Prototype risk register
How to use it
- List every risk you can think of in the first week, including the unglamorous ones: thermal, EMC, sourcing, assembly, certification.
- For each risk, name the cheapest honest test that would reveal it, not the test most likely to flatter you.
- Give every risk one owner and a "test by" date earlier than the next spend commitment (tooling, PO, build).
- Review the register at every prototype round. Retire a risk only when a test result says so.
- Anything still open at hand-off goes into the next phase as a written, owned, dated open issue, never as "probably fine".
Register
| # | Risk | Phase it would hurt | Likelihood L / M / H | Impact L / M / H | Cheapest honest test | Owner | Test by | Result / status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ex. | Enclosure overheats in a warm room | DVT | M | H | Run P1 in a closed box at 35 °C for 4 h, log hot spots | Mech lead | Before tooling release | Open |
| ex. | Key chip is single-source and short | PVT | M | H | Quote 10k units from 2 distributors; find a pin-compatible alternative | Sourcing | Before P2 | Open |
Check before hand-off
- Every risk has an owner and a date.
- Every "retired" risk has a test result behind it.
- Every open risk is written down with the cost of leaving it open.
- Nothing is listed as "probably fine".
Why: in the book, hidden risks are the ones that get found at DVT or by customers, at a much higher price. A risk written down can be planned for. A risk nobody wrote down is a surprise.
From The Hardest Hardware Lessons · thehardesthardwarelessons.com · Free to use and share with attribution.
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