File 05: Product risk assessment
A workable risk assessment method: severity, probability, vulnerable users, change, and the decision that follows.
The file guide
Working guides in this file
05Asking suppliers for the facts your assessment cannot invent A flask assessment needs supplier facts about steel, seals, welding, and cleaning, and a polite request that names exactly what is needed will get better answers than a vague assurance. 05Assessing mains and battery powered products without guessing at the electrics Assessing a plug in aroma diffuser means tracing heat, water, and power together: where the diffuser sits, how long it runs, what charger it uses, and what happens when a warm room and a covered vent meet. 05Choosing a template that helps thinking instead of replacing it A template for beeswax wraps should prompt the maker to describe melting, washing, and reuse, while leaving room to write about the actual wrap, not merely to tick boxes for a generic product. 05Getting risk findings understood by the people who pack, list and answer customers Sharing a bath bomb finding inside a team means translating a risk note into plain actions: what crumbles, what stains, what to tell customers, and who checks the next batch. 05How software behaviour belongs inside a product risk assessment A plant sensor with an app cannot be assessed as hardware alone, because an update can change a warning sound, a watering schedule, or a low battery alert after the sensor has already been sold. 05Reassessing a product when only part of it has changed A new lunchbox clasp changes more than its look: it changes how a child or adult opens the box one handed, how fingers sit near the hinge, and how the seal behaves after repeated washing. 05Recording risk decisions so a stranger could follow your reasoning later Documenting a bookshelf assessment means writing, for each hazard, what was found, what was decided, what was rejected, and why, so the file explains itself without the original assessor in the room. 05Separating how bad a harm could be from how likely it is to happen For a pointed garden trowel, severity asks what a slipping hand could suffer, while probability asks how often that slip happens in real digging, and mixing the two questions produces a misleading score. 05The order to work through when you assess a consumer product from scratch Assessing a ceramic pour over dripper in order means first describing the pour, the sink, and the hands involved, then tracing how hot liquid could spill, and only then deciding what to change or warn about. 05Turning a single customer complaint into a careful reassessment A complaint about a smoking candle should be treated as a prompt to re-examine the wick, the wax, the burn time, and the instructions, not as a verdict and not as a message to dismiss. 05Using accident reports to sharpen an assessment without overstating them Accident reports about a bunk bed ladder can sharpen an assessment by showing how rungs fail and children climb, but a handful of reports cannot, on their own, settle how likely or serious a failure is. 05What changes when the user is a child who cannot judge risk A pull along duck for young children must be assessed through play as children actually do it, mouthing, tugging, tangling, and dropping, rather than through the careful handling an adult would give it. 05When a supplier, material or process change means the assessment must be revisited Switching the timber supplier for a cutting board can change grain, moisture, splitting, and finish, even when the board looks the same, so the assessment should be reviewed rather than assumed to still fit. 05Why a test pass and a risk assessment answer different questions A plastic container that passes a drop check can still warp in a dishwasher, stain, or lose its seal, because testing answers a narrow question about a sample under set conditions, while assessment asks how the container is used over time. 05Writing a risk assessment that fits a refurbished product, not a new one A refurbished cordless drill carries a history: a worn switch, a replaced battery, a repaired housing, and a user who will trust it as if it were new, so its assessment must start from that history.