Designing with Certainty: PHOENIX and Horizon Unite to De-Risk Product Development

Mainz / Stuttgart, Germany — August 25th, 2025. Developing successful hardware products has always been high-stakes. Missed market needs, wrong design bets, and costly R&D failures can derail even the most promising innovation.

PHOENIX and Horizon, two award-winning leaders in design and validation, have partnered to offer a new approach — without costly missteps.

This strategic alliance combines PHOENIX’s globally recognized expertise in industrial and product design with Horizon’s real-time behavioral validation technology. Together, they empower manufacturers to make bold design decisions backed by evidence — before investing in expensive R&D and production.

At the heart of the partnership is a shared mission: to eliminate uncertainty in the earliest stages of product development. PHOENIX brings decades of experience designing iconic, human-centered products. Horizon complements this by testing product concepts against real consumer behavior in simulated market conditions — revealing what buyers truly want before a single prototype is made.

“Designing the right product is only half the battle,” says Andreas Diefenbach, Managing Director at PHOENIX. “Our clients face immense pressure to innovate — but they also carry massive risk. With Horizon, we help them navigate those risks with clarity.”

“We’re shifting product development from risky guesswork to informed, data-led decision-making,” adds Daniel Putsche, Co-Founder and CEO at Horizon. “PHOENIX creates world-class products. We test their potential in the real world — long before the factory line starts. This is how manufacturing innovation becomes faster, safer, and more successful.”

By embedding early-stage behavioral validation into the design process, the partnership transforms the traditional R&D model. Manufacturers can now prioritize the concepts with proven demand — and safely drop those that don’t. The result: lower failure rates, smarter investment decisions, and faster paths to market.

This partnership redefines how physical products are brought to life — combining creative excellence with real-world market signals. Several joint projects are already underway across Europe and Asia, with more planned throughout 2025.

Discover How Leading Manufacturers Are De-Risking Innovation

Join our upcoming executive session to learn how PHOENIX and Horizon are helping manufacturers build what sells.

Date: Sep 30th, 2025
Time: 2 pm CET
Register here: https://my.demio.com/ref/XNj3peU5TEvLodDB

About PHOENIX

PHOENIX is a globally recognized product and innovation studio. For over 30 years, the company has helped brands shape iconic products across industries — from consumer goods to healthcare to mobility. With studios in Stuttgart and Shanghai, PHOENIX combines deep human insight, design excellence, and strategic foresight to create products that matter. 

About Horizon 

Horizon is a B2B SaaS solution that helps innovation, product, and consumer insight teams predict market success for strategic product decisions, pre-market. As the winner of the 2024 Pioneer Award, Horizon is helping leading brands such as BSH, ALH Group, Bosch, Babbel, Miele, Hansgrohe, Liebherr, and Louis to reduce risk and achieve measurable success through data-driven insights. 

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