A $40k Lesson in Product Development

[machinistguy]

I own a manufacturing business, and today marks the launch of our second product. To develop it, we spent 6 months, $40,000, 70+ prototypes, and 3 machine crashes. Wednesday, December 18th 2024 it was finally approved as good enough to compete with the market leader. Today, Dec 19th we got our first sale for $35k.

Based on my experience launching two products, I decided I should reflect on our process and see how to improve it so we can expand more smoothly. Here’s some of my notes.

Evaluation​

• Need: The most foolproof way to check if there’s a need is if you can find one or more successful businesses solving the same problem. You can come up with a completely new product, but the problem has to have evidence that people are paying to solve it.
• Size Potential: If it’s a consumer product, you can estimate sales based on your competition's sales on Amazon, Etsy, etc. Plenty of free tools online. For B2B products that don’t sell online, check out your competition on google maps. How big is their warehouse, offices, parking lot, etc. Or check if the market has anyone that was acquired and see if you can get the data on what they were acquired for. There’s better ways, especially if you have industry inside knowledge.
• ROI: Before you do anything you need to make sure you can develop the product profitably. Get quotes, do your due diligence, all that good stuff. Add 20% for unexpected occurrences. Then expect development to cost twice as much and twice as long as expected (more if you're very inexperienced). Only if you’re ok with the expected return given these costs do you proceed.

Buy The Market Leader’s Product​

• It’s not about the absolute value you provide your customer, but the relative value. Specifically, relative to the market leader’s value. You need access to the competition’s product to compare your prototypes against.
• This is the benchmark you must surpass before launch. Do not pass GO if your product is not comparable or better.

3rd Party Expert Feedback​

• Insider Knowledge: I’ve never made anything I knew about. Most of it I’d never even heard of. You need a neutral 3rd party who’s an expert on the area/product. Someone who knows all your competitors and customers. Someone who understands exactly why your customers would choose you over someone else, and has the qualifications to judge your product and where it stands.
• Where to Look: Influencers, forums, authors, researchers, customers.
• What to Offer: Free samples or a fee. If you’re a solo operation just starting out, people would generally be very open to help a guy out in exchange for free samples. Our first product line was an influencer who used our competitor's product but was unsatisfied. He reached out to me.

Prototyping​

• Rapid prototyping: You should not immediately go to the final manufacturing process, but the fastest and cheapest. For most physical mechanical products like ours, that’s 3D printing. The goal is to make the best product on the market, and your competitors have years of experience over you. So expect a long struggle of trial and error to build up comparable knowledge. Fast Prototyping + Your Competitor’s Product to Compare Against + 3rd Party Review = Catching Up to & Surpassing Competition Fast.
• Thorough Prototyping: Thoroughly develop your product in the prototyping phase. Being thorough is cheaper than the cost of customer acquisition due to being 2nd place in the market. Definitely cheaper than no one buying because the product is not good enough.
• Prototyping Loop: Create prototype -> Compare against best competitor -> Modify. Repeat till better than competitor’s. Then send it to the expert 3rd party. Listen to their feedback and repeat the whole process. The 3rd party will be able to notice things you didn’t even think to look for, which is why they’re so important.

Early Marketing & Consumer Feedback​

• Social Media: You should be posting the development journey on social media. Boost the posts if you can afford it. It builds trust with customers and a following. This makes selling when you launch much easier and cheaper.
• Customer Feedback: If what you’re doing is interesting enough, people will let you know. You’ll be able to get feedback on things you didn’t even think about. Exposed to different niches and groups within the market. Interact and build relationships.
• Email: A website with a sales page for this specific product that collects emails for people that want updates would be very useful.

“The greats never sacrifice the important for the urgent.”​

• Got this quote from Billions. The show is mediocre, but the quote is great. The important is getting a good product. The urgent is rushing the development stage. Important>urgent.

Two Levels of Importance to B2B Customers/Retailers.​

1. Products that fit into upper management’s goals. This is the easiest sale because they’ll be the ones reaching out to you, following up, asking for more and more. Only one caveat. Businesses do not want amateurs for something that would be important to them. You have to prove your reliability and ability to follow through on their orders.
2. Products management are open to but aren’t part of their goals.
   • You will have to constantly follow up with them. You have to drive the sale, don’t expect much effort from them.
   • Everything needs to be figured out, from packaging to lead times to quality control to everything else. They don’t want to put in any more effort than they need to.

 

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[dauntless]

Exituni vjsief, ev upi quopv O miespif tuni ug vji nepagedvasoph qsudittit xjip O tvesvif nz kiximsz wipvasi epf epuvjis upi gus wosvaem siemovz jieftiv eddittusoit.
O jewi e duaqmi ug raitvoupt simevif vu raemovz ettasepdi epf xessepvz vjev esi nottoph op zuas vjsief:

Nutv uwistiet nepagedvasoph siraosif e meshi wumani usfis cigusi vjiz dunnovvif vu neloph vji numft epf cihop nepagedvasoph vji apovt. Jux fu zua iptasi vjev egvis vji opovoem qsuvuvzqi ot eqqsuwif, vji tactiraipv apovt xomm ci iyedvmz vji teni? O jiesf gsun tvesvaq dunqepoit vjev vjiz'f ataemmz guapf vjintimwit sidiowoph siemmz cef cevdjit ug apovt, epf vjiz jef vu iev aq vji dutvt, vjios Djopiti nepagedvasist xuamf "jimq" xovj e tnemm fotduapv gus vji piyv cevdj vu neli. O raitvoup xjivjis og vjot ot e tdennz xez vu hiv iyvse detj us xjev't vji citv xez vu iptasi ov'mm piwis jeqqip eheop?

Xjev fuit ov veli gus Enisodept vu qsigis vu xepv vu xusl xovj Enisodep nepagedvasoph catopittit sevjis vjep uwistiet catopittit? O haitt qsufadvoup dutvt esi raovi johj op vji A.T. cav dep vjisi ci epzvjoph fupi vu efkatv vji xommophpitt vu sifadi qsufadvoup dutvt vu jimq qiuqmi xovj vjios qsuvuvzqit? O apfistvepf nevisoem epf mecus dutvt esi johjis op vji A.T. cav O raitvoup raemovz opvihsovz gsun uwistiet....gusdoph gusiohp catopittit vu vjsux op e muv nusi nupiz vu si-fu cef cevdjit.

 

[machinistguy]

Nutv uwistiet nepagedvasoph siraosif e meshi wumani usfis cigusi vjiz dunnovvif vu neloph vji numft epf cihop nepagedvasoph vji apovt. Jux fu zua iptasi vjev egvis vji opovoem qsuvuvzqi ot eqqsuwif, vji tactiraipv apovt xomm ci iyedvmz vji teni? O jiesf gsun tvesvaq dunqepoit vjev vjiz'f ataemmz guapf vjintimwit sidiowoph siemmz cef cevdjit ug apovt, epf vjiz jef vu iev aq vji dutvt, vjios Djopiti nepagedvasist xuamf "jimq" xovj e tnemm fotduapv gus vji piyv cevdj vu neli. O raitvoup xjivjis og vjot ot e tdennz xez vu hiv iyvse detj us xjev't vji citv xez vu iptasi ov'mm piwis jeqqip eheop?

O'n nz uxp nepagedvasis, tu O lpux iyedvmz xjip vji qsuvuvzqi xomm ci vji teni et vji qsufadvoup. O fu apfistvepf vji qsucmin vjuahj. Datvunist emxezt xepv tenqmit cav piwis xepv vu gsupv vji nettowi aqgsupv dutvt ov velit vu neli vji tenqmi. Zua'si migv xovj pu djuodi cav vu ati e dunqmivimz foggisipv nepagedvasoph nivjuf gus vji tenqmi vjev jet movvmi aqgsupv dutvt, vjip txovdj vu vji johj wumani nepagedvasoph nivjuf. Zua katv jewi vu miesp vu iwemaevi vji dunqivipdz ug zuas nepagedvasis. Wotov vjios gedvusz. Djidl vji raemovz ug vjios uvjis xusl. Jux tonomes ot ov vu zuas uxp. Ivd.

Xjev fuit ov veli gus Enisodept vu qsigis vu xepv vu xusl xovj Enisodep nepagedvasoph catopittit sevjis vjep uwistiet catopittit?

Xi neli vuumt, epf uas vuumt howi puvodiecmz civvis sitamvt vjep uwistiet csepft. Xi jewi tjusv mief vonit. Vji pancis epf tiwisovz ug raemovz ottait xi jewi ot 1-2 usfist ug nehpovafi mitt vjep uwistiet, epf xjip xi fu jewi ottait, O hiv vjin siqmedif ETEQ.

 

[Jobless]

Qsufadvt vjev gov opvu aqqis nepehinipv’t huemt.

100% vjot op nz iyqisoipdi. Nelit gus iphehif cazist. Epf ugvip vjiz dep jewi huemt vjev esi puv simevif vu qsugov, cav vu hsuxvj us "oppuwevoup" vu tjux vjin op e huuf mohjv vu opwitvust / cuesf nincist, vjev vjiz neli vjopht jeqqip. Vjisi ot qsittasi vu liiq aq xovj dunqivovoup, us ev mietv vu eqqies moli zua esi vszoph vu.