Duration
Two to three weeks
Format
Two working sessions
Deliverable
Short executive report
For
Founders, leadership, investors
THE PRODUCT DIAGNOSTIC
Most hardware teams don't run out of money. They run out of road, building the wrong product, because they didn't make the right decisions early enough, and the gaps weren't visible from the inside.
The Product Diagnostic is a senior outside read on the alignment of strategy, product, and narrative. Two working sessions in, a short executive report out — built for founders, leadership and the investors backing them.
To give you confidence to commit, and a sharper version of the product to commit to.
Your design impresses, the technology works, the story sounds right — but the pieces don't line up. A hardware product has to clear three things before it's worth committing to.
Strategy
Is the bet sound?
Product
Does the product hold up?
Narrative
Will the room get behind it?
Each one depends on the others. Examined alone, each gives a confident answer. Examined together, the answers stop holding — for the team, for investors, for the market.
That's how teams run out of road. Not because they made the wrong decision, but because they didn't make the right one early enough to change course.
That's the decision The Product Diagnostic is built for.
How It Works
Two working sessions, a week apart. Outside perspective meeting the team's depth. The gap in between to synthesise what we heard. A short report at the end.
The Read
Listening to how the team describes the product, the strategy, the story they're telling. Probing to understand the assumptions underneath, the calls that have been made, where the doubt is. Surfacing the questions the team isn't asking themselves yet — until the diagnosis has its shape, ready to take away.
The Sharpen
Coming back with the initial findings. Where we had it right, where we had it wrong. Working with the team to build on what's there, and shape the recommendations live in the room. By the end we've sharpened the version of the product worth committing to — ready for us to take away and write the report.
The Report
A short executive read. Built for founders, leadership and the investors backing them — to read in one sitting. Diagnosis, direction, recommendations, and the case for committing.
What you get
The diagnosis.
An honest read on where strategy, product and narrative are lined up — and where they're not. What's working, what isn't, and what's being avoided.
The direction.
The sharpened version of the product worth committing to. Built from the team's depth and what's actually visible from outside.
The recommendations.
Sequenced and prioritised. What to commit to, what to test before committing, what to stop. The steps to realise the direction — not just diagnose it.
The case.
A document that sits alongside your existing thinking and gives it weight — internally with teams, externally with investors. The way strategy, product and narrative connect, and the case for committing.
Who it's for
Founders, product and design leaders building what comes next in hardware — and the investors backing them. Teams defining new products, new directions, new categories. Where the technology is reshaping what the product even is, and the answer hasn't been built yet.
Some come before they've committed — looking to sharpen the direction before they pitch, raise or build. Some come mid-build, conviction slipping after a competitor's launch puts the assumptions in doubt. Some come post-launch, proud of what they shipped but struggling to define what comes next.
If the technology works and the team is strong, but the product hasn't been defined sharply enough for what comes next — this is for you.
Who runs it
Matthew Cockerill is an industrial designer and strategist with 30 years' experience shaping what comes next in hardware. He works at the earliest stages — where frontier capability is still becoming product — combining pattern recognition across emerging tech with the creative leaps that define new categories. Past work spans folding screens, smart glasses, robotics, modular devices, and autonomous systems for Samsung, Lenovo, Panasonic, Logitech, Ford, ByteDance, and Fairphone.
He's brought in at the moment a real product call needs to be made and an outside read matters more than process. The Product Diagnostic is that work, in its most focused form. One senior advisor. No studio waiting in the wings.
LinkedIn →A 15-minute call.
No deck. No pitch. A direct conversation about where you are, and whether an outside read on your product would be useful.