Ideation — Where It All Begins

Product ideation starts with seeing an unfulfilled need in the market, but this doesn’t mean you need to come up with a 100% original, never-before-seen idea. A lot of successful products are inspired by other products. Once you have a vague idea, use the SCAMPER framework as noted by the Interaction Design Foundation to get your creative juices flowing:

• Substitute: What can I swap out or change to make this better?
• Combine: What can I merge or put together to get the best result?
• Adapt: Is there anything I can adapt (processes, materials, practices, etc.) to make my own workflow better?
• Modify: What can I make bigger or smaller?
• Put to Another Use: Is there any other way to use this product?
• Eliminate: What should I remove for this to work better?
• Rearrange: How can I rearrange this to make it work more efficiently?

During this stage, use mind mapping and SWOT analysis to refine your ideas. Think about the necessary resources, time, and potential market demand, and note them down. Once you’ve done these steps, you can settle on a product and get to work. At Concept, we can digitize your imagination and help you get a clearer picture of your idea.

Researching — Validate your idea

Behind every successful product is solid research. You need to make sure the market believes in your idea and you can strengthen it with cold, hard data. There’s nothing worse than coming up with the perfect product but realizing no one’s interested in it.

Market research is the safety net that ensures your big idea as an entrepreneur solves a real-world problem. By validating your concept early, you can save time, resources, and the heartache of launching something the world might not be ready for.

Key research steps:

• Know your audience. What excites or frustrates them? Where does your product fit into their lives? Tools like Google Trends, Statista, or even a quick social media poll can uncover the gaps your product can fill.
• Analyze your competitors. What are they nailing? Where are they falling short? Gaps are opportunities to make your product better once it hits the market.

At Concept, we offer deep market analysis to help you fine-tune your idea and ensure it meets real-world needs. We also help you find market gaps that you can address with your product, making sure it’s all the more effective once it comes to life.

Designing & prototyping — Bring your idea to life

This is where your imagination meets reality. Thoughtful design with your end users in mind sets the stage for a successful product. But, if you’re having trouble bringing your product to the physical world, Concept has a suite of tools that allow us to build exactly what you envision.

With our tools, we generate detailed and high-quality visualizations, allowing our team of talented designers and engineers to see your imagination firsthand. From this point, it becomes easier to plan exactly how (measurements, materials, etc.) to bring your dream product to life.

For those of you who want to DIY, tools like Figma and Moqup can help you create a blueprint for your product. AI-based image generators are also great for breathing life to your imagination. Fair warning, however. Many AI-generated images often become public domain, which poses privacy risks for your inventions.

Designing the Product

Partner with designers or engineers who can translate your vision into detailed, functional plans. Prioritize user experience and put yourself in your target audience’s shoes. If you were them, would you enjoy using the product? This is where you get what you pay for. A great design engineering team will make sure your product can be feasibly and efficiently manufactured. However, if you partner with a team that comes up with poor design, you run the risk of your design not getting manufactured, period.

Creating a Prototype

Prototyping brings your idea to life, and it’s the physical manifestation of your imagination. Here you get to see and hold the first ever version of your product. Technologies like 3D printing have made prototyping faster and more affordable, so gauge the best methods for you to create your prototype. Hold back the sense to go straight to selling as it’s starting to get real because this is where quality and refinement happen. 

Testing and Feedback

Take the time to hold and experience your imagination in real form.  Critique, question, and abuse the prototype to gain a deeper understanding of its fit form and function.  Don’t grow weary here as the rule of threes reigns true.  Oftentimes, multiple iterations of prototypes are needed to get things just right!

Get others to test out your prototype, gather their feedback, and listen closely to what they love and what they don’t. Through this stage, you get to work out the kinks in your product and bring it closer to being market-ready.

If all of this is becoming overwhelming, don’t fret! Our team of highly skilled designers and engineers at Concept are equipped with the best tools and methods for designing products and bringing them to life. All you need to do is tell us your vision, and we’ll be right here with you through the entire process for seamless product creation.

Planning to launch your product — Making a lasting impression

A well-planned launch can make all the difference. Product releases typically go one of two ways. The first is that it goes straight to market and it gets marketed as soon as it hits the shelves. However, other brands opt for a pre-launch, which means marketing starts while the product is still being manufactured and prepared. If your product would benefit from a pre-launch (which most do), that’s one of the best ways to generate buzz and build a potential customer base. 

This stage focuses on making it easy for customers to discover and love your product.

Key steps to a successful launch:

• Build Your Brand Identity: What story does your brand tell?
• Finalize Your Marketing Strategy: Social media, digital marketing, and traditional advertising are all part of the mix.
• Select the Right Sales Platforms: Consider broad e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Etsy, as well as niche platforms that align with your audience.
• Customer Support: Establish clear channels for customer communication to build trust. Have designated customer representatives to answer any of their questions.

At Concept, we guide you through this crucial phase by leveraging various tools to ensure your product pre-launch or launch is strategic, memorable, and impactful. Armed with data and creativity, we help you create product launches that help your target customer get to know and fall in love with your creation.

Manufacturing – Selling & Scaling up your product

Once you’ve tested out your prototype, you can move on to the manufacturing stage. This is where you look for manufacturers who you can trust to create your product in bulk and meet market demand. When choosing a manufacturer to partner with, consider the following factors:

• Location: Domestic or international?
• Quality: Are your vendors able to meet client expectations?
• Pricing: Fair yet competitive
• Track record: Reliability and experience
• Flexibility: Agile enough to accommodate changes
• Communication: Clear and responsive
• Potential partnership: Long-term collaboration

This is often considered as the biggest undertaking of product development, but Concept makes it so much easier with “bridge manufacturing”. We can start production almost immediately, creating your products in very low volumes until you’re ready to scale and mass produce. All of this is done without disrupting your order fulfillment process, so you’re always ready to cater to your customers.

With bridge manufacturing, you immediately gain access to the tools and technologies you need for production. This controlled production allows you to test out the quality of your product and avoid any costly scaling mistakes in the long run, as you get to refine it throughout the manufacturing process.

The work doesn’t stop once you launch your product. Once your product is available to the market, you need to track your sales metrics, keep tabs on customer reviews, and gauge how well the market receives your product. At this stage, it’s all about continuous improvement, innovation, and optimization.

A great example of post-launch success is Nintendo’s Switch console. Before 2017, the gaming company was struggling financially after releasing poorly received products. They decided to change their approach before releasing the Nintendo Switch, carefully and meticulously planning out the product launch from ideation to production to launch.

Instead of the standard gaming console, Nintendo designed the Switch to function both as a handheld gaming device and a home gaming set-up. This intrigued audiences, especially since at the time, this was a unique way to play games. To really build the buzz around the Switch, Nintendo invited media partners to test the console. Word got around, and gamers were excited to get their hands on the new device. The result? 2.74 million units of the Nintendo Switch were sold during its first month on the market as reported by CBC News.

Working with an established product development team like Concept can guide you from ideation to product launching, eliminating any guesswork that could eat up your resources. With a dedicated team on your side, you can free up more time to develop your brand.

Bring your dream product to life with Concept

Thousands of products are launched every year, but only a fraction succeed. In fact, according to Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, 95% of new products fail in their first year of going to market. This underscores how launching a product requires a clear, well-thought-out strategy that nurtures the product from the beginning until the post-launch phase.

Our goal at Concept is simple: to build a world where it’s easy for your ideas to come alive. With our experience and resources, we can help you conceptualize, produce, and market your product to your target audience. With our guidance and a full suite of services—from ideation and prototyping to manufacturing and product lifecycle management—your product can reach the right audiences and your brand can seamlessly scale.

Ready to turn your dream into a reality? Contact Concept today for a free consultation.

Ready to take the next step in your product journey? Discover how Concept can turn your innovative ideas into successful products. Reach out for a personalized consultation today and learn how our expertise in product development can propel your business forward.