4 Tips for Perfect Product Design: Don’t Rush Design

We see you! You are an entrepreneurial firecracker. You are biting at the bit of innovation. But steady your horses speed racer; perfection takes patience. We are often confronted with seriously ambitious dreamers. As much as we love an ambitious entrepreneur, we know the importance of putting in the necessary time on the front end of designing your product for it to be successful. For this reason we have assembled 4 tips for helping you make the most out of your design process for your product.

Tip #1: Don’t Rush the Product Design Process

Don’t Rush Brainstorming for Your Product Design

When it comes to designing your product, there is never too much brainstorming. When you have thought of every possibility, think again. Brainstorming is like a problem solving boomerang. As a concept is exposed into the world of thought, more problems arise and the process repeats. Effective problem solving necessitates ample time brainstorming. When Brainstorming for your product, start by thinking of the consumer.

Thinking of Your Consumer

When an innovator begins to come up with a design idea they are typically filling a need. Why does the consumer need this product? What gap in the market are you filling? Who is my customer? How can I most effectively serve them? What do they lack that I can provide? What are their fears and desires?

Thinking of Your Design

Now that you have firmly answered the questions of who you are benefitting and why, you need to start thinking about how. How is your approach to this problem different than what currently exists? How is it better? Why is it unique? When considering your design you must keep these things in mind.

Thinking About Thinking

More and more research is coming out that meditation increases creativity, productivity, and innovation. Many large companies, such as Google, are embracing this concept and encouraging their employees to participate in 10 minutes of daily meditation.1 Honestly, our stance confirmed – “think, think, think” (Winnie the Pooh).

Don’t Rush Sketching Your Product Design

Once you have spent your time really envisioning your product, you can begin to get your thoughts out into the ether. I encourage every aspiring innovator to buy a sketchbook to get those initial thoughts out on paper. As you start sketching you might start to realize the design might not be exactly appropriate for the real world. Often times the ideas of our idea world have complications in the physical world. Starting to visualize your product drawn out on paper is a good way to work through these complications.

Don’t Rush Product Designing with Your Engineer

Now that you have thoroughly thought through the concept for your product and sketched it out you can move toward finding a design engineer. An experienced manufacturing engineer will work hard to consider your design idea and the reality of how to make it. Once the engineer gets a good idea of your concept, they can create a Computer Aided Design (CAD) blueprint for your product. 

Be patient because this part may take time. As you speak with your engineer, some ideas that product design concepts might not be physically attainable. Maybe one of the edges of your product would be too weak the way you considered the design. Perhaps, the material you were thinking of using doesn’t have the chemical resistance you need. Whatever the practical component of your design, your engineer will be able to work through this with you so that your CAD is ready for production. You don’t want to rush this process because it is important to get it right before the actual production process begins.

1 https://hbr.org/2017/08/can-10-minutes-of-meditation-make-you-more-creative