What bold product development looks like in practice – insights from last year’s Product Development Path Makers Award winners

Established in 2024 by Aalto Design Factory and its partners, the The Product Development Path Makers Award highlights the role of product development in strengthening competitiveness, national prosperity and solutions to global challenges. 

Nominations for this year’s award are open until 21 October 2026 – anyone can nominate a project, experiment, initiative or activity. Four finalists will each receive €8,000, and public voting will grant one of them the additional €8,000 Ekman Award.

The 2025 award winners demonstrate that path-making product development can take many forms. Insights from the winners reveal a shared willingness to learn through action, involve others early on and challenge assumptions about how product development should be organized.

Entteri: Experimenting with the business model

Entteri, the winner of the Ekman Award, made its AI-powered dental X-ray analysis system available free of charge to approximately half of Finland’s private oral healthcare sector. The freemium model was designed to help dentists and other professionals gain practical experience with AI at a time when the technology still raised questions about its usefulness, risks and impact on clinical work.

“By offering the simplest version for free, we could help our customers work through those fears in practice,” says Business Director Topi Koskinen.

The experiment also created a rapid feedback loop between Entteri, its customers and the partner developing the AI algorithm. “We were getting feedback on a daily basis – does it work, what doesn’t, and where should we take it next,” Koskinen says.

For Koskinen, the case illustrates why product development should be understood more broadly than engineering alone. “Product development is not only engineering work – it’s interaction, commercial models and figuring out how to try things out.”

His advice to developers is to look at familiar work from a new perspective. A freemium model may seem ordinary in consumer services but applying it in a regulated healthcare context created a new way to build trust, learn with customers and support adoption.

Saab: Changing the culture of development

Saab Finland’s award-winning work shows how a large and traditional industry can move towards a more agile, product-driven model. The Finnish organization has worked to give experts greater freedom, responsibility and space for new ideas, moving away from purely project-driven thinking.

“We are shifting our business idea away from the very traditional project-driven world toward a more product-driven and innovative environment,” says Head of Engineering Jani Pelkonen.

The change was supported by experience from both the technology industry and the startup world. Saab Finland combined the entrepreneurial spirit and speed of a small team with the expertise and resources of a large organization. The Finnish unit became a testing ground for a new approach that could demonstrate the business value of bolder product development.

The impact has extended beyond the company. The work has created jobs, opened internship and thesis opportunities, and contributed to the development of the Tampere region as a technology and defense hub.

Pelkonen hopes to see award applications from diverse teams, particularly startups and scale-ups that are prepared to take risks. “It would be great to see highly diverse companies that emphasize risk-taking, boldness, and trust in one’s own idea!”

Betolar: Combining data with practical pilots

Betolar’s work demonstrates how product development can contribute to a broader industrial transformation. The company develops lower-carbon material solutions by using industrial side streams and data-driven methods to create alternatives for construction applications ranging from paving stones to apartment buildings and infrastructure.

“I see it as influencing the entire value chain and bringing in innovations; introducing new, more environmentally friendly technologies and raw materials throughout the chain,” says Project Manager Matias Heinänen.

Artificial intelligence and parameterized recipes help Betolar identify promising material combinations and reduce unnecessary laboratory work. However, the team emphasizes that laboratory results are only an initial indication. “At that stage, we are only talking about indicative results, because the real functionality is proven during the pilot phase,” Heinänen explains. This combination of computation and hands-on testing reflects the long-term nature of product development. 

Betolar’s advice to developers is to define the problem carefully before beginning development and involve relevant stakeholders early. “At its best, product development is about successful teamwork through collaboration!”

Uute Scientific: learning from real demand

Uute Scientific’s product development journey began with a microbial extract developed from Finnish university research. The team started small, producing early batches in a home garage with improvised tools. When the first customer order exceeded research-scale capacity, the company redesigned its production process around actual demand.

CEO Kari Sinivuori describes the approach as “learn fast & learn cheap”: secure customers before investing heavily in infrastructure, then use every order as an opportunity to learn.

Customer-driven iteration also revealed applications that the team had not originally planned. The same core microbial extract is now being adapted for use in areas including skincare, construction and health-related products, requiring the company to navigate different regulatory environments and certification processes.

Sinivuori encourages future Path Makers to experiment early and remain open to unexpected questions and outcomes. “Experiment boldly, get feedback fast, and welcome both the customer’s and the team’s ‘stupid questions’. Product development is learning and making mistakes – and a good experiment only begins when the smoke starts to clear!”

Product Development Path Makers Award 2026 call for nominations is open until October 21st 2026 through the award webpage www.adf.fi/award

Aalto Design Factory presents the award in December with TEK, the City of Espoo, Technology Industries of Finland, the Chemical Industry Federation of Finland, Finnish Forest Industries and TT-säätiö.