Before you freeze the design, make sure you’ve secured all electromechanical design deliverables, from mechanical CAD and PCB files to firmware and packaging, from your designer, so production starts cleanly and predictably.
I walk you through the design phases and the concrete outputs you should obtain from your designers before moving into manufacturing. This post distills those essentials and adds a practical deliverables checklist you can copy into your contract.
The big picture: three design phases, clear gates
Hardware design programs move through three front-end phases: Feasibility, Prototyping Iterations, and Engineering Validation, with explicit “gates” that prevent premature hand-offs. Treat these gates as quality checkpoints: don’t advance until evidence shows the target has been met.
For your reference, we’re focusing on the design deliverables from first three phases of our NPI process, as seen below:
1. Feasibility study
You always need to start with this phase if you plan to design a new type of product. Do not try to jump straight to the “final design” unless the product is quite simple.
Typical deliverables include: product requirements document incorporating reviews & clarifications, initial design architecture, initial bill of materials (BOM), initial risk analysis, initial plan for compliance & reliability, initial theoretical validation, industrial design renderings, maybe a rough proof-of-concept (POC) prototype, initial design files in native formats, etc…
(Obviously, depending on the budget and the quality/regulatory requirements, this list has to be adjusted. We can only provide a generic list here, as a starting point.)
2. Prototyping builds
All the deliverables mentioned above get refined as design & development proceed.
In addition, you should typically expect:
- Semi-functional & functional prototypes; look-like prototypes that are typically not made with production-intent processes; test & review reports on those prototypes.
- The engineering BOM should include all the usual columns (part No., supplier name, price, MOQ, lead time, etc.), including for electronic parts.
- Documented evidence about pre-certifications of critical-to-compliance components.
A plan for manufacturing the custom parts and a plan for assembling & testing the whole product are developed.
3. Engineering validation
Again, all the deliverables mentioned in part 1 get refined.
In addition, you should typically request:
- Some look-like & work-like prototypes that meet nearly all the product requirements.
- General DFM guidelines should be followed (and this may be pending DFM from the tooling supplier); you may ask for a DFM review report.
- A video of how the product gets assembled & tested, as that is quite helpful.
The complete design deliverables checklist
A note: not all deliverables make sense for all projects. More will be needed for medical devices, and fewer will be needed for relatively low-budget and simple products, especially if they don’t come with high quality requirements. This list only provides general guidance!
Mechanical Design
- 3D CAD files (enclosure, housing, mechanical parts) — Typical: .STEP
- 2D drawings for manufacturing & assembly — Typical: .PDF
- PCB Design (Electronic Hardware)
- Schematic files — Native CAD (e.g., .SCHDOC Altium, .DSN OrCAD) + .PDF
- PCB layout files — Native CAD (e.g., .PCBDOC, .BRD) + .PDF
- Gerber files for fabrication — Typical: .GBR
- Bill of Materials (BOM) — Format: .XLSX
- Pick & Place files (SMT) — Formats: .CSV, .TXT
Firmware / Software
- Source code (MCU/embedded) — Typical: .C
- Compiled binaries for flashing — Typical: .HEX
- Documentation (API refs, setup guides) — Typical: .DOCX or Markdown in GitHub
Packaging Design
- Artwork files (labels, box, inserts) — Typical: .AI, .PSD, .PDF
- Die-lines / structures — Typical: .PDF, .DXF, .AI
Tip: Always request native files (editable) and neutral/export formats (vendor-agnostic). Build this into your contract and your DFM review exit criteria.
P.S.
By the way, if you’re hiring a freelance product designer, as many companies decide to, we wrote this post over on the Sofeast website to help you: Before You Hire Freelance Hardware Engineers: 4 Safeguards.
FAQs
- What are standard electromechanical design deliverables?
Mechanical (STEP + 2D PDFs), PCB (schematics, layout PDFs, Gerbers, BOM, pick-and-place), firmware (source, HEX, docs), and packaging (artwork, die-lines). - Do I really need native CAD as well as neutral/export formats?
Yes. Native files keep you editable and agile; neutral files (STEP, PDF, GBR) keep you manufacturer-ready. The design will probably keep evolving when the product is industrialized and even when it is mass-produced. You always need to get the latest version of the design files. Otherwise, if at one point you need to transfer production away or simply have a backup manufacturer, that will be an issue. - When should I request Gerbers and pick-and-place files?
Once the PCB layout is frozen and ready for fabrication/assembly, and then every time there is an engineering change related to electronic parts. - Where do firmware deliverables fit in the gate plan?
In a way, treat firmware like hardware: source, binaries, and setup docs are required at design freeze so that (typically) boards can be flashed and tested during EVT/DVT without blocking. - What if my designer uses different tools?
That’s fine, specify “native format of the tool in use plus listed neutral formats.” Exporting the design files into the formats listed above is usually very easy.
