Product development process

[oskarilmundo]

Hi there,
My name is Oskar. I am currently starting a new business and i'm currently waiting for the product development to be finished (i payed someone). Meanwhile I am working fulltime.
1. Does someone have any tips about product development, and what should I pay attention to when letting someone else do it?
2. What can i do in the meanwhile? I still have free time that I want to put to work.
Thanks in advance!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Sufi]

Hi there,
My name is Oskar. I am currently starting a new business and i'm currently waiting for the product development to be finished (i payed someone). Meanwhile I am working fulltime.
1. Does someone have any tips about product development, and what should I pay attention to when letting someone else do it?
2. What can i do in the meanwhile? I still have free time that I want to put to work.
Thanks in advance!

Hi Oskar, sounds like you’re on a great path! I hope to make meaningful progress and be in a similar position as you sometime soon.

While I can’t comment on what you should do since I haven’t been in your position yet, I can share some things that I’ve learned that I would apply at your stage:

1. For early-stage product development, it’s important that you don’t aim for perfection. It only needs to start out with solving the one problem you’re trying to address. It’s okay if not everything about your product is great yet, as long as you can take pride in how well it solves the one problem you’re out to solve. Also, it might not hurt to use a Weighted Average Decision Matrix-like framework from MJ’s FLM book to document all the criteria that are important to you. Although you’re not really trying to compare decisions here, objectively scoring how your developed product performs for all of your weighted criteria should give you a good sense of how satisfied you should be with the result.
2. As for what to do with your free time, maybe use the time to do more research into consumer interest & start to explore how you can collect preorders? Maybe start with a landing page that can collect email addresses from interested consumers or start building up a presence on social media about your brand (even if you have to pivot to a different product later)?

Again, the above isn’t coming from someone who’s done it before, I’m just starting out as well. But I hope this is helpful in some way from a stranger’s standpoint!

 

[oskarilmundo]

Hi Oskar, sounds like you’re on a great path! I hope to make meaningful progress and be in a similar position as you sometime soon.

While I can’t comment on what you should do since I haven’t been in your position yet, I can share some things that I’ve learned that I would apply at your stage:

1. For early-stage product development, it’s important that you don’t aim for perfection. It only needs to start out with solving the one problem you’re trying to address. It’s okay if not everything about your product is great yet, as long as you can take pride in how well it solves the one problem you’re out to solve. Also, it might not hurt to use a Weighted Average Decision Matrix-like framework from MJ’s FLM book to document all the criteria that are important to you. Although you’re not really trying to compare decisions here, objectively scoring how your developed product performs for all of your weighted criteria should give you a good sense of how satisfied you should be with the result.
2. As for what to do with your free time, maybe use the time to do more research into consumer interest & start to explore how you can collect preorders? Maybe start with a landing page that can collect email addresses from interested consumers or start building up a presence on social media about your brand (even if you have to pivot to a different product later)?

Again, the above isn’t coming from someone who’s done it before, I’m just starting out as well. But I hope this is helpful in some way from a stranger’s standpoint!

Hi Sufi, thanks for answering!
You're right, I've been thinking about getting a page online for preorders, the thing is i still have to wait for the 3D renders so there are only minimal sketches.. So i'll do that once i have the renders i guess, but i can indeed already start to collect emails and start social media. Thanks!

 

[Kokaka]

Hi there,
My name is Oskar. I am currently starting a new business and i'm currently waiting for the product development to be finished (i payed someone). Meanwhile I am working fulltime.
1. Does someone have any tips about product development, and what should I pay attention to when letting someone else do it?
2. What can i do in the meanwhile? I still have free time that I want to put to work.
Thanks in advance!

Hi Oskar. Welcome to your first steps as an entrepreneur.

As far as your post.
I deduct that you are a small startup with limited funds.
I would spend time learning photoshop, website building and SEO. And defenetly a focus on SEO.
During my years as an entrepreneur, there are so many business that dont show they exists. Thwy have no reach and peopme cant find and buy their products. Even with seasoned investors they miss this step.
So yeah. Definetly learn your custumer base and how to market to them

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[oskarilmundo]

Hi Oskar. Welcome to your first steps as an entrepreneur.

As far as your post.
I deduct that you are a small startup with limited funds.
I would spend time learning photoshop, website building and SEO. And defenetly a focus on SEO.
During my years as an entrepreneur, there are so many business that dont show they exists. Thwy have no reach and peopme cant find and buy their products. Even with seasoned investors they miss this step.
So yeah. Definetly learn your custumer base and how to market to them

Thanks Kokaka. Indeed i have limited funds. Luckily i have someone that joined the startup and will do all the website building/SEO in the future.

 

[EngineerThis]

Hi there,
My name is Oskar. I am currently starting a new business and i'm currently waiting for the product development to be finished (i payed someone). Meanwhile I am working fulltime.
1. Does someone have any tips about product development, and what should I pay attention to when letting someone else do it?
2. What can i do in the meanwhile? I still have free time that I want to put to work.
Thanks in advance!

Hey Oskar, I've worked in Product Development and Manufacturing for 7 years... Here's my ad..

MARKETPLACE - Accelerate Your New Product Launch: Affordable Strategies, Unique Value Add-Ons, And Expert Engineering Service

Need to take your product from a napkin sketch to reality? Not sure how to make that happen? LOOK NO FURTHER!! As a Detroit native in the heart of manufacturing, EngineerThis.com will be your personal product design engineer and product marketing strategy consultant! Game-changing update! The...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[Panos Daras]

3-d renders are nice but how will you know that the product will work? You first need a prototype that is functioning. Don't be a Theranos! In the meanwhile have you identified the next steps? Are you going for licensing, selling it yourself, or a mixture of the above? I am doing product development and I would say as advice: Be on top of the whole process. Create a whole rollout map. Be really stingy with money in the beginning, If something can be done for free do it for free, and be aware that it will cost much more than you initially imagined! But this is why it can be lucrative if, in the end, you manage to get it into the market and the consumers will like it.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[EngineerThis]

3-d renders are nice but how will you know that the product will work? You first need a prototype that is functioning. Don't be a Theranos! In the meanwhile have you identified the next steps? Are you going for licensing, selling it yourself, or a mixture of the above? I am doing product development and I would say as advice: Be on top of the whole process. Create a whole rollout map. Be really stingy with money in the beginning, If something can be done for free do it for free, and be aware that it will cost much more than you initially imagined! But this is why it can be lucrative if, in the end, you manage to get it into the market and the consumers will like it.

I disagree, modeling (CAD) comes first. You need to make sure people actually WANT your product. You can verify demand with concept art. Also by modeling it you will discover and solve many issues before you even try and prototype. Nothing is impossible with engineering.

 

[Panos Daras]

I disagree, modeling (CAD) comes first. You need to make sure people actually WANT your product. You can verify demand with concept art. Also by modeling it you will discover and solve many issues before you even try and prototype. Nothing is impossible with engineering.

Yes, correct modeling comes before prototyping. You can do a lot of corrections at that stage, that is correct. In addition, in some cases, you should have a functioning prototype before going to market. How will you know 100% if what you are trying to sell really works as expected, or that the product has the correct customer experience and feel that you aim for? This is why for example at Kickstarter you are not allowed to pledge funding without a functional prototype. If the design is simple, yes you could indeed test the waters with some 3-d models.

 

[RightyTighty]

There can be a good bit of ambiguity in terms and also in workflow. Depending on the field and the level of complexity a prototype might be a non-functional model or a highly developed MVP. And modeling/prototyping can be an iterative process. As noted, it’s not uncommon for a rough prototype to be needed initially for proof of concept. But the quickest means of fabricating such a prototype may be through 3D printing, which means that CAD is the first step. I find myself doing pretty much everything via 3D printing on smaller products due to the ease of modifying parametric models.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.