prepare for product innovation
Innovation and product design help your business grow. Learn what can make the difference, while preparing for more innovation.
mindset
It is good to realize that you want to do something new. This may sound like an open door, but in practice we have found that some teams that started product development for the first time did not realize this. Because of the wrong mindset they did not succeed in creating really good new products, with innovative new features, materials or solutions.
You will need to realize that the outcomes of a design project could be uncertain. That might feel uncomfortable, but trying to create a completely new bicycle, wheelchair or sports product for that matter, while firmly holding on to the present solutions, present products, materials, interaction and present specifications will not bring you to something new.
team setup
The best way to run a design project is working with a small design team. Create a small team that will run the project, with maximum 3 or 4 people. More people will only slow down and will not render more creativity.
Make sure the team will get a high level of autonomy and can make decisions.
The team should feel like a small startup: creative, driven, with the freedom to make choices, the freedom to spend a budget, the freedom to fail and the high motivation to do something new.
meaning
Listen to the people you design a solution for, observe them and try to deeply understand their needs and the problem that you are solving.
Then try to describe the role the new product will play in the life of people, how it will help them, what meaning it will give to them.
strategy
Although you are going new roads, it’s absolutely crucial to have a solid design strategy.
Re-analyze the identity of your company, the reason why the company exists, competitive solutions. But also users, ergonomics and core meaning. Set limits, focus on the core. And create a design language that reflects the identity of your company and the future user.
experiment
Create a lot of simple sketches, raw idea’s, mockups and proof the functionality of your ideas. Select the best ideas and continue working on them.
Run tests with rough prototypes to see how people interact with them and to judge if it could be a good solution.
improve
Run multiple cycles of improvements on your idea. Keep improving and optimizing the rough prototypes until you see a robust product coming into being.
learn from mistakes
Failure is good if you fail early.
Do not fall in love with one of your sketches or idea’s, but keep selecting and optimizing and fail as early as possible, until a solution appears that is really good.
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