From Custom Deployments to a Scalable Robotics Product

There are moments when you find yourself sitting across from geniuses — the kind who’ve quite literally cracked rocket science. Focused, relentless, problem-solvers. This was one such team: a group of PhDs who had developed autonomous robots to keep factory workers out of hazardous environments, eliminate inhumane tasks, and even reduce overtime.

But as they say — a business often begins where innovation pauses. Our job wasn’t to teach them robotics. It was to insert one small but critical shift: "Let’s hit pause on customisation. Can we now start to think scale?"

Stage: Early Traction 

T-Sprints: 6 

Focus: From custom robotics to a scalable product business 

Sector: Factory Automation / Robotics

🔍 Month 1: Spotting Patterns in Past Brilliance

We weren't robotics scientists — so we began by listening. We dived deep into the last 6 deployments and mapped every step of the product journey: from design to deployment to feedback.

We looked for what was repeated, where effort was duplicated, and where patterns started to emerge.

👉 Across 20+ projects, we began to see commonalities — recurring use cases that looked similar across factories. 👉 Outliers were filtered out. 👉 Two clear paths emerged:

• Problem A: A small, universal issue that every factory faced — but with limited strategic value

• Problem B: A high-impact challenge — but one that only applied to 30–40% of factories

Now came the real question: Do we build for scale or do we build for impact?

🧪 Month 2: Market Truths Over Assumptions

We didn’t guess. We hit the ground.

Our team reached out to 20 factory clients and had real conversations with owners and operators. We validated both problems and tested demand.

We also conducted a global price benchmarking exercise, mapping out what similar robots cost in international markets. We proposed a hypothetical price point — and during interviews, we tested:

• Would you pay this price for Problem A?

• What about Problem B?

• How many units would you need?

🔥 The moment of clarity came when one factory didn’t just validate the niche use case — they placed a pre-order for 20 units worth over ₹1 crore.

That’s when the fog cleared. Now we weren’t guessing. We knew where to invest time, energy, and engineering.

🛠️ Month 3: Designing for Deployment at Scale

With the decision made, it was time to reimagine the experience.

We mapped every human touchpoint inside the factory — then overlaid the robot's journey across the same spaces. From shared corridors to human-robot coordination zones, every detail was accounted for.

This gave the founders new homework:

• Redesign the robot to fit into real-world factory layouts

• Program for collision safety, workflows, and adaptability

• Prepare for production and delivery of 20 units within 6 months

On the operations side, we began scoping out timelines, resource planning, vendor identification, and scale strategy — ensuring the team could transition from one-off builds to repeatable production cycles.

🚀 The Real Breakthrough

This wasn’t “just another order.” This was the start of a million-dollar robotics company. The same tech, the same founders — but with a new mindset:

✅ From solving custom problems one by one ➡️ To scaling a product that solves one problem for 30% of the market

🧩 Outcome

• A pre-order of 20 units for INR 1 cr from one of the pilot factories validated the niche use case.

• Shifted the founder’s mindset from bespoke, project-based robotics to repeatable, productized deployments.

• Unlocked monetization of learnings from 20+ prior projects and deepdiving into 6 of them

• Laid the groundwork for future innovation by focusing the team’s energy on one scalable direction rather than customizing every deployment.

📌 What We Did in T-Sprints

Sprint Themes:

• Business Model Redesign

• Use Case Validation

• Process Mapping

• Competetive mapping

• Customer Validation and feedback

• Product experience Redesign

💡 What Made the Difference

✅ Founder mindset shift: From customizing solutions to thinking in scale units ✅ Rapid experimentation: Moved from 20 fragmented pilots to 1 unified product ✅ Real-world validation: Built only after ground-level user and economic insight ✅ Strategy acceleration: Powered by structured sprints, industry benchmarks, and expert-led decision-making

Here’s a direct quote from the founder:

“Thanks for sharing customer insights, it not only helped me understand user needs but look at business rationally''

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