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The 5 Phases to Bring Your Product to Market

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If you’re an entrepreneur wondering about the product design process, your first question is probably how long does it take? There are a lot of steps between coming up with an idea and actually selling your product. After all, you need to make sales if you hope to get your money back.

Taking your product to market is exciting, but too often many of us want to start designing it right away. That’s not where the journey actually starts and we’ll explain why.

Phase 1: Research & Planning

Before you can begin the design phase of your product, you need to do a marketing report. This is a collection of data from different sources that will help you decide if the product idea is something worth pursuing.

Here are just a few factors you’ll consider before knowing if you have a good idea.

Competition

Is your product a completely new invention? Probably not. There’s nothing wrong with creating something that already exists, but you need to look at how many other companies out there are solving the same problem. In marketing, this is referred to as Points of Similarity.

If there the market is oversaturated, you will need to ensure your product has important points of difference that will make it stand out. Not surprisingly, this is referred to as Points of Differentiation in marketing. Looking at these different things helps you position your brand in the eyes of your consumer.

Target Audience

Who are you trying to sell your product to? Often people like to think their product is for everyone because that means you have a larger audience. This isn’t the best strategy because people won’t have a clear connection to your product. It’s better to have a focused target audience so you can market to them personally and speak the same language.

Would you sell pens to people who work in an office the same way you sell pens to an artist who works at home? Not likely. Different target audiences will have different needs and concerns. To be the most successful, you want to focus on who your audience is and how you will market to them.

Cost

How much will it cost to make your product? Let’s say you have an idea for an amazing new rain jacket that has a ton of features. You’re going to sell it to sailors who need the best gear for their watersports. It’s waterproof, lights up, has tons of pockets, and even a built-in life jacket! Well, that’s probably going to cost a lot more than a normal rain jacket. Is this justified enough that your target audience will buy it, or are they going to stick with what they already have for cheaper?

After looking at all the different variables of your product idea to see if it’s viable, you’ll know what to do. Sometimes, you won’t pass phase one. That’s alright. It’s better to scratch a bad idea before investing too much time and effort into it.

According to a study from Harvard, there are 30,000 new products designed and sold every year, but over 95% of them fail. That’s why product research is so important. Many people skip this step which can affect their success in the long run.

Approximate Timeline: 1 – 4 weeks

Phase 2: Prototyping

Everyone loves this step, and you might have even started putting things together in your garage if you’re an inventor. At this point, you’ve decided you want to pursue your idea and create a fantastic new product.

If you’re a small business owner, it might only be you and a small team creating the prototype. If you’re a large corporation, then there might be a whole team of developers and designers collaborating to create a new product.

In either scenario, you’ll create the first prototype and then some iterations of it until you finalize the product. Depending on the complexity of your product, it can take a short amount of time or a longer amount of time. If there are many electronic components, then you will likely add an extra 2-4 weeks to this stage. Of course, it can take a lot longer than that, the Dyson vacuums are an example of that.

James Dyson spent 15 years perfecting his vacuums until he was satisfied.  He made over 5000 prototypes throughout the product design process. While that’s an extreme example of how long it takes to design something, it does happen.

At Ventrify, we try to do this step efficiently so you’re able to move forward quickly. Many companies can take a lot longer to do this step.

Approximate Timeline: 1 – 8 weeks

Phase 3: Sourcing & Logistics

At this stage, you have a solid prototype and you need to start contacting factories that will take your product and scale it up. If you’re working with a company like us, we’ll have plenty of contacts in the industry that we can recommend. We will always help you find the best factory to work with.

Then, they take your product and find out how to create it on a factory line. They’ll customize their machines to create your product. At this stage, you need to make sure you have the funds to pay the factories to create your product. If not, you aren’t going to get very far.

Often while this is going on in the background, your team is sorting out logistics and pricing as well. Many factories exist overseas in other countries. While it might seem simple to bring over your product in a shipping container and start selling it, it’s not that easy.

With tariffs, imports fees, and taxes on certain types of products, this can get complicated quickly. Even importing something as simple as shoes has its drawbacks. Because of that, you might decide to change certain aspects of your product. Many companies have found creative solutions to address issues like this.

Have you ever wondered why Converse shoes have a thin layer of felt on the bottom? It wears off after a few weeks outside and you can’t see it while walking, so the felt serves no practical or aesthetic function. Converse does this actually because of taxes. By adding a small amount of fabric, the sneakers are technically categorized as slippers. At some point in the design process, the brand discovered that slippers have lower import tax than shoes, so they added felt as a workaround.

Approximate Timeline: ~ 4 months 

Phase 4: Production

After you’ve chosen a manufacturer to create your product, you have to wait for it to be produced. Now, you might think that a large project takes longer than a small project, but in our experience, the amount of product you order doesn’t affect the timeline as much as you think it does.

If you think about it from the manufacturer’s point of view, they have to change all their machines each time they create a new product. Regardless of producing 1000 or 10,000 copies of your product, the set-up time is likely to be the same.

For a larger project, the manufacturer might start on your project sooner to get it done quickly as they’ll make more money. For a smaller project, you might be added to the queue until a day when they have time to do small batches all at once.

This step can get messy for various reasons:

  1. Laws & Random Factors—This is often outside your control. With Covid-19 we have seen a lot of disruption in the shipping industry, not to mention the Suez Canal incident which cost an estimated $400 million per hour in goods delayed.
  2. Product Certification—You can’t sell your products until they pass certain testing and certification requirements which also add time to this step.
  3. Customs—Some countries are a lot stricter with their customs than other countries.

This phase can be quick, but it can also last longer than you expect. You also design the actual packaging for your product and optimize it to fit in the shipping containers when you’re bringing it over. While it’s at the factory, you will still have a lot to sort out.

Approximate Timeline: At least 6 weeks

Phase 5: Shipping & Distribution

At this point, the product has been designed, produced, and is landing in a warehouse. After it’s in the warehouse you’ll now be in contact with a distributor who will then get your product in stores or in your consumers’ hands directly.

Once you’ve made it this far you are going to focus on selling the product and marketing. At Ventrify, we’re no longer involved anymore. You’ll be working with your distributor to make sure shipping to your customers and buyers goes smoothly.

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Now, to answer a complicated question, your total timeline from an idea to going to market can take anywhere from 3 to 16 months. Problems can arise as well lengthening the process even if you’ve planned it out from the start. There are a lot of decisions to be made which is why it takes so long.

While there are a lot more steps including marketing and selling your product, we wanted to focus on the product design process itself.

We believe in transparency and sharing practical advice to help entrepreneurs and inventors be successful. If you’re looking for more information on product design and development then make sure you’re subscribed to our newsletter.

About the Author

Ventrify is a product design and manufacturing firm that helps entrepreneurs bring product ideas from concept to market. We take in fledgling ideas and bring them through our iterative design process to create products our clients are proud of. Then, we work with manufacturing facilities worldwide to bring our clients the highest quality products at competitive prices.

If you have questions or want to discuss going remote, reach out to us through our Website, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

Article by Victoria Fraser

What Certifications Are Needed for My Product?

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So you’ve got an idea for an awesome new product and you’re ready to make it into a reality. You’ve started the product design process and the prototype is looking good. Now you’re ready to start manufacturing it—or so you think. Before you can actually start selling your product, it needs to undergo testing and certification. This process is known as Product Certification and it’s important for a lot of reasons.

First, let’s look at the definition of product certification and why you need it. Then we’ll look at the different markings and how they work. It’s important to certify your products as a sign to people that it is safe, reliable, and of a certain quality.

What is Product Certification?

Product certification is the process by which your product is tested to meet regulatory standards in a specific market or industry. For example, if you were selling a medical device, it would need to meet the minimum standards in the health industry as regulated by governments and businesses.

Beyond that, product certification is often a requirement in particular industries where a failure could have serious consequences. Let’s go back in time to find an example of this.

If you were around in the 1980s, you probably recall that there was a string of murders involving Tylenol. Various packages were tampered with which caused a number of deaths. As a result, packaging requirements changed for over-the-counter pills. The government then passed laws to enforce “Tamper-Resistant Packaging Requirements.” That’s why over-the-counter packaging can seem a bit cumbersome today.

Product Certification exists to prevent events like this from happening again. While that’s a noble cause in itself, there are still other reasons for your products need certification.

Why Does Product Certification Matter?

For one, it helps your product stand out in the eyes of the consumer. Let’s say I’m choosing between two coffee brands at the supermarket. Do I want the ones that have a stamp showing they are ethically sourced and use sustainable business practices? Or do I want the ones without those certifications? There might be a taste difference, sure. However, if my primary concern is safety and sustainability, I could be willing to compromise on the flavour of my morning coffee.

Another important reason for product certification is to indicate safety and reliability. After all, no one wants to buy something of low quality or that is dangerous. Many certifications are used to show that your product passes performance tests as well as quality assurance tests. We’ve actually been doing this for a lot longer than you think.

In ancient Rome, archaeologists discovered ancient loaves of bread with specialized stamps on them. This was because many bakers were cutting costs on flour by adding cheap ingredients like wood shavings. Since it was a common issue, the city started inspecting bakeries. Then they used bread stamps to indicate to customers that particular baker sold bread that wasn’t full of wood shavings. In a way, we could think of those old stamps as an early kind of product certification.

Another reason product certification matters is because governments have purchasing standards that they have to enforce. Businesses and schools will often follow in their steps and recommendations. These days, it’s perhaps easier than it should be to create low-cost products and rush them to market. Because of that, it’s as crucial as ever to ensure your product is certified to outperform your competitors.

Finally, the last reason to have your product certified is to guard against liability. While you aren’t always obligated to have your product be certified, you still should because showing that your product is tested for safety reduces the risk of legal action.

What are the Steps in Product Certification?

Now that you understand the importance of product certifications, here’s a quick overview of how the process generally goes. Don’t feel too overwhelmed, if you’re working with a good product development company they will guide you through this as well.

  1. Application – This involves the testing of the product and sending an application to the agency responsible for provided certification.
  2. Evaluation – At this point, you look at the test data to see if it indicates that the product meets qualification criteria.
  3. Decision – After it’s tested, there is a second review of the product application to ensure the Evaluation is accurate.
  4. Surveillance – Once in the marketplace, it’s important to continue monitoring your product’s performance to ensure it still meets qualification criteria, especially since it’s hard to test out every possible scenario in a lab.

Once you’ve passed these steps, your product will proudly bear the certification mark and your consumers will know it has met those standards. Now, let’s explore some of the different types of product certification out there.

What are UL, CSA, CE, WEEE, RoHS, and FCC?

There are a lot of different markings out there and they all mean different things. Often it’s because different countries have different requirements. That said, it’s also due to other factors like the process surrounding manufacturing as you’ll read later. Let’s look at a few and see where they come from.

UL Certification

Origin: U.S. and Canada

Acronym: Underwriter Laboratories

Explanation: This is a third-party certification company that has been around for over 100 years. Their mark indicates products are safe for workers and customers to use. Think of them as a safety organization that establishes standards for new products across various industries. For example, electronic components are often UL certified to show that they can handle safe levels of electrical current as promised.

There are some differences in requirements in the U.S. and in Canada, sp if there is “c” on the left the product meets Canadian standards, but it might not meet American standards.

CSA Certification

Origin: International Certification

Acronym: Canadian Standards Association

Explanation: The CSA Group is another certification company that was founded 100 years ago in Canada; however, it is now respected internationally to indicate a product’s been dependently tested and certified. It shows consumers your product meets recognized standards for safety or performance in many different countries.

Unlike the UL certification, CSA is widely regarded and respected around the world. This means you could more easily sell your product in new markets.

CE Mark

Origin: European Union

Acronym: Conformitè Europëenne

Explanation: Since 1985, the CE mark has been used on products. It indicates a product conforms with health, safety, and environmental protection standards across different industries. It’s often a requirement for many products sold in the EU. When applying for this marking, you’ll need to be able to provide the paperwork and documents supporting that your product met the standards.

One confusing aspect here is that it’s not an indication of quality, it’s actually just an indication that you have the supporting documents to show you met certain standards. There is no testing done by a third-party that approves the CE marking, and in some cases, you can actually certify a product yourself.

WEEE Compliance

Origin: European Union

Acronym: Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment

Explanation: This European Community Directive was created in 2002 to combat the excessive amount of dangerous and toxic waste created by electric products in landfills. Electronic waste is extremely hazardous and difficult to dispose of, so this directive places the responsibility of reducing that waste on companies and manufacturers.

It basically indicates your product meets the standards for the separate collection, treatment, recycling, and recovery of electronic waste. This mark safeguards human health in the long term by reducing environmental contaminants.

RoHS Compliance

Origin: European Union

Acronym: Restriction of Hazardous Substances

Explanation: Similar to the WEEE compliance, this mark indicates the compliance with restricted use of specific hazardous materials found in electrical and electronic products. The RoHS Directive imposes a set of restrictions on European manufacturers in regards to the material content of new electronic equipment placed on the market.

Both the WEEE and RoHS compliance relate to electronic waste, but RoHS focuses on the safety of the material components in the product whereas WEEE focuses on recycling and reducing electronic waste processes surrounding a product.

FCC Certification

Origin: US and Canada

Acronym: Federal Communications Commission

Explanation: Finally, there is FCC which is the most common certification as it is mandatory for most electronic components in order to enforce communications laws and regulations. In essence, it makes sure your product doesn’t interfere with existing communication frequencies.

While the FCC regulates certification in the US and Canada, they are referred to EMC/EMI certifications more broadly.

Summary

Product certification can be intimidating, but it’s an important step in the process of product design and development. It can be easy to get bogged down by jargon, but the important thing to note is the common theme of safety. Many of these markings demonstrate your product is safe. For your consumers, it’s important that you meet the ethical requirements created by governments and highly respectable certification companies.

To stand out on the shelves, your product doesn’t just have to be useful and practical, it also has to be reliable. Consumer decisions are guided by that in almost every industry you can think of, which is why this is such a fundamental aspect of product development.

Hopefully, you found this article helped demystify product certification! If you liked this blog post, don’t forget to share it and subscribe to our newsletter for more useful content like this. You can also check out our article on Prototyping in Product Development Today or 5 Common Mistakes in Product Development!

About the Author

Ventrify is a product design and manufacturing firm that helps entrepreneurs bring product ideas from concept to market. We take in fledgling ideas and bring them through our iterative design process to create products our clients can be proud of. Then, we work with manufacturing facilities worldwide to bring our clients the highest quality products at competitive prices.

If you have questions or want to discuss going remote, reach out to us through our Website, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

Article by Victoria Fraser

5 Common Mistakes in Product Development

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We’ve all heard – many start-ups fail, let alone hardware start-ups, which are harder yet. So why even try? Well, if you are addressing a real problem – someone has to do it. Well, that and taking a product to market can be extremely lucrative.

So why do people give generic advice like “passion will get you through the hard times” and “persevere in the face of hardship” – well, it’s because tangible advice is long-winded, boring, and often relegated to libraries and university courses.

But today, we will talk about some tangible and focused advice for product development. Let us look at five common hardware product development mistakes, along with strategies that could help you in the development process.

1.     Unforeseen Product Development Costs – Sometimes, it so happens that despite having a good projection plan with a well-defined scope and set of requirements, product design & engineering teams face deviations, roadblocks, or unforeseen challenges that lead to additional development expenses. This could result from decisions made along the development process so far or design issues that were overlooked.

These are easier (read: cheaper) to deal with when they arise earlier in the development cycle; however, early changes can lead to significant deviations in the end product – make sure to check how this affects your original scope and don’t lose track of your target. However, don’t be too stringent with your initial plan – things change. Dealing with challenges effectively early on can mean some added costs but often far less than putting off issues or leaning on a band aid solution until later in the process.

Having a strong product development team is a blessing as they will be able to forecast unique and uncommon issues – and plan/budget for them.

2.     Over Designing a Product – Having an unclear end-goal for your product can mean either too many features or an ever-improving design. Yes, your product could probably be better – most, if not all, products can be.

Don’t let this happen to you – create a clear set of requirements and scope. With a clear target, you will know when your product is ready for launch. There will always be time for future versions; if it is a good product, customers will expect a version 2.0!

3.     Missing Deadlines – Failure to stay on your project schedule can happen for many different reasons: underestimating project complexity (overestimating the team), over-ambitious timelines, scope changes, unexpected results (analysis, testing, etc.), and a slew of uncontrollable reasons (Covid-19 being a perfect example).

An experienced development team will include time for review and iterations in the project plan. Hurdles in the product development process are to be expected but should not catch you off-guard.

4.     Not Using Feedback Effectively – This is a significant topic and has been discussed from many perspectives, including minimum viable product (MVP), iterating quickly, lean product development, fail fast and often fail, launching early, having an embarrassing MVP, etc. Yes – your idea might be great, but you need to make data-driven decisions in transforming your idea into a market-ready solution.

Put your product in the hands of real people (ideally people you don’t know, so they don’t give you a biased response) and get their feedback. The feedback is your data; use it to make your product better.

5.     Trying to Do Everything Yourself – Consider how much learning and time it takes for a team to be confident at what they do. Is learning something new the best use of their time? This happens to founders and entrepreneurs that are hyper focused on getting things done. They are often effective, but at what price – could it have been done faster/better/cheaper by someone else? Whether it is someone on your team, a freelancer, or a design firm, it is important to be realistic. Just because you can, does not mean you should.

Keep in Mind

There are many hurdles in the product development process – these are five common mistakes anyone taking a product to market should be aware of. Depending on the product, these challenges will change in significance and priority.

If you aren’t confident identifying and addressing these issues, reach out to someone that is.

About the Author

Ventrify is a product design and manufacturing firm that helps entrepreneurs bring product ideas from concept to market. We take in fledgling ideas and bring them through our iterative design process to create products our clients can be proud of. Then, we work with manufacturing facilities worldwide to bring our clients the highest quality products at competitive prices.

If you have questions or unsure about addressing these issues, reach out to us through our Website, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

Founder Mindset: Lean Startup VS Field of Dreams

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How Did You Get Here?

Whether you intentionally made the decision or simply had a great idea and now find yourself on the journey, starting a company is a big step.

You may be excited about the flexibility it will bring. Or answering to no one but yourself. There are many reasons why you should, or shouldn’t proceed, but the mentality you have going into this journey is critical.

Intro

There are many challenges to overcome, but today we are going to discuss the mindset – the mental framework you have – when setting out on this journey. We will look at 2 sides of a scale – The Lean Startup and The Field of Dreams. Depending on who you talk to, you are going to have very different answers on how to pursue your adventure. But first – what are they?

Field of Dreams

The Field of Dreams mentality says, “if you build it, they will come.” If you have an idea to solve a problem, there are other people out there experiencing this same problem and they are going to want your solution. Whether you are a programmer coming up with a genius piece of code, a tradesperson that has put together a game-changing prototype, or a researcher that has found ground-breaking formula – if you have a good product, there are people out there that will find you.

Why & Who

This approach is often taken on by the most innovative people – they believe in what they are doing and are consumed by their solution. It is often someone doing groundbreaking research or someone that is truly passionate about a solution. The Field of Dreams mentality helps these people leave their jobs, and pursue an amazing opportunity.

The logic behind this mentality makes sense, to a degree. If you have something interesting, people will naturally hear about it and be, well, interested. If you have the cure to cancer, the people will find you. If you have the solution to procrastination, you will be rich. In marketing, this refers to a product-focused market and simplified greatly, comes down to what is “interesting.” Does interesting mean it’s different? Does it mean it’s better?

Lean Startup

The Lean startup is another approach, and caters to a customer-focused market. The Lean Startup mentality says, our assumptions about our solution are often wrong. And the way to deal with this is to take an iterative, experiment-based approach to validate these ideas. Rather than focusing on the product, the lean startup methodology looks to test the market as quickly as possible.

Why & Who

This mentality is held by a lot of entrepreneurial minded individuals. Testing assumptions as a scientific hypothesis, they gather data, analyze, and make decisions based on the conclusions. This type of person is often seen as opportunistic, but often needs to recognize opportunities far before they are acknowledged by the early majority.

The logic behind this consumer-focused market makes sense as well. There are a lot of products/services out there, so for yours to succeed, it needs to fill a gap in the marketplace. This type of person claims that if you have the cure to cancer, people will not come to you “because you have discovered and created a fantastic product,” they will come to you because “they have cancer and no one else has the cure for cancer.”

So Which is Better?

This is a polarized argument, and the truth is people must understand the necessity for both sides. You need market pull regardless of how great your product is – but if your product is truly great, the people will come!

It comes down to the market you are servicing. With early stage markets that are still developing, the Field of Dreams approach makes sense. Think medications to terminal diseases: Chemotherapy has a mediocre chance of cancer mitigation but comes with a slew of terrible side effects on top of being extremely expensive – people still line up to do it.

What about over serviced or mature markets like T-shirt sales. If you make a T-shirt that is not unique and servicing a very specific need, it is extremely difficult to beat out the market leaders in price and quality.

Our Recommendation

Both approaches have their space, but with globalization making products and services available across larger geographical areas, we are moving towards a consumer-focused market. If consumers don’t like what is available locally, they’ll often find something online that is better suited to their needs. As markets mature, and the world becomes ever more connected, the Lean Startup methodology becomes more prevalent.

As such it is important to understand the market you are entering before you found your business.

About the Author

Ventrify is a product design and manufacture firm that helps entrepreneurs bring product ideas from concept to market. We take in fledgling ideas and bring them through our iterative design process to create products our clients can be proud of. Then, we work with manufacturing facilities across the world to bring our clients the highest quality products at competitive prices.

If you have questions about taking your product through the manufacture phase, connect with us through Facebook, LinkedIn, or our Website.