About Pathway Design

Start by getting in touch to schedule an initial meeting about your project. We will then prepare an outline proposal covering the scope, approach, milestones, deliverables, timelines, and cost estimate.

Projects usually begin with a kick-off discovery meeting to understand your product, users, technical constraints, and business goals. This creates a clear plan and gives you visibility as the product develops.

We plan work by task and phase, with estimated time and cost allocated to each activity. The process is iterative, with review touchpoints built in so you can provide feedback throughout the project.

If your team needs more time for internal decisions, we can adjust the plan and re-sequence activities where possible.

Yes. Each phase ends with a review point, giving you the option to pause, refine the scope, or stop before committing to the next stage.

Our fees cover the design and development work delivered by Pathway. Depending on the project, you may also need to budget for external costs such as:

• prototype model making
• human factors testing
• travel (if required)
• third-party engineering or manufacturing support

As a guide, we often recommend a contingency budget of around 20% for external costs.

You do. Once the project is complete and final payment has been made, we provide a formal handover of the agreed design files and documentation.

This typically includes CAD data, design outputs, and supporting documentation for engineering or manufacturing handover.

We typically work in four phases, tailored to your product and team needs.

We explore the lives of users and patients to identify insights and uncover opportunities to improve usability and product experience.

This may include ethnographic research, user shadowing, and user journey mapping to build a clear understanding of the user, environment, and market.

We shape the product vision with a strong focus on usability and user experience. Concepts are developed through sketches, visualisations, digital mock-ups, photorealistic CAD, and prototypes.

The phase concludes with a review to select a preferred concept direction.

We take the chosen direction and develop it into a more detailed, testable solution. This may include:

• CAD development
• UI wireframes and interface flows
• prototype planning and build
• usability and ergonomic reviews

This stage is focussed on learning, refinement, and decision-making.

We support the transition into detailed design and manufacturing readiness, often in collaboration with your engineering team.

Depending on the project, this can include:

• design for manufacturing (DFM)
• engineering integration
• risk-related inputs and documentation
• final design definition and handover assets

For MedTech projects, we can also contribute to design documentation and risk activities, including hazard-related inputs and usability-focussed requirements.

Yes. We work with startups, scaleups, and established companies, tailoring the process to your stage, whether you need early concept direction, investor-ready visuals, or detailed product development support.

Yes. We regularly collaborate with internal engineering teams, manufacturers, and specialist suppliers. We can lead the design work or integrate into an existing development team.

Pathway is 100% focussed on life sciences and MedTech. We have experience across surgical, medical device, drug delivery, and diagnostics projects.