Stage Gate Process for Hardware: The Five Gates from Prototype to Shipping
POC, EVT, DVT, PVT, MP: the stage gate process for hardware. What each gate decides, what you build to pass it, and the specific way founders get stuck at each one.
Software teams ship when a change is merged. Teams building something physical ship through gates, and the stage gate process is how they decide when to move on.
"Physical" is not only the PCB and the enclosure. It is the firmware, the app, the packaging, the unboxing, the returns flow and the plan for the next revision. All of it moves through the same gates, and the cost of skipping one lands later, when changes are harder to make: a wrong dimension found while parts are still printed is an afternoon, found after a mould tool is cut it is a tool change, and found after the units are shipped it is returns.
This is the map: what the stage gate process is, what each hardware gate (POC, EVT, DVT, PVT, MP) decides, what you build to pass it, and how founders typically get stuck.
What is a stage gate process?
A stage gate process splits development into stages of work separated by gates: decision points where leaders choose to go on, stop, hold or redo before more money is spent. Robert G. Cooper formalised it for new product development, and the name has been in use since the late 1980s. In his model a project moves from discovery through five stages (concept, business case, development, testing and validation, launch), each preceded by a gate.
Hardware teams use the same idea with their own names: POC, EVT, DVT, PVT and MP. The names are shorthand from the industry, not a formal standard, and companies draw the lines in slightly different places. The point is shared: each gate asks one clear question, and you do not spend the next stage's money until it is answered.
The shape of product development
It is not a straight line. Before the gates proper, two loops run in parallel.
The design loop covers customer discovery, wireframes for product, app and packaging, and a looks-like prototype that settles form, colour and materials.
The engineering loop covers the technical specification, a works-like prototype of mechanics and PCB, and the firmware and app stack coming together.
The loops check each other and converge on the engineering prototype: the first version in which form, function and software work as one. After that the map is linear: EVT, DVT, PVT, MP.
Every gate validates the product, not the hardware alone. A DVT unit with beautiful mechanics and a broken onboarding flow fails DVT. A PVT run with perfect boards and a packaging insert that will not close fails PVT. Firmware, app, packaging and fulfilment are all on the same map.
The five gates
Gate 01
POC: proof of concept
What it decides
Whether the core idea is physically possible. The sensor reads what you need, in the environment you will use it in, accurately enough to matter. The battery lasts as long as the idea needs. The motor moves the load.
What you build
The smallest set-up that can answer that question: dev boards, breadboards, a bench power supply and a laptop. It does not need to look like anything.
How it goes wrong
A desk-top demo is mistaken for a green light. "It works" at POC means the physics is not against you. It says nothing about cost, manufacturing, usability or surviving a drop. A POC that tries to look polished is doing the wrong job.
Gate 02
EVT: engineering validation
What it decides
Whether the design works as designed. Mechanics, electronics, firmware and app run as one system and every subsystem talks to every other one, across the conditions the product will meet: temperature, moisture, radio noise, battery drain and user error.
What you build
The first integrated engineering prototype. Not pretty, but functional end to end. There is no standard unit count, so size the build by what you need to learn.
How it goes wrong
EVT is scoped as a hardware test: a board on a bench with mocked firmware and an engineer standing next to it. Nobody walks a real person through onboarding on a real unit, and nobody powers it up after a cold soak. The bugs that belonged here show up at DVT instead, when more has been fixed in place.
Gate 03
DVT: design validation
What it decides
Whether the complete design meets the requirements and is the product you can manufacture. Finishes look right, tolerances hold across the batch, firmware flashes and onboards reliably, the package protects the unit. This is also where most compliance testing belongs, on units close to final.
What you build
Production-intent units: production-intent materials and tooling, production firmware builds and production packaging, in a small batch.
How it goes wrong
Cosmetic and experience issues are waved through as "fix at PVT". DVT is the last cheap chance to change a mould, a packaging die or the firmware update path. After it, those decisions are locked and changing them costs tooling money and weeks.
Gate 04
PVT: production validation
What it decides
Whether the factory can build your product repeatedly at acceptable yield without your engineers in the room. DVT validates the product; PVT validates the process that builds it.
What you build
A pilot run on the real line, with the real assembly steps, end-of-line tests, labels, boxes and firmware flashed on the line. Decide before the run whether PVT units may be sold.
How it goes wrong
Yield maths that only works if nothing goes wrong. As an illustration, if 3 units in every 100 fail, a run of 10,000 means 300 failures to diagnose, replace and support. The first unit and the last unit off the line must be the same product; if they are not, you are not ready for MP, whatever the calendar says.
Gate 05
MP: mass production
What changes
It stops being an engineering project. The line runs, units ship and the factory owns the process. Your team's job shifts from designing to monitoring.
What stays yours
Everything after the box leaves the factory: bugs in shipped firmware, users doing what nobody expected, supplier end-of-life notices for components, and the decision of when to cut revision B.
How it goes wrong
MP is treated as "done". No field data means no view of how the product behaves in use. No returns process means the first defects hit a support team with no plan. No revision plan means the product stops improving the day it ships.
What gets decided when
Each gate locks specific decisions across the product. Use this as a checklist at the end of each phase: if something on the list is not locked, you have not passed the gate, whatever the schedule says.
- Mechanical: form concept at POC, first full build at EVT, tooling locked at DVT, batch yield proven at PVT.
- Electrical: breadboard at POC, integrated PCB at EVT, bill of materials frozen at DVT, line test at PVT.
- Firmware: subsystems talking at EVT, update path proven at DVT, flashed on the line at PVT, shipped build at MP.
- App and cloud: onboarding draft at EVT, release candidate at DVT, store-ready at PVT, live at MP.
- Packaging: concept at EVT, die locked at DVT, running on the line at PVT.
- Supply chain: bill of materials complete at EVT, vendors qualified at DVT, orders placed at PVT, parts flowing at MP.
- Support: docs drafted at DVT, returns flow at PVT, field data and revision B at MP.
Where compliance fits across the gates
CE marking is carried out by the manufacturer, who runs the conformity assessment, builds the technical file, issues the declaration of conformity and affixes the mark. For a product with a radio, the Radio Equipment Directive requires the manufacturer to keep the technical documentation and the declaration for 10 years after the product is placed on the market. That makes compliance a thread through all the gates rather than a step at the end:
- POC and EVT: decide which regulations apply (radio, battery, charging, software security) and design with them in mind. Early measurements on engineering units show where trouble is likely.
- DVT: run the formal tests on units close to final. A change after this point can mean testing again.
- PVT: make sure labels, instructions, the declaration of conformity and the manufacturer and importer details are on the real units and boxes.
The details are in our post on taking a product to market.
How we use the gates in projects
We use gates to keep a product honest with itself, and to stop money going into the next stage before the last one has answered its question. In our own portfolio:
- Hoviv, a cattle wearable. We delivered the system design (module, sensor stack, power, firmware loop and chassis directions). The build is awaiting funding, so the project stands before the first prototype build.
- ARCIVE. A hardware prototype of the capture device was shown publicly in June 2026, alongside the apps and back end the product depends on. The product is in development.
- Pebble and Tally Keys. Pebble is in development and Tally Keys is a concept; for both the useful gate question is still "does the idea hold".
For the whole chain around the gates, see the hardware product development process from idea to production. If you are planning the funding for a gate, this guide to Norwegian innovation funding maps schemes to stages.
Frequently asked questions
What is a stage gate process?
A way of managing development in stages of work separated by decision gates. At each gate, leaders decide to go, stop, hold or recycle before more resources are committed. Robert G. Cooper formalised it for new product development.
What is EVT, DVT and PVT?
Engineering, design and production validation tests. EVT proves the engineering works as one system, DVT proves the complete design meets the requirements, and PVT proves the factory can build it repeatedly. POC comes before them and MP after.
How many gates are there in product development?
It depends on the model. Cooper's Stage-Gate has five stages, each with a gate. The hardware version used here has five named gates: POC, EVT, DVT, PVT and MP. Adapt the number to the risk of your product.
Are EVT, DVT and PVT an official standard?
No. They are industry practice, and teams define them in slightly different ways. Use them as a shared vocabulary with your manufacturer, and agree what each gate means for your product in writing.
What is decided at each gate?
POC: is it physically possible. EVT: does it work as one system. DVT: does the complete design meet the requirements. PVT: can the factory build it repeatedly. MP: the product is in production, with support after delivery.
What happens between prototype and production?
The integrated prototype is tested (EVT), turned into production-intent units and validated against the requirements (DVT), then built on the real line in a pilot run (PVT). Along the way you lock tooling, qualify suppliers, finish compliance and prepare packaging and documentation.
Use each gate to find problems while they are cheap
Each gate is a chance to find one class of problem while it is still cheap to fix. Treat a gate as a forcing function, not paperwork. The question at the end of every phase is not "did we pass?" but the harder one:
What would make us fail this gate?
If you cannot answer that clearly, you have not tested enough.
Sources
The facts above come from these pages, last checked on 2 October 2026.
- Stage-Gate International: The Stage-Gate Model, an overview (Robert G. Cooper)
- OpenBOM: EVT vs DVT vs PVT, the stages of product development
- SCM Solution: understanding EVT, DVT and PVT
- Encata: hardware product development stages, POC, EVT, DVT, PVT
- European Commission: CE marking
- Directive 2014/53/EU, Radio Equipment Directive, Article 10 (EUR-Lex)
Planning a product through the gates?
We work across the whole map, from electronics and PCB design and firmware to industrial design and apps, and we help teams scope each gate through consulting. If you want a second opinion on where your product stands, book a short call.
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