Product Development & Validation
Build products that work. Access world-class testing infrastructure, proven protocols, and occupational health expertise to validate your climate adaptation solution. Reduce risk, earn trust, and speed up your path to market.
Proven Impact
Effective heat stress prevention has cut workplace heat-related illnesses by over 80% in real projects, while boosting productivity by as much as 20%. We bring the same rigorous validation approach to help you demonstrate your product’s impact—and build investor and customer confidence.
Backed by 10+ years of field research and $20M in R&D
Trusted by
The Developer's Challenge
You've built something innovative! Now prove it works.
You know your climate adaptation solution can make a difference. But to be taken seriously by commercial industry, regulators, investors, and policymakers, you need solid proof. Major companies won’t deploy new tech without evidence; safety regulators demand data; and potential investors will ask, “Do you have results from the field?”
Obtaining real-world proof can be a huge barrier. How do you run a proper field trial or lab test if you don’t have a research lab, occupational health team, or worksite? How do you ensure your data will be trusted as impartial? Without answers to these questions, even the best idea can stall. La Isla Network can help.
Developers with capital should allocate adequate resources to validating the product. Doing so with our network of industry leaders connects your business to lucrative clients.
The Gaps
Common obstacles product teams face in validating heat-tech innovations:
- No Lab Access: High-quality environmental chambers and specialized heat testing equipment are expensive and not readily available to a small company.
- Field Trial Uncertainty: Running a field study is daunting—from finding a suitable worksite and recruiting participants, to ensuring their safety and collecting useful data.
- Protocol Knowledge: What standards or test methods should you even use? Designing a valid experiment (lab or field) to test heat mitigation isn’t straightforward, and mistakes can invalidate your results.
- Credibility Gap: Data coming directly from your internal testing may be met with skepticism. Without independent verification, outsiders might not trust your performance claims.
- Regulatory Path Confusion: If your product needs certification or must meet OSHA or ISO standards, it’s hard to know where to start or which requirements apply.
The Consequences
Prolonged Time to Market: Without proof, pilot customers and regulators will delay adoption—stretching your timelines and burn rate.
Wasted Resources: You might spend time and money on testing that isn’t rigorous, yielding misleading results that send you in the wrong direction.
Multiple Pivots: Lack of clear data can lead to trial-and-error changes to the product. You risk pivoting blindly, which is expensive and demoralizing.
Difficulty Raising Capital: Savvy investors conduct due diligence—if you can’t demonstrate validated outcomes, it will be much harder to secure funding or partnerships.
Risk of the Wrong Solution: Worst case, you could bring a product to market that doesn’t actually solve the problem, harming workers or prompting expensive recalls and redesigns.
Our Product Development & Validation Service
We provide the infrastructure, expertise, and network to test and prove your solution. Think of it as plugging into a ready-made validation lab for climate adaptation solutions: you get access to our environmental chambers, field sites, seasoned researchers, and proven protocols.
We conduct controlled tests in professional environmental chambers to validate your product under standardized heat conditions. This means we can simulate, say, 95°F with high humidity (or any extreme environment) and measure how your device performs. What we offer:
- Use of our environmental chamber facilities (climate-controlled rooms that mimic extreme heat, sun, and humidity).
- Custom performance metrics: We help determine what indicators define success for your product (core temperature reduction? improved hydration levels? etc.).
- Comparative testing protocols: We can test your solution side-by-side with existing methods or a control scenario to quantify its added value.
- Rigorous data collection and analysis: Our team captures physiological data, sensor outputs, etc., and analyzes them with statistical rigor.
- Comprehensive test reports: You’ll get full documentation of lab test conditions, methods, and results for your records or investors.
We also test your innovation in the real world through our established occupational safety & health (OSH) programs. This might involve deploying your solution with actual workers in agriculture, construction, or another relevant environment to see how it performs in practice. Our capabilities:
- Network of test sites: We have partnerships with companies and worker groups across industries (from Nicaraguan sugarcane fields to U.S. road crews) where we can arrange trials
- Study design & ethics (IRB) support: We handle the design of the field study to ensure it’s ethical and yields clear data. If needed, we obtain Institutional Review Board approvals for studies involving worker participants.
- Worker recruitment & management: We secure and brief the participants (e.g. workers who will wear the device or use the solution) and ensure their safety throughout.
- Data collection & monitoring: Our team on the ground collects data (e.g. body temperatures, productivity metrics, user feedback) and monitors for any safety issues during the trial.
- Occupational health protocols: We integrate standard safety practices—like hydration schedules or rest break policies—as needed, to see how your product works alongside real-world conditions.
Not sure how to test your product? We’ve got you. We develop evidence-based testing methodologies tailored to your solution, aligned with industry standards and regulatory expectations:
- Standards assessment: We identify any relevant standards (ISO, ASTM, etc.) or guidelines for your product type (for example, wearable sensors might have ANSI guidelines for accuracy).
- Study design consultation: We craft a validation plan—specifying sample sizes, duration, endpoints—that will stand up to scrutiny.
- Validation frameworks: Drawing from our PREP methodology and past projects, we outline a clear framework that defines what “success” looks like for your innovation.
- Quality assurance: We build in quality checks to ensure data integrity (calibration of devices, duplicate measurements, etc.) so results are reliable.
- Expert peer review: Our in-house experts (and network advisors, if needed) review the test plans and results, providing feedback and ensuring nothing is overlooked.
We guide you through the landscape of standards, certifications, and compliance so you can go to market with confidence and credibility:
- Standards & Certification Roadmap: We pinpoint which standards or certification programs apply to your product (for instance, does your cooling vest need an ISO certification?). Then we map out the steps to get there.
- Regulatory compliance guidance: If you aim to sell into regulated industries or government procurement, we help ensure your validation data meets requirements (e.g. OSHA recommendations, military specs, etc.).
- Documentation support: We assist in compiling the technical documentation and user guidelines that regulators or clients will expect alongside validated results.
- Third-Party Validation & Endorsements: We facilitate any additional third-party reviews or endorsements that could bolster your credibility (for example, connecting with a professional association for an external review of our findings).
Our Process
We collaborate closely with you through a five-step process to test and validate your product efficiently:
1
Discovery & Planning
We start by understanding your product, your development stage, and your goals. In an initial meeting, we learn about how it’s supposed to work and what you’ve done so far. Together, we determine what kind of validation makes sense (lab tests, field study, etc.), identify relevant standards, and outline a plan that fits your timeline and budget.
2
Protocol Development
Next, our experts design the specific test protocols. For a wearable sensor, for example, we might develop a chamber test to simulate a range of heat conditions and a field test protocol with workers over a week. We detail what data to collect, how to collect it, and how to ensure accuracy and safety. You’ll review and approve these protocols so everyone is aligned before testing begins.
3
Testing & Validation
We execute the plan. Our lab team runs the chamber tests, pushing your product to its limits in controlled heat conditions. Our field team implements the solution in a real-world setting (with all necessary oversight). Throughout this phase, we manage all logistics—from equipment setup to participant coordination—and continuously monitor data quality. If issues arise (say a sensor fails), we address them and may adjust the protocol as needed (with your agreement) to get the needed results.
4
Results & Documentation
After testing, we analyze all the data. Did core temperatures stay lower when using your device? Did workers using your solution report less fatigue or have fewer heat cramps? We crunch the numbers and compile the findings into clear documentation. You receive full test reports, data analysis (often with charts and statistical analysis), and our validation summary. Essentially, we package the evidence you can show investors, customers, or regulators to prove your claims.
5
Go-to-Market Support
Validation in hand, we don’t disappear on you. We assist with the next steps to leverage this proof. Need help presenting the data to a potential client or in a grant application? We can help craft that message. Need introductions to industry partners or pilot sites? We’ll tap our network. We also advise on any certifications or follow-ups you should pursue. The goal is to use the validation results to speed your path to market—whether that’s raising a funding round, signing a big customer, or getting regulatory clearance.