This is our process.

Our process is how we do what we do. What we do is dictated by our mission - we strive to glorify God, the original inventor as we make cool things and help others make cool things. Given the intentionality of our mission and value set, we know that how we do is just as important as what we do. In keeping with our milling theme, we call our process stone dressing. Enjoy. 

Millstone dressing is the process of preparing a raw stone to be used as a grindstone. The process typically involves shaping the stone, smoothing out irregularities, and cutting channels or grooves into the surface of the stone. These channels or grooves are known as furrows. Furrows serve two primary purposes; first, they perform a scissoring action to cut and smash the grain into flour; second, they channel the flour outwards for collection.

At Valormill, our core processes are the furrows that allow us to fulfill our purpose and produce output. These furrows are cut not into stone, but into our daily routines — creating consistency that produces major results over time. Like furrows on a millstone, these core processes are continuously sharpened, balanced, and aligned. We accomplish this through routine review, reworking, and retraining.

Our proposal process is where it all starts.

HERE’S A HIGH-LEVEL OVERVIEW OF OUR PROPOSAL PROCESS:

At Valormill, we believe in providing tremendous value on the front end, and our detailed proposal process certainly bears that out. During this key process, we’ll develop and deliver these value drivers:

  1. Product Specification
    This document puts your idea on paper and forces both the customer and development teams to think critically about every aspect of the design. This document is crucial to creating early alignment of vision between the customer and development teams.

  2. Project Proposal
    A detailed proposal providing a high-level overview of the project cost, timeline, and scope.

  3. Cost breakdown
    This document provides detailed notes on how we arrive at the project cost point. It includes a list of every task we’ll complete to produce your deliverables. With this document in hand, our customers have a great picture of all the effort and attention to detail that goes into each Valormill project.

At Valormill, we practice radical transparency. We want you to know exactly what’s going on at all stages of our project, and it starts with the proposal — which is why we give the customer complete access to our project cost data in our cost breakdown. These valuable assets are delivered to the customer at no charge up front. Our customers are encouraged to test these deliverables by sending them to other vendors for bid. This ensures that our customers are well-informed with access to all the information they need to make the decision that yields them the highest value. 

Because the proposal draft process is highly detailed, customer involvement is a must. The following diagram illustrates the various stages of the draft process:

Once the customer approves and authorizes the proposal, the Development Phase begins.

Valormill has codified our design methodology and processes for the three main crafts we employ: electronics design, physical product design, and software development. While each of Valormill’s development processes are specifically tailored to the design tools and methods employed in these crafts, there are several common furrows that run throughout each of the processes.

  • Formalized design review process
    Common-sense, but so easy to neglect. Valormill employs a rigorous written review process to ensure that all aspects of a design are considered before prototyping is undertaken. This process stands apart in allowing Valormill to create repeated success in our development adventures.

  • Customer feedback-centric
    We build our processes around the customer with dedicated checkpoints and milestones for customer approval. This ensures alignment between the customer and development teams throughout the project as we implement your vision.

  • Design for production
    We’re designing with the end in mind — to increase intrinsic build quality and lower production costs. Our processes include dedicated steps for production optimization.

In addition to ensuring repeatable success in product development, these processes also provide extreme clarity for our customers and our teams as we navigate through unexpected obstacles. 

These processes weren’t designed to lower up-front development costs, but we stand by them to provide the highest value over the long run.

Our development does not stop until all the requirements of our customer-approved product specifications are met — leaving the customer with a finished product. 

DELIVERY AND MAINTENANCE

Often, once a product is in production, support is needed from the design team. In this case, Valormill offers dedicated support through our Maintenance Agreements and Design Handoffs. Design handoffs ensure that your internal development team has all the tools they need to manage and improve on the Valormill design. In the case that no internal development team is available, Valormill continues to support in Maintenance mode. The maintenance process at Valormill is designed to ensure that your product receives priority support for new feature development and production support — allowing the customer to keep the product at the center of their focus.