How to Design a Successful Product | Product Design Tips for Inventors

Michelle Westfall: what role do the other departments play in supporting you? Because we have product development department that works closely with our manufacturers and partners and vendors as well as an in-house marketing team. Yeah, it's one of the things that that drew me to want to work at 52 launch is really our integrated team. It's unique to any.

company that I've ever worked at before where we've got product design, marketing, development, manufacturing, fulfillment all within one building. And it's really fantastic that for the product, we're not just designing that product, we're designing the brand, we're designing a company at the end of the day. So there's gonna be the product that we manufacture, but there's also the website, how that's gonna get sold and... how those teams all work together to make for a successful product in the end that's not only functional and beautiful, but also sellable ⁓ is really critical.

Because you can certainly create a beautiful product that if the price point is way out of whack with what the consumer is willing to pay or it's targeted to entirely the wrong person, ⁓ those are things that our marketing team helps to really influence and to the 52 launch pitch prod. ⁓ try again. All right. ⁓ Welcome to the 52 launch to podcast show.

Pitch to product. Pitch to product podcast. Yeah, if I could just read what show I'm on. Welcome to the 52 Launch Pitch to Product podcast.

I'm with Kyle Lamson, Head of Design at 52 Launch. Welcome to the show. Thanks very much. Glad to be here.

I'm Jon Ambrose, your host for today's episode, and we are going to talk all things design, how inventors can be successful thinking about developing and eventually launching product businesses. All of this brought to you by the expertise of Kyle. ⁓ leads to a much better rounded and successful product. Yeah, absolutely.

And I would agree. I think that's one of the core benefits of 52Launch having these different departments under one roof, these different sets of expertise that all contribute. You covered form and function, covered problem statement. I referenced a bit, or we both did, who is the audience and why do they care?

You could go very deep into each of those areas, and that's why you have these different teams and departments to overall support the outcome. so to off, can you just briefly share your background? Yeah, absolutely. So background in industrial I've been in the design industry for around 30 years, ⁓ both in consultancies along the lines 52Launch and corporate positions, designing everything from ⁓ a lot of sporting equipment, military equipment, ⁓ and a huge variety stuff here Yeah, it's a fantastic value here too.

If you were to hire an outside company that did just one of these things, your product or your marketing at the end of that wouldn't be as integrated. might not be as successful, but it would surely be more expensive. We're able to do all of this together in an integrated way that's really affordable for our clients What role does design play overall in product development? It really sets the stage for what it is that we're gonna make at the end of the process.

basically gonna go through from the initial idea, problem statement, exactly what it is we're trying to develop, find the best solutions for that and the best ways to manufacture it so that it can be a profitable product at the end of the process. And thinking about your background in all of these different spaces. Well, Kyle, thank you very much. We appreciate your time.

This is Lamson, the head of design at 52Launch. This has been the 52Launch Pitch to Product podcast. You can us social media. Visit our website, ⁓ 52Launch.

com, or find our podcast wherever you get them. 52Launch focuses on consumer product inventors. Is this a different approach than some of the other spaces you've worked in? The majority of the products I've done have been consumer product stuff.

On the military side of things, it does differ a fair amount because a lot of the times you're smaller prototype sort of development runs that at the end of the process, you produce a bunch of prototypes, do a bunch of testing, and then that may roll into something but you're not gonna necessarily start making that product at the end of that project. very interesting work, but it could be 20 years before something becomes an actual product. Whereas at 52Launch, we're driving to get things made and the world certainly much faster than that.

Nice, nice, yeah, that's right. So what is the difference between ⁓ great design and mediocre design? What are the hallmarks? Great design has...

real clarity of its purpose. a problem, knowing what that product is for, ⁓ doing as simply as possible and doing it in a way that the user of that product can really delight in using the product. So ⁓ you could a product that ⁓ looks fantastic, user goes to do whatever it is that that product does. ⁓ and be frustrated by it.

And even though it's this beautiful object sitting on a table, if it doesn't function the way it needs to, it really isn't successful at that point, because it's not doing what it needs to do. Yeah, and we talk about this a lot, the balance between aesthetics and functionality. So what's your mindset here, though? Because certainly, if the aesthetics aren't there, maybe it's not as appealing.

No one's going to pick it up or consider it in the first place. But also, other side of functionality. So how do you find that balance? Yeah, it's absolutely a balancing act through the whole process.

So ⁓ product does have to look good. It's got to be beautiful. You've got to want to touch it and use it. But form really needs to follow the function.

So there are products out there where ⁓ it is about the form. It could be a vase or like that where its primary function is to look pretty. But the majority of the products that we're working with here, that's not the case. We're not just making something to look pretty on a table.

So ⁓ way it looks really needs to come second to it providing core function. From there, we're able to really look at what about that can be beautiful and sort of how can we approach that in a way that can make the product something that you do to. to own, want to use, and all of those kind of things. So how can inventors think about getting started?

And I mean that specifically with this design mindset, know, the average lay person may think about what you just said and, okay, what's a use case ⁓ functionality and how do I make it look good? But what's the designer mindset? Like get a little bit more tactical. How do you actually start ⁓ thinking about someone comes to you with just an idea?

You know, where do you go from there? Yeah, a lot of the time, the... biggest thing to really start with is your problem statement. What is it that we're trying to do with this?

Generally, our clients are not trying to just make another version of something that already exists. A lot of the times, it's something that they went looking for themselves, didn't find it, looking to make something that didn't exist prior. So what is it that we're trying to do? So we start from that, and then...

you know, understand who is the user of that product. What are they trying to do? What do they need this product to do for them? And in what ways can we then ask questions and learn about, ⁓ opportunities are there that other products that may be already on the market that do something similar or do something differently could be utilized for this purpose?

You know, exactly how can we find a solution ⁓ to those questions? Yeah, yeah, I like that a lot. investor circles, the phrase, or I should say the question is used a lot, which is, is this oxygen or is this aspirin? And ⁓ you about that for any given idea, the products that are considered oxygen are the ones that really sell and are successful.

And I think like you're saying, think about that problem statement that leads me to think about, for what specific is this problem statement most compelling, most important to solve? Who has the biggest need? And then, do all of the other aspects of the idea line up? Can you build it in a way that's affordable, at a price point that they'll be willing to pay?

And then again, at the end of the day, I feel like in layman's terms, so many people look at products and they say, all right, yeah, that's nice, but I'm not gonna buy it, right? It's a nice to have. So if you can find that oxygen versus aspirin in any given idea with the right audience, I feel like that's how it takes off. Yeah, I think that's a great way to look at it.

We talk a lot with our clients about value propositions and a lot of it really comes down to that and really trying to simplify things, not trying to do 10 things with one object. It's really, what is the core purpose of this? What is it trying to do? And what is the simplest way that we can possibly get there?

Oftentimes people sort of see that idea and go, well, yeah, I could also do this and I could also do that and ⁓ sort keep adding to it. Oftentimes that mindset doesn't become better than the sum of their parts. And a lot of times we're looking to strip things away and find like what's the simplest, most core version of this product that we can develop, particularly as a V1, with most of our clients being individual inventors and entrepreneurs, not backed by a huge corporation that's got all funding to launch the next version of their product.

Starting with the simplest version of your V1 product and really focusing on solving that that started you down this path can lead to a really powerful product. makes me think of the term minimum successful product. You know, I've increasingly heard used that I really liked. So I think the term minimum viable product gets overused quite a bit and it means something different to different people.

And I think the cynical approach is that an MVP is a cop-out. It's an excuse that you did the minimum, but... For the inventor who's serious about starting a product business, they want success. And it's like you're saying, right?

Don't overbuild it. Try to have the first version be the right first version. And in my view, that's where that minimum successful product concept comes in. Maybe that balances aesthetics and functionality as well.

All of that ties into what's the version of the product that will be successful as a V1 and yet can still be added upon in the future. Yeah, absolutely. And there's always give and take. you know, adding one feature over another feature, there's always, you know, some pluses and minuses to those things.

And so by adding more and more things, oftentimes you're watering down the vision of what this was to begin with. that, you know, minimum viable, minimum scalable, minimum sellable you know, it ⁓ does, ⁓ you look at it cynically, feel like, okay, yeah, we're just sort of doing the minimum, the least we can. But if you look at it through a different lens, the least you can do to really solve the problem is actually more powerful than and adding to do extra things because maybe you're not doing your core thing quite as well.

Yeah, I it. I like it. Well, that makes me think of for the inventors who go into this process. And I'll ask you a little bit about the client experience at 52Launch.

But I think broadly, whether someone's a client of 52Launch or not, what stands out to you as the attributes, the activities, the mindset, whatever it is of the inventors who get not only the most out of the 52Launch process, but just in general, again, maybe they're not even working with 52Launch, but what do you see as the things inventors can do in the process of building a product that make them more successful? I think one of the biggest things is having an open mind and an inquisitive mind.

A lot of times inventors get really sort of stuck on their initial idea and they're like, okay, I've got this idea. This is my idea and I've solved it. And the design process is that it's a process. It's iterative.

We're to go down a bunch of paths, try different things, ⁓ ask And oftentimes the answers to those questions may not be your initial hypothesis. ⁓ We learn something else and being open to trying those things also open to failing. you know, every idea that we come up with is, you know, the idea or a successful idea, then we're not trying hard enough. ⁓ We've to try some things, learn things, and be open to failing.

Oftentimes, the insights from learning what doesn't work and helps you learn what really can work. So an inventor who is... flexible and inquisitive and open to that process really well able to navigate going that process and coming to ⁓ what up being the best product solution ⁓ in end, not necessarily just the first one. So how does that, speaking about 52Launch specifically, how does that show up in our process?

⁓ you have a large team, ⁓ different So how does that show up in the work this larger department actually does? Yeah, our process is basically built around that. It's an iterative process. So generally, we're going to start by casting a wide net or actually before we even get to that point, we're going to define those problem statements, talk with the client and understand their project.

⁓ speaking to our process more specifically, we're going to cast a pretty broad net initially. We'll have ideas that might be closer to what the client thought they wanted to begin with. We'll have some ideas that may push them in ways that might be uncomfortable and other ideas the middle. And some those ideas might not be the right idea in the end, but they might also inform ways that we modify or change things.

So as we through ⁓ rounds of reviews ⁓ and our process, going to down select, refine, refine, refine ⁓ until we come to finished solution. So that's gonna go generally through hand sketching and presentations and ideas like that before moving on to things like CAD or tech packs and things like that. There's also times where the idea might be ⁓ something that we even know if it's possible. So before we even start drawing something, we might need to make a proof of concept model or something along those lines.

So the process isn't always linear. We're definitely gonna... find the best process for a particular project. Got it, got it.

All right, a couple other quick questions for you. One, do you have any favorite examples of great design out in the world, particular products you enjoy or anything like that? That's a tough one I didn't prep for. I know, yeah, surprise question.

So this is not an example of a specific product, but one that early in my career was sort of a an interview question that I had, someone asked me, like, if you were a car, what car would you be? And the answer to it came back to ⁓ of function and aesthetic, which is something we talked about early in this. And I've had a love for sort of sporty hatchbacks. I've been a GTI fan for a long time.

what I love about them is ⁓ super fun drive. But at the time, you can put the back seats down and load a whole bunch of stuff in the back and it's super practical. So I think in that way, it's refined and finished form, I feel. The way that the back end of a hatchback or a wagon is designed, functional, fun, so it sort of takes both of those boxes.

I like it, it's great example. All right, last one for you, since it's always a hot topic. What's the best use of AI in the design space? Yeah, this is a tricky one and it becomes.

you know, more and more evident to us every day. ⁓ Clients are using AI on their end, sort of in the process before coming to us, as well as in the process and working with us more and more. And the clients that are most successful with it are ones that are looking at it as a tool. So oftentimes they can ⁓ ⁓ AI for images and things like that.

The things that we're able to learn most about the client's point of view from things like that is sensibilities and sort of what they're thinking about their product. Where we see the most challenges are, you know, that AI tool doesn't necessarily understand physics or how something's manufactured or how things can actually inhabit the ⁓ physical world we live in. So while you'll see, ⁓ you know, a generated image like that where the person has 12 fingers or something in the same way image that you show us maybe of a product that can't quite actually physically exist.

⁓ if we're less focused on exactly what's in that AI image and more about what it is about that, what's in that AI image that's interesting to the client or ⁓ a question that they had or something like that is where it can really help inform our process. Yeah, ⁓ think it's a great. a great response. I mean, we could spend the rest of the day talking about AI.

Of course, there's so much to it. I certainly subscribe to that view as well. Think of it as a tool. You use the really key word.

It doesn't actually understand physics. It doesn't actually understand anything. It's pattern recognition done in an incredibly beneficial and impactful way. anyone who's ever used AI, who has seen the response that starts with, you're absolutely right, dot, dot.

That's what you're talking about. You still need to have some expertise to interact with it as a tool and get benefit from it. certainly for ⁓ creation, ⁓ different ideas, it can be really, really valuable. Yeah, there's more tools every day coming out.

There's things that we use in our process even. But it's driven by ⁓ the that understands ⁓ what inputs are, what is and bad about the outputs, and how to drive the tool. Yeah, great. Well, anything I didn't ask you about or that you want to share?

So one thing I would say ⁓ as inventor coming into our process in particular, working with 52Launch, one of the pieces of advice that I have is to trust the process. Certainly have your point of view, know your product and you're trying to do with it, but know that if we're things that are maybe outside of that, We're doing that in your best interest and from things we're learning about your product as we go through the process. So being open and flexible as we discussed earlier to going through the process, learning about it will help you be successful, help ⁓ you and us up with a solution that's ultimately gonna be the best solution that can possibly get to.

Yeah, I think that's great. mean, just to add to that, I tell clients, The ultimate objective is two things. Whatever has the client be passionate about their idea is honored and maintained. So the specifics of the product or the design may iterate or change, but the core of why they're excited about it and what it's supposed to accomplish needs to be held to the same.

And that at the end of that process, that minimum successful product idea, whatever the changes are, it still needs to reach the standard of confidence once it reaches the market. And if you can do those two things, then you can be successful and undoubtedly there will be some changes that path to reach that endpoint.