The wrong product for the wrong market
It can be easy to get caught up in the excitement of an idea without checking that early assumptions are correct.
Is the target market really as big as you think it is?, you will never achieve 100% market penetration, so what is a realistic volume?
Does the target market want what you think they do?, perhaps new needs have come to the forefront.
Is the market already fully saturated with competitors, does your idea have enough unique selling points to stand out?
Is the intended price something your target market would be willing to pay?
Will this product go out of fashion quickly?: products based on trends need to move incredibly quickly and have a strong marketing push behind them.
This is why we always recommend an evaluation and research stage to evaluate risk and seek out opportunities that may have been missed.
Can your product be manufactured to cost?
You might have a brilliant product idea that your target market would kills for and no one has done before- but there might be a very good reason for this.
It is important to consider manufacturability early. Designing for mass production is very different from making bespoke craft items and every penny counts.
It might also be that the technology is not quite there to achieve what you want.
Of course, as designers a lot of what we do is overcoming these sorts of problems. Development is all about producing at the cutting edge and making something new and innovative. The main difference this will make is budget, the more unprecedented the design, the more research and development will be required.
When to choose product design:
• You need a blend of physical and digital thinking.• Your priority is balancing user needs, business goals, and technical feasibility.• You have constraints that involve both physical and digital touchpoints (e.g., smart devices).
The people
It takes a team to bring a project to market. If you are a new business many of these people will be new to you, it is likely that you started this development journey with only 1 or 2 of you but if you want to start a business you will likely need a lot of help.
Sometimes a person is perfect for one stage of the process but unsuited to another. This is perfectly normal. The important thing is to recognise this. The
Sometimes two people will be perfect for the project but will just not get on. Remember that your lives will be changed by this project if you want it to be successful. You will likely have to work less hours or quit your jobs at a certain point and dedicate a lot of time to this. This can strain any relationship.
Running before you can walk
There is tremendous pressure on a creator to get the product to market as quickly as possible. This is both due to the need to hit the market before your competitors, to get an influx of money, and also just due to the high excitement. At the beginning of a project everything seems to be moving so fast and changing so much but as it goes on you will find that what appear to be much smaller changes will take much longer. This is because the design gets steadily more detailed and attention must be paid to smaller things. By the time you have tooled your product you will find a lot of time being spent getting the tolerance just right for the perfect fit between parts or achieving the exact shade of red you wanted.
Too many of our clients encountered problems because they wanted to push the development to the next stage early. Sometimes more testing and assessment is required before the next big financial commitment. In the long run this can end up costing a lot more money as parts need to be re-designed later when you do have a chance to test them fully.
Of course you also don’t want to grind to a halt and certain risks must be taken. It is a balancing act and it is worth listening to all the voices of experience in different departments and taking these into account.
Money
The sad truth is that it costs a lot of money to take a project to market and not everyone has this available. There are several good ways of getting more: grants and investors. And several bad ways: mortgaging the house, spending the last of your savings.
Ideas typically require between 8k and 20k to get to a full works like looks like prototype.
Things that cost more money:
Is your product very large?
Does your product involve custom electronics?
Does your product require extra safety testing or medical certification?
Does your product use expensive or rare materials
Is your product mechanically complex?
Does your product need to be waterproof
Tooling
Tooling is a catch all term for any production mould or jig that is created just for your product. Some tools are much more expensive than others.
Common processes that require tooling are:
Injection moulding-
This is how most plastic parts are made. Headphones, Tupperware, razors, some chairs. This can create relatively complex parts in one go. It is very fast and can be very accurate. This process tends to save a lot of product cost but increase your upfront investment. Aluminium alloys can also be injection moulded but this is much more expensive. The tooling cost will be based on the size and the complexity of your part. Tooling takes 6-10 weeks as the mould must be carved out of a solid block of steel. For this reason it is generally only used if you plan to make at least 3000 products.
Casting-
Generally how metal parts are moulded. The complexity and scale of this can vary greatly from sand casting to lost wax casting to die casting. Generally the softer and lower the melting temperature is for your metal, the greater accuracy that can be a chieved at a lower investment cost. More basic casting processes might be suitable for lower volume runs in the 100s rather than 1000s.
Blow moulding-
This is used for plastic parts to create a hollow form. Drinks bottles are commonly blow moulded but also larger lightweight items such as children’s toys (like the little Tikes car). First plastic is inserted into the steel mould and then air is blown in to inflate the part.
Vacuum forming-
Rather than requiring molten plastic, here a plastic sheet is heated until it is soft and flexible. It is then stretched over a form and the air is sucked out, pulling the plastic tight to the shape underneath. This is often used for blister packaging and trays, but when using thicker plastic is also suitable for panels. This is also suitable for lower volume runs.
Extrusion-
This is for making a long shape with a consistent cross section (such as a pipe). The plastic or metal (commonly aluminium) is forced through a die, like play dough through a shaper and cost is given by the meter. This can be a cheaper option than injection moulding if the part is suitable.
Crowd funding will not pay for your development. This is a common misconception but crowd funding only really pays for the development if people are willing to give without receiving. This can happen for charity or good cause products, or if people are willing to pay above the rrp. This can happen if your product is truly a must-have, if having a ‘first edition’ would be valuable or if you are making something artistic like a book, replica or film project.
For all of our clients who have crowdfunded it was a way of getting free marketing, proving to potential investors the demand for the product and paying for the first order. This is still very valuable as the first order of products can be a lot of money. Generally the minimum order quantity is between 3,000 and 5,000 but they can sometimes be negotiated down if your project is particularly high margin or if you are willing to increase the unit cost.
How to avoid these issues:
When making your first product consider starting simple:
Develop a product in a category you know: A dog toy if you already make pet products, a makeup brush if you sell beauty products. Working in an industry you know will help enormously.
Start small: You have a great idea for a car washing robot. It will do everything, interior and exterior, for cars, vans and even tractors! You haven’t worked out the details yet but it’s going to be great. You also have an idea for a car windshield washing brush. It has noticeable benefits over other brushes and you think your robot could use it but it’s a little dull compared to developing a robot. If this is your first development project stop; develop the brush. It may be less exciting but it has a clear market, achievable USPs, and won’t bankrupt you. The development process is exciting enough, even the simplest of products will teach you a lot. Once your brush is a big success you can always go back to the robot.
Be ready to compromise: The development process is somewhat unpredictable. There is a cycle of problem, idea, implementation, testing and review. At some point it may become clear that your dream idea has some flaws. It is not the best solution to the problem, it has some safety risks, it is too expensive. You will need to be flexible. Find the core of what makes your idea special and stick to that, be willing to change everything else. Beware of the sunk cost fallacy.
Design for the market: Who are you selling this to? How do they buy things? How you are planning to sell your product can have a huge effect on target cost, packaging and even the shape of the product. Are your target market willing to do some self-assembly? Perhaps you can save on shipping by creating a flat-pack design. Are you selling through retail outlets or direct via your own shop or website? Without a middle man your unit cost can be a lot higher without cutting into your margin. These are things that ideally need to be known early in the development process.