Let’s cut to the chase.
You want to sell something and make money right?
And you don’t want to spend your life savings.... yet
How do you know?
Is it worth investing in?
What next?
To me it’s all about validating your idea,
but slowly.
A little bit of investment,
then some feedback,
then a little more investment,
then some more feedback.
I do this until I have an idea worth selling,
or something for the trash.
Without investing my lifesavings. These are the first things I do...
Step 1: Fake it before you make it – A digital design
Step 2: Stranger danger – A physical working prototype
After that, you’re swimming with the big boys.
Let's get into some details...
Step 1 - Fake it till you Make it
With today’s technology and amazing digital 3D modelling wizards *cough* DMC *cough*.
You can persuade potential customers you have something real or valuable without building anything first.
Let’s walk through some of the pros and cons to using a digital render to show your physical product idea.
1. You don’t need enormous amounts of cash to create a digital product.
In digital,
nothing is ‘real’.
It’s very easy to create unrealistic, amazing designs fast and cost effectively.
A blessing and a curse!
Depending on the complexity of your product and how much ‘fake’ functionality you need to design, will depend on how much money you’ll spend on a designer to help you.
The more complex, or challenging, the more money it will cost. That's life right?
PRO TIP: Try to define as much about the product as possible using sketch, smoke signals and stick figures. The more you have worked out, the less the designer will need to workout!
PS. No one cares if you can't sketch. Put your big girl panties on and get it done. It won't be pretty. But it will help your idea.
2. Get customers before you’ve built anything.
Presenting your idea in digital form and distributing it via the internet could get you your first customer.
Getting even one unrelated human to say. “I’ll have that” – is so powerful.
It’s a nice ego boost to convince yourself by convincing other people to convince yourself. Little bit of Leonardo De Caprio over here.
This step is about getting enough validation and gaining confidence in your product idea to move onto the next steps in developing your product.
PRO TIP: Find customers that WILL be interested in your idea. If it’s a pizza cooker, head to every pizza Facebook and Reddit group. You’ll get feedback fast!
Physical product idea renders
These products never made it to physical form!
3. You can trick yourself and customers into thinking you have solved the idea.
Walk and talk with me here…. Bit of a story in coming.
Imagine you want to create the next automatic burger patty making machine.
You hire a designer to create an amazing digital design, throw it onto a website together with some cool animations.
Voila, you have a digital explanation of your product idea.
It looks great and people understand your product idea enough to either want to give you money or feedback or both.
You now have to turn your digital idea into a working product. Which can take 2-4 years to develop complex products like this.
Which leaves you in a sticky situation.
You have customers, but nothing to sell for many years.
Nevermind, if you can get the design to be commercially viable.
I have seen this fail, and succeed.
A previous client managed to get it to work really well.
They spend $5000 paying a designer to create some great renders and put the digital design on a bread making Facebook group. It was an immediate hit. 3 years later, the product only hit the market. Now, 6 years later, it’s a beautiful successful business.
They sold their idea with a render.
They also had the money, patience and experience to develop the product afterwards.
The call is yours…
4. Get the wrong feedback because people don’t believe you.
Customers aren’t stupid.
If they can see your automatic patty making machine is fake and they don’t believe its possible.
Or you hire a sucky designer and animator.
You may not receive any feedback at all, and people may just write you off as a crazy inventor and scroll on.
This leaves you with no feedback, and/or hate mail and thinking people don’t want your design.
Meanwhile, they just don’t believe you (yet).
PRO TIP: Be honest and authentic. Sell them your dream. But be realistic. You never know where you find support, customers might want to follow along the journey.
Let's move into something a little more physical!
Step 2 – Build working prototype before you invest in production.
Being an industrial designer, I’m lucky enough to have the skills to design and build almost whatever I want. When I think of an idea I usually prototype ASAP. I want to feel it in my hands and test it in real life.
Not everyone is as lucky, and you might need to hire someone to help you build your prototype. Which can be pretty costly...
5. Choosing the right type of prototype to test your physical product idea
Not all products cost the same to develop.
Not all prototypes cost the same to build.
A small plastic enclosure can be prototyped multiple times by using a $200 3D printer.
Some products require $10 000 moulds to test just a single part.
You have to be realistic in what you can spend and what level of fidelity you need in order to get a physical product you can test with other humans.
If all you can afford is a cardboard mashup taped together, then be sure on what features you want to test, is it size, shape, overall look?
Make sure its still something you can get feedback on, and grow your confidence with the design.
No matter what you test, it will either keep validating your idea or it will start showing the holes in your thinking. But you have to start somewhere.
PRO TIP: Write down the assumptions worrying you the most. Then do anything to test those and gain confidence in your idea! Small steps at a time.
6. Everyone understands a physical product when they can hold it.
Digital renders can look much more refined and finished than a 3D printed prototype.
When people get to touch, play and use your half baked prototype in real life. The un-finishedness of the prototype always prompts people to give more feedback.
People are more eager to comment on something rough than a finished product. The comments will fly in like nobody’s business because people love to comment on what’s wrong with something.
These are golden nuggets (well at least some of them). Listen to these comments wisely and you will begin to refine your idea into that masterpiece dream in your head.
7. Not all comments about your prototype will help your physical product.
Talk is cheap
Let’s go back to using cardboard as the prototype material.
If someone says, “ah, the colour is terrible” –Should you care? Probably not, that is not the final material.
If someone says, “this size works for my daughter, but I think my husband might have to bend down to operate it” – That is directed at the overall size, and if that is an assumption you are testing with this design. That’s great feedback you should listen to and consider making updates.
PRO TIP: Ask the questions that test the right assumptions and ignore everything else.
Cardboard Prototyping has it's place!
This food smoker was built in one day and costed close to nothing to build!
PRO TIP: Prototyping and failing is part of the process. Enjoy falling over, as you will get better at it. Those of you that can methodically test, refine and rebuild usually end up with thoughtful, and successful products.
LAST TAP ON THE BUM: No one cares. Only you care as much about your idea as you. No one is going to steal it. Stop hiding it, go and talk, build it, test it, get feedback and enjoy the ride. Trust the world to be kind.
So before the aliens build everything and we become their slaves.
Go out there and build something awesome!
Oh, and if you need some help, give us a call!
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