6 Areas Your PCB Design Reviews Should Focus On

Electronics products live and die by the decisions made early. Design reviews are how teams make those decisions clear, tested, and shared. They are the place where requirements become checks, ideas become evidence, and risks become plans. The designers tell us that good reviews are simple, structured, and regular. They cover the right topics. They include the right people. They end with clear actions and owners. When teams do this, they avoid late surprises, reduce rework, and move faster with confidence.

In our experience of design reviews, the most effective teams use six core focus areas. These areas match how modern electronics programs work. They tie system intent to board detail, to supply, to build, and to compliance. Electronics designers we work with use the same language and flow across programs. This makes reviews easy to run and easy to join. It also makes outcomes comparable across time. That consistency is what drives quality and speed.

Key Takeaways

• Review requirements and traceability first. If intent is wrong or missing, downstream work will suffer. 
• Use collaboration and real-time feedback to turn comments into decisions fast. 
• Keep documentation and version control tight. Everyone should review the same truth. 
• Check supply chain and sourcing risk inside the review. Parts must be buildable now and later. 
• Run manufacturability and DFM checks early. Fix build issues before they reach the factory. 
• Bring regulatory compliance and approval workflows into reviews. Make compliance a gate, not a scramble.
• Altium Develop helps teams operationalize these areas in one shared environment. They put data, decisions, alternates, and approvals where designers work. This is how review outcomes move cleanly from idea to build.

Focus Area 1: Requirements and Traceability

Requirements are the anchor for a design review. The designers start here. They ask simple questions. What must this system do? What conditions define success? What constraints shape the choices?

In our experience of design reviews, the best teams keep requirements short and testable. They avoid vague words. They write physical limits in clear units. They show the source. They note the owner. They track the version history. They connect each requirement to the design object that satisfies it. For a PCB, that may be a net, a device, a footprint, or a rule. For firmware, it may be a module or interface. The trace is visible both ways. Reviewers can click from need to implementation and back.

Focus Area 2: Collaboration and Real-Time Feedback

Reviews work when feedback is fast and clear. Electronics designers we work with share design views, not screenshots. They comment on the actual schematic, layout, or BOM. They tag people. They assign actions. They track status. They avoid long email threads and lost context. From our experience, teams cut cycle time when comments live beside the object in question.

Focus Area 3: Documentation and Version Control

A design review is only as good as the files it uses. Effective electronics designers keep one system of record. They store schematics, layouts, models, BOMs, and notes in one place. They use version control with clear branch and merge rules. They tag baseline points. They link release notes. They ensure everyone sees the same state. 

Practical steps for effective design reviews:

• Locked baselines for each review: a tag marks the exact set of files under discussion.
• Change logs with short entries: what changed, why, who, when.
• Golden exports for external partners: PDFs, STEP, BOM, and CPL from the same baseline.

Design review in Altium Develop helps teams keep projects, history, and outputs aligned. Reviewers can check diffs, compare revisions, and confirm that updates match decisions. This prevents the common mistake of building the wrong revision or reviewing stale data.

Focus Area 4: Supply Chain and Sourcing Risk

A design that cannot be sourced cannot be built. Effective designers bring supply facts into the review. They show lifecycle status. They show stock and lead times. They show risk flags. They show alternates. Experienced electronics teams keep approved alternates ready for critical parts. They qualify drop-in options before the board is frozen. They mark single-source items for extra attention.

Altium Develop users can use ActiveBOM and Manufacturer Part Search inside the review to show up-to-date data. A reviewer can click a BOM line and see lifecycle, stock, and alternates at once. This turns a supply conversation into a decision, not a guess. It also avoids last-minute scrambles and redesigns caused by missing parts.

Focus Area 5: Manufacturability and DFM

A board must be easy to build and test. Effective electronics designers run DFM early. They check solder mask, clearances, stack-up, stencil, panel, and test points. They show paste and reflow models. They align with the factory’s rules. They ask the contract manufacturer to join a DFM review before layout freeze, which prevents costly rework.

Focus Area 6: Regulatory Compliance and Approval Workflows

Compliance is a gate. Not a post-build fix. Electronics designers bring compliance evidence into reviews as early as possible. They attach RoHS/REACH statements, CE files, UL reports, and market-specific approvals to the component records. They tag expiry dates. They set reminders. All of this makes audits smoother and accelerates market entry.

Practical patterns you can follow:

• Add compliance fields in the library so each part includes its supporting documents and expiration dates.
• Require compliance sign-off at defined milestones for schematics and layouts.
• Store declarations with the part record, not just with purchase orders.

Practical Review Patterns to Follow

1. Begin With a Shared Vision

Effective design reviews start with a clear statement of intent, typically captured on a single page. This one-page summary includes the top ten requirements and the overarching goals for the product or subsystem. By starting with intent, everyone in the review - engineers, procurement, manufacturing, and quality - sees the big picture before diving into technical details. This approach ensures that the team is aligned on what the design is meant to achieve and why certain decisions have been made. Electronics designers consistently report that this practice helps prevent scope creep and keeps discussions focused on outcomes rather than getting lost in minutiae. The intent page is referenced throughout the review, serving as a touchstone for evaluating trade-offs and making decisions.

2. Apply Unified Component Guidelines

Electronics designers emphasize the importance of portfolio-wide standards. Instead of reinventing the wheel for each new product, they reuse proven regulators, oscillators, connectors, and other common components across multiple designs. Reviews include a checklist to verify adherence to these standards, which simplifies inventory management and strengthens the company’s purchasing leverage with suppliers. By standardizing on preferred parts, teams reduce qualification cycles, minimize the risk of obsolescence, and streamline the onboarding of new engineers. The portfolio standards make it easier to forecast demand and negotiate better pricing, as higher volumes can be consolidated across projects.

3. Design for Easy Part Substitution

Designers proactively add options for components that are prone to frequent changes, such as sensors, power devices, and memory chips. This means designing PCBs with dual footprints, jumper pads, and flexible routing to accommodate alternate parts without major rework. During reviews, teams confirm that these swap-ready features are present and properly documented. Electronics designers find that this practice dramatically reduces the time and cost required to qualify alternates or respond to supply chain disruptions. It also supports long-term product evolution, allowing for upgrades or substitutions as new technologies become available.

4. Require Backup Options for Key Components

No electronics design review passes without a validated alternate for every critical part. Hardware designers treat this as a non-negotiable requirement, not a special exception. If switching to an alternate requires changes to firmware or layout, the necessary playbooks and procedures are documented and stored with the part record. Electronics designers have made this process routine, ensuring that alternates are always ready to deploy when needed. This approach transforms end-of-life events and supply shortages from emergencies into manageable tasks, keeping production schedules on track and reducing stress for the entire team.

5. Schedule Regular BOM Review Sessions

Electronics designers organize regular BOM analysis, bringing together representatives from engineering, quality, manufacturing, and supply chain to review the bill of materials (BOM). This analysis focuses on identifying single-source risks, monitoring lead times, and flagging components approaching end-of-life. Teams refresh the list of validated alternates, adjust stocking plans, and document any changes in the BOM management system.

7. Integrate Real-World Feedback Into Design Updates

Feedback from warranty claims, field failures, and customer support is systematically fed back into the design process. Hot regulators trigger updates to derating standards, while issues with connector retention lead to changes in preferred series or mounting techniques. Reviews include a dedicated section for discussing field data and its implications for future designs. Electronics designers ensure that lessons learned from real-world performance are captured and translated into updated rules, preferred parts, and design guidelines. This feedback loop drives ongoing improvement and helps teams deliver more reliable, high-quality products with each new iteration.

Simple, Repeatable Workflow for Effective Design Reviews

1. Set scope and baseline. Tag the exact files under review. Post the one-page intent. 
2. Trace requirements. Show each critical need and the design object that meets it. 
3. Assess supply. Confirm lifecycle, sources, alternates, price, and lead times for key parts. 
4. Run DFM. Check fabrication and assembly rules, panel, test access, and thermal. 
5. Confirm compliance. Attach documents. Record approvals. Check expiries. 
6. Decide and assign. Record decisions. Assign actions with owners and dates. 
7. Release and track. Merge changes. Tag the new baseline. Update notes and outputs.

Conclusion: Better Design Reviews, Better Products

Design reviews connect intent to build, turn risk into action, and transform comments into decisions. When teams focus on the areas mentioned above - requirements, collaboration, documentation, supply, manufacturability, and compliance - they reduce errors and move faster. Altium Develop makes this approach practical by bringing lifecycle management, alternates, compliance, DFM, and collaboration directly to the point of decision. With these tools and this workflow, design reviews drive outcomes that last.

Whether you need to build reliable power electronics or advanced digital systems, use Altium’s complete set of PCB design features and world-class CAD tools. Altium Develop provides the world’s premier electronic product development platform, complete with the industry’s best PCB design tools and cross-disciplinary collaboration features for advanced design teams. Experience Altium Develop today!