Our Approach

Our product development approach.

An unrelenting focus on positive outcomes for our clients underpins all our work, and we know how overwhelming hardware product development can seem. Therefore, while we tailor each work program to the specific goals and requirements of our clients, our product development approach is designed to improve project outcomes and keep you in control.

Mitigate risks early

Use the right program management methodology for the task

Provide client visibility into the development process

Support a core project leadership team with experts on demand

Mitigate risks early.

The biggest contributor to cost and schedule overruns is program risk that isn’t properly identified and managed. To this end, Synapse continually evaluates the biggest risks to the success of the program, product, and business throughout the development effort. We highlight those risks to our clients and evolve mitigation strategies throughout the program. Since the biggest opportunity to mitigate or manage risk occurs in the early stages of development, we often start with a Concept Exploration phase that is crafted to gain confidence in the viability, feasibility, and desirability of the product before the more cost-intensive detailed design and development effort begins. This not only reduces the total development cost of a program, but also provides better confidence that the project will result in a compelling ROI.


Use the right program management methodology for the task.

In order to successfully navigate the product development process, Synapse utilizes a hybrid program management approach. We leverage the strengths of waterfall project management paradigms for tasks that benefit from tight tracking of dependencies (such as hardware builds, CM management, and product testing) and leverage agile development methods when the tasks benefit from flexibility of scheduling or when task prioritization is informed by the lessons of the previous sprint (such as UX design, mobile app development, and backend system development). Synapse program managers are not only skilled at both methodologies, but also have developed expertise in aligning all of the workstreams together, regardless of project methodology, ensuring that key milestones are met and all teams are working at peak efficiency.

Provide client visibility into the development process.

Synapse leverages a phased-based approach to product development. While we maintain a long-term vision of what our clients want to accomplish, we break the full program into discrete phases that are tailored to provide strategic evaluation points along the development path. During these evaluation points, we collaboratively review and update the overall development plan, giving you visibility and control over your development investment. If the current direction no longer makes sense due to changing company priorities or latest information, our approach makes it easy to pivot to a new plan while preserving the IP, learnings, and progress already made. And since you own the IP we develop on your program, future work doesn’t have to proceed with Synapse—you are welcome to continue developing internally or work with any other partner you choose.

Augment a core project leadership team with experts on demand.

In order to help guide the program, Synapse establishes a lean core leadership team that always includes a Program Reviewer, Program Manager, and Technical Authority. Depending on the needs of the program and client, the core team sometimes includes roles like Hardware Lead, Software Lead, Product Owner, IoT Architect, or Design Lead. This core team provides technical and product management over the course of the entire program, engaging with stakeholders throughout the program to ensure we remain aligned through each phase. During the course of the program, we bring in additional Synapsters and partners to provide technical expertise, scale, and unique skill sets in support of the core team’s effort. By doing this, we can actively manage the program to fit budgetary needs and easily respond to program changes and evolution. Organizing our project teams in this way ensures that we are always delivering the highest possible value, regardless of the task at hand. The breadth of expertise of the Synapse technical team, and of Synapse partners, allows us to be nimble in bringing in resources that can get the task done quickly and address specialized technical areas.