{ "generatedAt": "2026-10-29T14:59:59.196Z", "insights": [ { "slug": "when-to-hire-an-external-industrial-design-agency", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/when-to-hire-an-external-industrial-design-agency", "title": "When should a company hire an external industrial design agency, and when not?", "standfirst": "An honest decision framework from a studio that has an obvious interest in the answer, including the situations where we tell people to keep the work inside.", "author": "Robrecht Lambrechts", "published": "2026-10-28", "updated": "2026-10-28" }, { "slug": "a-sensor-that-disappears-hardware-for-museums", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/a-sensor-that-disappears-hardware-for-museums", "title": "A sensor that disappears: designing hardware for museums", "standfirst": "Charp's climate monitors sit next to irreplaceable artworks. The design brief was to be precise, reliable and almost invisible. Notes on designing for a space that is not yours.", "author": "Kasper De Backer", "published": "2026-10-21", "updated": "2026-10-21" }, { "slug": "what-early-stage-hardware-founders-need-from-a-design-studio", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/what-early-stage-hardware-founders-need-from-a-design-studio", "title": "What early-stage hardware founders actually need from a design studio", "standfirst": "It is rarely a beautiful rendering. From the founders we have worked with, the needs that matter most and the ones that look important but are not.", "author": "Robrecht Lambrechts", "published": "2026-10-07", "updated": "2026-10-07" }, { "slug": "certification-before-styling", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/certification-before-styling", "title": "Certification before styling: what CE, FCC and friends do to a hardware timeline", "standfirst": "Compliance testing is rarely the reason a product is late. Not planning for it is. What to decide in the first month so the last month is not a surprise.", "author": "Robrecht Lambrechts", "published": "2026-09-23", "updated": "2026-09-23" }, { "slug": "design-for-repair-what-it-costs-and-what-it-is-worth", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/design-for-repair-what-it-costs-and-what-it-is-worth", "title": "Design for repair: what it costs and what it is worth", "standfirst": "Repairability is becoming a regulation in Europe and a selling point everywhere. What it changes in a design, what it adds to the unit cost, and where it pays back.", "author": "Kasper De Backer", "published": "2026-09-09", "updated": "2026-09-09" }, { "slug": "how-to-prepare-a-product-for-injection-moulding", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/how-to-prepare-a-product-for-injection-moulding", "title": "How to prepare a product for injection moulding", "standfirst": "The rules we apply to every moulded part before a tool is quoted, and the three mistakes we see most often in CAD that arrives from elsewhere.", "author": "Kasper De Backer", "published": "2026-09-02", "updated": "2026-09-02" }, { "slug": "ten-years-of-raak-what-changed-in-product-development", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/ten-years-of-raak-what-changed-in-product-development", "title": "Ten years of RAAK: what changed in product development since 2016", "standfirst": "We started in Leuven in 2016 with two designers and no clients. A short, honest list of what is different about making hardware now, and what is not.", "author": "Robrecht Lambrechts", "published": "2026-08-19", "updated": "2026-08-19" }, { "slug": "designing-in-europe-manufacturing-in-china", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/designing-in-europe-manufacturing-in-china", "title": "Designing in Europe, manufacturing in China: how we run it from Leuven and Shanghai", "standfirst": "Most product companies in Europe will produce something in Asia at some point. The ones that do it well treat the factory as part of the design team, not as a file recipient. This is how that works in practice, and when China is the wrong answer.", "author": "Robrecht Lambrechts", "published": "2026-08-05", "updated": "2026-08-05" }, { "slug": "from-prototype-to-mass-production", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/from-prototype-to-mass-production", "title": "From functional prototype to mass production: what still has to happen", "standfirst": "A working prototype feels like the finish line. It is roughly the halfway point. Here are the twelve things between a prototype and a product you can ship, in the order they usually bite.", "author": "Kasper De Backer", "published": "2026-07-22", "updated": "2026-07-22" }, { "slug": "the-case-for-calm-hardware", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/the-case-for-calm-hardware", "title": "The case for calm hardware", "standfirst": "Most products we are asked to design are trying too hard. A note on restraint, why it is harder than it looks, and what it does for a brand.", "author": "Kasper De Backer", "published": "2026-07-08", "updated": "2026-07-08" }, { "slug": "fixed-fee-or-hourly-how-we-price-product-development", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/fixed-fee-or-hourly-how-we-price-product-development", "title": "Fixed fee or hourly: how we price product development and why", "standfirst": "We quote fixed fees per phase, with a review gate between each. Here is why that works for hardware, and the two situations where we charge by the hour instead.", "author": "Robrecht Lambrechts", "published": "2026-06-24", "updated": "2026-06-24" }, { "slug": "colour-material-and-finish-decide-it-early", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/colour-material-and-finish-decide-it-early", "title": "Colour, material and finish: decide it early or pay for it late", "standfirst": "CMF is often treated as the last step. It is a manufacturing decision with tooling, cost and lead-time consequences, and it belongs in the engineering phase.", "author": "Kasper De Backer", "published": "2026-06-10", "updated": "2026-06-10" }, { "slug": "medical-instruments-patients-are-not-afraid-of", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/medical-instruments-patients-are-not-afraid-of", "title": "Medical instruments that patients are not afraid of: the VisionTech speculum", "standfirst": "An ENT instrument that has looked the same for a century, redesigned to light itself, work in one hand and survive the autoclave. What that took.", "author": "Kasper De Backer", "published": "2026-05-27", "updated": "2026-05-27" }, { "slug": "pilot-batch-what-to-check-before-mass-production", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/pilot-batch-what-to-check-before-mass-production", "title": "Pilot batch: what to check before you say yes to mass production", "standfirst": "The pilot batch is the last cheap moment to change your mind. A checklist of what we inspect, measure and sign before a factory starts the main run.", "author": "Robrecht Lambrechts", "published": "2026-05-13", "updated": "2026-05-13" }, { "slug": "choosing-the-enclosure-process", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/choosing-the-enclosure-process", "title": "Die casting, sheet metal or moulded plastic: choosing the enclosure process", "standfirst": "The enclosure process is usually decided by volume, heat and feel. A short guide to the trade-offs we walk through on every electronics product.", "author": "Kasper De Backer", "published": "2026-04-29", "updated": "2026-04-29" }, { "slug": "why-the-housing-is-part-of-the-sensor-xenolidar-g6", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/why-the-housing-is-part-of-the-sensor-xenolidar-g6", "title": "Why the housing is part of the sensor: the Xenolidar G6", "standfirst": "A lidar housing has to cool, seal, mount and look like an instrument. On the G6 those four jobs were designed as one part, not four.", "author": "Kasper De Backer", "published": "2026-04-15", "updated": "2026-04-15" }, { "slug": "brand-activation-objects-designing-for-a-bar-not-a-shelf", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/brand-activation-objects-designing-for-a-bar-not-a-shelf", "title": "Brand activation objects: designing for a bar, not a shelf", "standfirst": "An ice bucket in a venue is handled a hundred times a night by people who do not own it. That changes everything about how it is designed and made.", "author": "Robrecht Lambrechts", "published": "2026-03-25", "updated": "2026-03-25" }, { "slug": "three-products-in-one-frame-anex-iq-stroller", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/three-products-in-one-frame-anex-iq-stroller", "title": "Three products in one frame: what the Anex iQ Stroller taught us about mechanisms", "standfirst": "A carrycot, a seat and a buggy on one frame sounds like a feature. In engineering it is three products that have to agree on every hinge.", "author": "Kasper De Backer", "published": "2026-03-11", "updated": "2026-03-11" }, { "slug": "tolerances-the-conversation-that-saves-the-most-money", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/tolerances-the-conversation-that-saves-the-most-money", "title": "Tolerances: the conversation that saves the most money", "standfirst": "Most part cost is decided by what you ask the factory to guarantee. How to decide which dimensions matter and let the rest go.", "author": "Kasper De Backer", "published": "2026-02-25", "updated": "2026-02-25" }, { "slug": "the-brief-we-wish-every-client-sent", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/the-brief-we-wish-every-client-sent", "title": "The brief we wish every client sent us", "standfirst": "A good brief is one page and answers eight questions. It makes the quote faster, the design better and the arguments shorter.", "author": "Kasper De Backer", "published": "2026-02-11", "updated": "2026-02-11" }, { "slug": "reading-a-quotation-from-a-chinese-manufacturer", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/reading-a-quotation-from-a-chinese-manufacturer", "title": "Reading a quotation from a Chinese manufacturer", "standfirst": "The unit price is the least informative number on the page. What to look for in tooling, MOQ, payment terms and the lines that are missing.", "author": "Robrecht Lambrechts", "published": "2026-01-28", "updated": "2026-01-28" }, { "slug": "what-a-discovery-sprint-produces", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/what-a-discovery-sprint-produces", "title": "What a two-week discovery sprint produces, and why we start every project with one", "standfirst": "Before we quote a full project, we run two weeks of focused work. Here is what comes out of it and why it makes the rest cheaper.", "author": "Robrecht Lambrechts", "published": "2026-01-14", "updated": "2026-01-14" }, { "slug": "how-much-does-product-development-cost", "url": "https://www.raakdesign.com/insights/how-much-does-product-development-cost", "title": "How much does industrial product development cost?", "standfirst": "A phase-by-phase look at what drives the budget, with the ranges we quote after ten years and more than 110 launched products.", "author": "Robrecht Lambrechts", "published": "2026-01-07", "updated": "2026-01-07" } ] }