Product Diagnostic
Most hardware startups don't run out of money. They run out of road building the wrong thing.
We offer an independent read on product direction — for hardware founders before the next round, the next hire, or the next year of building
The next round
is coming.
The next round demands a sharper product story. Investors are asking questions the team can't answer cleanly. The window to course-correct is closing fast.
Series A or B is in motion.
But the product narrative isn't tight enough to hold up to scrutiny.
The Team is strong.
But you need an outside read on whether the product direction is sound.
The funding is in place.
But you need to stop building the wrong things.
The product
is unclear.
The technology works. But the team is chasing five directions at once and no one has been direct enough to say: pick one. That indecision is the most expensive line in your budget.
You have a breakthrough technology.
But haven't committed to the product it needs to become.
The roadmap is full.
But everyone has a different view on what actually matters.
You're pre-hire on product leadership.
But can't wait until that hire is made to get clarity.
What We Read
Strategic validity
Is the direction sound? An experienced read on whether the opportunity is real, whether the team can execute, whether the market is moving the way the deck claims. The question every investor wants answered before they commit — and every founder wants to know before they keep building.
Product validity
Is the right thing being built? The hardest of the three, and the one most often skipped. An experienced read on whether your decisions about what to build, how to build it, and who it's for are coherent with the technology, the market, and the human need.
Narrative validity
Can the product tell its story? An experienced read on whether the positioning is aligned with what's actually been built, whether the team can articulate it consistently, whether the story you're telling reflects the product — or the wish.
How It Works
Before we start
A review of what you've already built — strategy decks, roadmaps, pitch materials, customer research. Whatever you have. The point is to walk into the first session already up to speed, so the time in the room is spent on the hard questions.
Read
A two-hour working session with the founding team — and where useful, the lead investor. Together we read the situation: what you've built, where it sits, what's being avoided. By the end, we know what the report needs to focus on.
Sharpen
A draft of the diagnostic goes to you ahead of the session. Then we use two hours together to pressure-test the read, sharpen the recommendations, and surface anything missed.
The Report
A written report built to be read in the room — by founders, leadership, and the investors backing you.
What You Walk Away With
The Report
A short, executive read.
The honest read on where the product direction sits — what's working, what isn't, and what's being avoided. A senior view on the highest-value use case in front of you, the strength of the product story you're already telling, and where it needs sharpening before the next round or the next hire.
Built for founders, leadership, and investors to read in one sitting. Not a deck, not a strategy. A diagnostic report grounded in thirty years of hardware product experience.
Who Runs It
Matthew Cockerill has spent thirty years working on physical products at the moment before the commitment is made — when the direction isn't clear and the cost of getting it wrong is real.
Senior product role at Samsung Electronics in Seoul. Helped design the world's first ethical modular smartphone for Fairphone. Strategic and design work for Panasonic, Logitech, Sky, OVO Energy, Lenovo, Ford, and BytDance — usually brought in by individual decision-makers — CPOs, heads of design, innovation leads — at the moment a real product call needs to be made, when an outside read matters more than process. The Product Diagnostic is that experience applied directly. One senior advisor. No studio waiting in the wings.
No agenda beyond an honest read on what you're building, and whether it's the right thing to build.
★★★★★
A 15-minute call. No deck, no pitch.
A direct conversation about where you are, and whether an outside read on the product would be useful right now.