Accelerating Women’s Health Innovation from Idea to Impact
Cambridge Design Partnership Launches the Women’s Health Start-up Package
As a Founder of a start-up, you envision a future where your product changes lives; however, bringing the concept to life, especially in the early stages, can feel overwhelming. You may find yourself asking: Am I focusing on the right problem? Is my solution solving the problem effectively? How can I prove to investors that my solution is addressing user needs? If I make a decision today, what are the long-term implications? How much will all this cost?
At Cambridge Design Partnership (CDP), we specialize in product development and answering these questions through tailored, systematic approaches. We’re trusted when time-to-market is critical, confidentiality is important, and challenges are complex. When we partner with our clients, we help move the product from uncertainty to clarity while keeping the vision and product user at the center.
Now, we’re proud to focus our passion and capabilities on advancing Women’s Health innovations with the launch of our Women’s Health Start-Up Package (WHSP). We’re excited to work with entrepreneurs and innovators who have an idea but need additional support in the early development phase. Through the WHSP, we collaborate with you to rapidly deliver high-value insights without the overhead of a full-scale development project.
Early Development Work
When we consider the uncertainties investors or new teams may focus on during early development, we recommend investing in three key pillars:
Development Roadmap
Regulatory Pathway
Risk Management
These pillars form a foundation for funding success and long-term product success.
Development Roadmap - Translating your vision into a defined plan
You need to estimate the amount of time to move from concept to commercialization to ensure business viability. Regardless of funding source, e.g., bootstrapping or venture capital, you need to know the amount of runway left. A development roadmap represents the technical milestones of product development and translates complex work into clear timelines and estimated costs. This helps align funding milestones and resourcing plans. We build custom development roadmaps that intertwine our experiences throughout the development pipeline from early insights to translating to manufacturing. Lessons learned from previous projects are integrated into a roadmap focused on your unique challenges and milestones.
What comprises a strong development roadmap?
A strong development roadmap is a phased approach with milestones that reflect regulatory inputs, design progress, and risk management activities, and keeps your team and investors aligned.
Regulatory Pathway - Guidance on regulation and standards
Part of the development roadmap is the regulatory pathway. Women’s Health products often fall in the gray area between medical and wellness device classifications. Establishing your product claims early helps indicate whether you are on a regulatory pathway. The US regulatory body, the FDA, offers numerous resources to understand medical device definitions and classifications; however, navigating the regulatory landscape alone can be a challenge. Our WHSP includes helpful guidance and a session where our experts can discuss the different implications of a regulated device.
Risk Management - Build confidence
While not a glamorous title, risk management forms the foundation of product development. In order to deliver safe and effective products to users, we need to apply systematic processes for identifying, evaluating, and reducing risk where possible. A continuous journey, risk management begins to answer our key questions about the user and the solution. The bulk of our WHSP work focuses here. You can expect a combination of the following workstreams depending on your concept and needs:
User Needs Analysis - clarifying the core problem and unmet needs
Technical Building Blocks - establishing key technologies and estimating feasibility
Lite Manufacturing Assessment - considering production realities early
Data Generation Planning - setting the stage for evidence
Physiology Investigation - providing researched biological inputs to your solution
The Result?
After our four-week project, you’ll have a clear view of the technical challenges, timelines, and development milestones. We know the path can feel isolated, but you’re not alone. We’ve partnered with start-ups across sectors to turn bold ideas into real-world impact. Let us be your partner to shorten the time between your idea and getting it to the women who need it.
About CDP
Our culture is built on passion, curiosity, creativity, and technical excellence, with client outcomes our mission. For nearly 30 years, we’ve been trusted to work alongside the product teams of global brands and tech leaders in highly regulated healthcare and fast-moving consumer markets. With headquarters in Cambridge, UK and a USA office in North Carolina, our multi-disciplinary, global teams deliver on bringing innovation to life. Please reach out to see how we can meet your development needs.