users and the stakeholders use and benefit from the solution?
How would they interact with it?
Which problems are worth solving with new development and which problems are best kept in the operations domain?
Is the business application B2B or B2C?

We run through all the key questions to understand the domain we are operating in as input into System Development, including:

Figuring out clients business model

Who is the end-user?
Who are the stakeholders?
What other constraints are there?
What can we do today that will provide value to you tomorrow?

When we obtain a better understanding of the high-level problem, we offer broad solutions. Once the team determines the general approach to the solution, System Development begins.

System development

With the key constraints and goals in place, we start looking at the pieces necessary to reach our goals.

Our team has years of experience in making software and hardware work in harmony to deliver maximum value. System development, in essence, is orchestrating the right combination of various disciplines to turn your ideas into reality.

During the System Development phase, we work out the specification from a technical perspective and nail down the solution’s architecture.

Design the general architecture of the solution
Break down the solution into subsystems
Develop key features and constraints for the subsystems and how they interact
Design and consider data flow and power delivery
Define subsystem goals, inputs/outputs and general constraints

02. Product development

Industrial design

We at Krakul realise that for the user to fall in love with a product, the feel and design are the most crucial factors.

That is why we consider Industrial Design as of paramount importance as our own technical excellence. Excellent Industrial Design is a combination of knowing the materials, the manufacturing process and most of all – the people involved.

We love creating beautiful, easy-to-use designs that scale effortlessly as your business takes off.

Multiple manufacturing processes: plastic moulding, aluminium milling

Designed to last
BOM cost optimised
Easy to manufacture
Robust industrial design

Firmware development

We approach firmware with the utmost care towards the safety, reliability and user experience of our designs.

Krakul realises that interfacing with the physical world is complicated and can have a real-world impact. Most devices are not complete without high-quality firmware.

Whether it is a smart bottle opener, a scientific buoy, or the next big unmanned platform, we always design firmware with the end-user and the environment in mind.

Low power consumption designs
High throughput calculations
Multiple connectivities (Mesh, M2M, LPWAN, WiFi, Ethernet, BT, BLE)
Easy to debug and interface with systems
Signal analysis, analogue measurements
Real-time capabilities
RTOS & bare metal
Fast & flexible designs
Krakul’s libraries to speed up development

Electronics development

Electronics design is more than us designing PCBs – it is finding the right solution for the challenge.

Some problems require application-specific solutions; others are best handled by specialists that have come before us. Whether your product needs custom-made electronics or is solved with a COTS solution, we have experience in consulting companies throughout the entire process.

Everything we do is with the end-goal in mind.

Small form factor
BOM cost optimised
Stackable PCBs
Flex, Rigid-flex PCBs

Software development

We focus on what you need to deliver value where needed, whether it’s in the cloud, on your laptop or your phone. The advantages of using software are that you can make it do almost anything

Through experience forged in countless projects, we know when over-engineering is required, and when it’s not. Software is never finalised, it is never complete; for most, it is an ongoing process.

Back-end
Front end
Message brokers & queues
IoT Infrastructure
Desktop apps
Embedded Linux

Mechanical design

The domain of IoT and autonomy is in the realm of the physical.

Making sure that everything fits together, is reliable and, above all, manufacturable at the needed quantities and price points, is fundamental to the success of our solutions

Krakul’s team of highly capable mechanical engineers willingly take your ideas into space, below the surface, or out and about fixed to your car if required.

Designed to last
BOM cost optimised
Easy to manufacture
Robust industrial design

Testing

Testing is one of the steps in our iterative approach to development.

No system can be considered functional without passing tests and developing without testing is asking for trouble.

Once our designs work as intended, it’s time to approach the challenge of integrating. Bringing various pieces and subsystems together is a work of art in itself, and testing under various (real-life) conditions is the canvas, including:

Feature testing – do the lights blink as they should? Can we maintain an internet connection over long periods?
Submodule testing – Will the device reconnect to WiFi under various conditions?
Subsystem testing – Will the filesystem remain persistent over power losses and events of instability?
System testing – Does the device perform according to our expectations?
Integration testing – Does everything work together as imagined?

Verification

Verification is where we evaluate whether or not a product, service, or system complies with a regulation, requirement, specification, or imposed condition.

The concept for verifying a product/design is to ensure it meets all the requirements, contains no bugs and solves the challenges it is supposed to.

The process includes:

Working through requirements
Verifying that all designs/code are up to par and that the solutions/methods/components utilised to meet the requirements
Simulations
Making sure the documentation is correct

03. Support

Certification

Physical products must be certified to meet compliant regulatory requirements before they are sold; for example, this could be either CE or FCC certifications.

Krakul’s certification processes include the following:

Determine which certifications are relevant (optional)
Ensure all documentation is in order
Internally verify that designs are likely to meet requirements
Develop necessary software, firmware for testing at certified labs (if needed)
Guide the certification process with any necessary stakeholders (for example, certification labs, the client, vendors)

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is challenging to scale.

Krakul’s expertise ensures clients don’t have to worry about scaling their manufacturing, supply chain management workflows, working with multiple vendors and optimising their Bill of Materials (BOM). Clients merely have to contact our specialists, tell them how many and when, and the team will handle everything else.

Products can be scaled in increments, for instance, 10, 100 or 1,000 units. To ensure optimal efficiency during the manufacturing process, each step up involves minor engineering, searching for the most competitive prices, directly contacting vendors, and making deals with Electronics Manufacturing Service (EMS) companies.

Steps involved in our manufacturing solutions include:

Update and optimise BOM, designs and documentation to match required quantity, if necessary
Find component vendors matching the criteria for speed, price and support
Contact trusted EMSs suitable for set quantities, ask for pricing, delivery dates. Negotiation assistance if possible
Order components, set delivery dates/locations, sign agreements with vendors
Test manufactured products, if applicable
Deliver products to the client

Support

Even the best-laid plans can fall apart.

That’s why Krakul doesn’t leave our clients wanting when things get tricky.

Krakul offers support for our designs and manufactured products:

To diagnose problems with products and designs
Identify and fix bugs
Add features and gear up for any new versions our clients have in mind.

Real-world feedback is a necessity to create long-lasting and enjoyable products.

Think of Krakul’s later-stage support as having your own product insurance, where you’ll find a natural progression between different iterations of our designs or products.

EOL

Products and designs get old, but that doesn’t mean they stop being useful.

Having a clear path to End of Life’ing old products is a must with ever needier customers who expect things to just work. There needs to be a clear way of saying when support and updates for products end and what to do next.

Our EOL steps include the following:

Decide on when to phase out old products and how best to do it
Decide how to support aged products and for how long
Determine the next steps for replacement products
Stock up on hard to find but necessary components