The Importance of Prototyping
I can’t tell you how many clients have come to me saying they need help developing a prototype to get funding or the feedback they need to finish developing the product.
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I can’t tell you how many clients have come to me saying they need help developing a prototype to get funding or the feedback they need to finish developing the product.
Where do you go to find developers? Well, many people do that in all the wrong places. There are many job sites for freelancers, and sometimes businesses. Then there are more reputable places to find higher end developers and firms. These have all the skills and tools required to really develop your product. Last but not least, there are the places people go where almost no good designers are. When I was starting out, I started on Craigslist and other free places I could put an ad on or look for projects I could work on. The price of course was I couldn’t charge much for what I did and the jobs weren’t bit. I did get a lot of work because those places are where most startups look! To save you from only looking in one place, I’ve put this post together! I’d like to help you in looking in the best places, not just craigslist. (Yes, I’ve gotten a lot of work from there, but I’ve also seen a lot of my clients get burned through low end developers and designers there and other cheap places). *DISCLAIMER: To be clear there are some great people on all of these places, these are generalized for what quality and type of developer you will find in each area. If you are willing to look for diamonds in the rough, go for it. Also know that there are firms who look great and are in all the right places, but can’t actually follow through. I built an entire design firm off of Craigslist earlier in my career, but I outgrew it as I got the experience needed to do so. The places not to go! Forums, chat rooms, and craigslist are the bottom of the list of where to find great developers typically. Sure, you can sometimes find them. A lot of people who don’t know where to start developing their product turn to these places. The skill pool however is mostly college students, low experience workers, and startup firms. If you are looking for someone to do the work for free and are ready to pay the price for free work, then these are the types of places to go. BLANK Ian Peterman, CEO Tweet Places you can go but you still have to filter. Freelance websites, these range all over the place. There’s the usually super cheap fiverr, where many services start at only $5. Upwork is another one, more reputable, but still just outsourcing to cheaper labor pools. It’s easy to find cheap developers in these places. I’ve been a part of many different sites like this and have explored both sides of the equation. What I see is that these sites charge money to developers to attempt to begin a bidding war over your project. It’s great for you, you get lots of options, have no financial worries because of the sites terms, and usually you can find people able to do the work you need at lower costs. As a developer, or many other services there, it’s a giant price war. I’ve gone back and forth on having a presence in the top few sites for my firm, the larger sites also offer firms and groups the ability to do work there. Right now, you won’t find me active on any of these sites. To much price war for me. The best are here. BLANK Ian Peterman, CEO Tweet There are a few places where the best get themselves added to. The Design Directory is one of my top 3 places to find other development firms. Dexigner Directory is another favorite that has a large range of firms and is another place where top firms are listed. Clutch is probably top of the three. They actually phone interview your clients to get verified testimonials, which is great for you the client. This doesn’t mean that everyone in these directories is an expensive top 5 firm for each category. What it does mean is that a human has reviewed each of these firms/designers and approved them. They can also remove listings if and when they decide. These directories are only as good as the quality of their listings, so it’s in their interest to have good firms. The best place to find top quality services is to find out who the top 5 firms are in your industry or needed service. From there, see who else is there and you should have a few options. It’s not foolproof, but it’s a good meter to see where the best is. There are outliers in each of these places, both great and terrible. No magic way to filter everything. This will give you at least an idea on where you’ll have the most success finding what you are looking for. Your Next Steps Developing Smart Products 5 Common Issues When Hiring a Product Developer product developer product development What Do You Bring to a Developer develop Related Conscious Design BLOG Posts Author Mr. Peterman View all posts
Chair ergonomics are key to the health and productivity of people everywhere. Understanding ergonomics allows us to create better products.
We’ve talked about why you should hire out sourcing here, but in case you want to dive into this yourself, here are some things to look at. A common question when looking for manufacturers for your product is whether you want to source domestically or from overseas. You likely already know that it’s almost always cheaper to source your products overseas, but there’s a lot more to that decision than just the upfront investment and cost per unit. Things like quality, shipping, and time to delivery are other items to look at and can change how you might decide on a manufacturer. If you are just looking on your own, some of the best resources for finding manufacturers can be free online supplier directories. These directories can contain profiles for hundreds, or even thousands, of manufacturers, wholesalers and suppliers. There are many for domestic and overseas options. Looking through the sea of options can be a bit overwhelming. Making sure your idea is protected when discussing it and that the technical requirements are understood is very important when finding the right supplier for your product. As an area of expertise, we can support you through this and make sure those conversations are started with the right information. Domestic and overseas sourcing have their advantages and disadvantages which we will look at below: Domestic Advantages Higher manufacturing quality and labor standards Easier communication with no language barrier Marketing appeal of being made domestically Easier to verify reputable manufacturers Faster shipping time High intellectual property right protection Greater payment security and recourse BLANK Ian Peterman, CEO Tweet Domestic Disadvantages Higher manufacturing costs Higher setup costs Less manufacturing type choice Overseas Advantages BLANK Ian Peterman, CEO Tweet Lower manufacturing costs Lower setup costs High number of manufacturers to choose from One-stop services like Alibaba have made it easy to navigate suppliers Overseas Disadvantages Lower perceived quality from customers (Usually) lower manufacturing and labor standards Little intellectual property protection Language and communication barrier can be difficult to navigate Difficult/costly to verify manufacturer and visit on-site Longer shipping time Cultural differences in business practices Product importation and customs clearance Less payment security and recourse BLANK Ian Peterman, CEO Tweet Things are changing in every market, and always will, making what would be a good decision today possibly be a bad one in the future. For the US market, Canada and Mexico also offer similar pros and cons as domestic, but the US dollar is stronger, so these are sometimes cheaper than the US. The costs of manufacturing in many countries in Asia is increasing, as is labor costs. When looking at the European manufacturing market there are many options that compete very well with US and Asian manufacturers. When researching options, it’s important to look at the specific needs of the product being made, where it’s being sold, and other logistics and costs that happen when taking a product from a manufacturing document to a product in consumers hands. We source the right suppliers and vendors for you and your product or business. Your Next Steps Developing Smart Products What does it take to develop a smart product? Develop a Smart Product The Peterman Method™ Learn about the Peterman Method and download your own copy Peterman Method™ Related Conscious Design BLOG Posts Author Mr. Peterman View all posts
These are the top 5 things that have made projects easier to accomplish and more successful. Make sure you have these with your project to be as successful as possible.
Many inventors and entrepreneurs have asked me to get them just to the point where they can sell their idea. Nothing else. While it may seem like a simple request, and it is, it also doesn’t have the answer most people are looking for. The ideal time to sell is the same time you could start to get investors.
This has been covered over and over, but there is good reason for that. Defining the segment of the population you can best serve is important. Knowing your niche means you’ll know your market, what they want, how much they’ll spend, etc. Often, you’ll personally fit within this niche yourself if you are a start-up or entrepreneur. In larger businesses, or after the first product in a new company, you’ll often design products to fit into that same niche. Some very common products today came from niche products, they just got popular and are no longer used solely for their intended purpose. Take the carabiner, for example. It was invented by a German climber for, you guessed it, climbing. The idea of it being on backpacks and as a keychain for people who have quite possibly never gone even hiking, wasn’t even a thought for Otto Herzog, it’s inventor. It was a very niche product (estimated 2.7% of the American population in 2009 participated in some kind climbing or mountaineering) and far fewer people would need a carabiner rated for human use. One great reason to define your niche is to avoid wandering from it. Wandering from your niche can have disastrous brand repercussions, as some companies who have attempted to expand their market segment. It sometimes works but must be thought through. To even think that process through to know if it would work out well, you must know your niche. Product feature creep is something that can be avoided by knowing your niche. If you designed a product for snowboarders, maybe it could cross over to skiing, but would you want to factor in a diesel mechanics needs into your product? Probably not, I’d at least heavily advise against it unless you were targeting only snowboarders who are also diesel mechanics. It’s easy to try to make your product into a Swiss army knife, but that leads to excessive features that your core user won’t want or need. Good marketers and developers will ask you what your target market is, target user, etc. If you already know the niche you want to enter is, then right there a lot of the information required to properly design and develop a product. Through the development process, and then marketing, you might find that you do service a few niches. Bringing this kind of direction to your developer, or at least having an idea of it, will help the process of developing your product. It will also help your business and guide you toward success. Defining your niche is something you don’t have to do alone, but at least knowing a direction will help people help you define it. Author Mr. Peterman View all posts
Creating a new idea generally happens two ways. Both will get you a solid idea and solve a problem. Knowing both ways will help you.
When most people think of branding, they think of businesses getting logos, colors, fonts, etc. But products need this as well.
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