# 169: Critical Testing Stages in New Product Development

- Show: [Product Startup](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup)
- Published: 2023-03-30
- Length: 20m
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2023-03-30-169-critical-testing-stages-in-new-product-development
- Listen: https://productstartup.com/

## Summary

Ryan Margolin, CEO of Professional Hair Labs, explains the critical testing stages for consumer products, emphasizing that compliance is merely a baseline while reliability and customer validation define brand success. He details how Professional Hair Labs uses stability and challenge testing to ensure global product quality, avoiding separation issues in various climates. Margolin advocates for pilot production runs with paying customers to gather honest feedback, arguing that this validation prevents costly errors before scaling to mass production.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2023-03-30-169-critical-testing-stages-in-new-product-development#t=0) Introduction: Ryan Margolin and Professional Hair Labs
- [2:04](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2023-03-30-169-critical-testing-stages-in-new-product-development#t=124) Company Background and Growth Strategy
- [5:01](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2023-03-30-169-critical-testing-stages-in-new-product-development#t=301) The Marketing Brief as the Foundation for Testing
- [9:58](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2023-03-30-169-critical-testing-stages-in-new-product-development#t=598) Compliance Testing as a Regulatory Baseline
- [12:06](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2023-03-30-169-critical-testing-stages-in-new-product-development#t=726) Reliability Testing: Stability and Global Standards
- [15:16](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2023-03-30-169-critical-testing-stages-in-new-product-development#t=916) Customer Testing and Pilot Production Runs

## Topics

- [Validation & product-market fit](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/validation-and-product-market-fit)
- [Quality & yield](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/quality-and-yield)
- [Scaling production](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/scaling-production)
- [Materials & manufacturing processes](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/materials-and-processes)

## Most relevant to

companies scaling up

## Mentioned

- Professional Hair Labs (company)
- Mako Design + Invent (company)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [R&D RADIO: Commercialization, Pilot Runs, and Scaling Food Products the Right Way with Jamie Valenti-Jordan](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-startup-cpg-podcast/2026-06-22-r-d-radio-commercialization-pilot-runs-and-scaling-food-products-the-right-way-w) (The Startup CPG Podcast)
- [How "Taste to Retain" Built a Billion-Dollar Supplement Brand](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-startup-cpg-podcast/2026-09-26-how-taste-to-retain-built-a-billion-dollar-supplement-brand) (The Startup CPG Podcast)
- [How to Validate the Market for Your New Product with Ivo Kalburdzhiev of CreatorClub](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/predictable-designs-podcast/2022-04-14-how-to-validate-the-market-for-your-new-product-with-ivo-kalburdzhiev-of-creator) (Predictable Designs Podcast)
- [IDology #9 - NASAs TRL scale in product development](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/idology/2023-02-28-idology-9-nasas-trl-scale-in-product-development) (IDology)
- [The Ugly Truth About Prototyping a New Product](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/predictable-designs-podcast/2023-01-11-the-ugly-truth-about-prototyping-a-new-product) (Predictable Designs Podcast)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/product-startup/2023-03-30-169-critical-testing-stages-in-new-product-development. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Product Startup.