...as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others,
we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours;
and this we should do so Freely and Generously

Posted November 16th, 2008 at 8:34 pm by Trent

If one is so inclined to go down the product route: Design something unique, find a producer, market and brand it and sell direct retail or wholesale, it all starts with the first step: Designing something unique.

I adhere to the Seth Godin philosophy on product design from his book The Purple Cow:  Big time marketing doesn’t work nearly as well as it use to.  You have to come up with a Purple Cow, or a product that is interesting enough, in itself, to get the attention of the buying public.  Coming up with such an idea is tough, but should you get a strike, the profit and freedom it can afford you is great.  My product, the HoboHookah, was such an extension of creativity that has proven to so far generate its own press and interest. 

But how does one come up with such an idea?  99% of the time, it will be a slight innovation on an existing product.  I recommend two sites to get the pulse of the creative product designer:  NOTCOT.org is the central repository for cool new products.  Getting your idea on that site opens yourself and your product up to the entire web of Mavens who will buy and spread your idea.  To some degree, its like being a garage band and hearing yourself on the radio.  It is also a great place to see what other people are coming up with.

The other site is really more a playground for the pros: Experienced product developers and designers communing with each others innovation, its called Kancept.com.  Kancept is simple: Post an idea to the community and get their reaction: Would you buy this?  Yes/No.  Its the first place to go to get instant feedback from experienced developers.

To echo my last post, an innovative idea isn’t enough.  You have to worry about scaling your idea, costs, marketing, can your demographic buy?, and capital requirements on top of it all.  But before you worry about the logistics, come up with a good idea, get some feedback and then look into all of that other fun stuff once the idea shows promise.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 16th, 2008 at 8:34 pm and is filed under Musings, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.