So, you have a game-changing product idea and you want to bring it to market. However, you're scared to death that no one's willing to buy it. Bringing a product to market is a huge commitment both for your time and your money. You don't want to screw this up. I have put together a system of five tests that I would do if I was bringing a product to market today. This is based upon decades of designing, developing, marketing, and bringing products to market and selling them on my website. There's a ton of advice out there right now on how to bring a product to market and most of it is not only wrong but potentially dangerous. When I first started putting this together, I went on Chad CBT and asked how I would do it. And the advice it gave me was pretty disturbing. If you find this type of content useful, I would love if you would subscribe because I have a lot more to bring you and I can only do it if people are watching it. So, what is this bad advice? Well, the first thing the chat GPT told me to do, which is the same advice you're going to get from all the websites and all the different AIS, is that you should go out, you should make a website for your potential product. You should create a sales page for it, and you should make a buy now button. It's suggested you click on that button and it takes you to a page that has an AI rendered product that explains it's out of stock. You collect their email address and then build a newsletter list. A couple of years ago, this process might have worked. However, since the advent of AI, scammers are going online, making videos, websites, complete products, sales, and funnels, and they are scamming people with fake products. They're getting the order, and either sending you nothing or sending you something completely unrelated to what they claimed they were going to give you. Taking this advice is going to make you look like one of those scammers. And people are getting wise to this and they are going to not trust you from the first second they see your page and that is not how you want to start out things. I am going to break down the five tests you need to do before you invest lots of time and money into your new product. First test is called the smoke test. This goes back to engineering where you would build a circuit board. You plug it in and you'd see if it smokes. They called it letting out the magic smoke. And the circuit board doesn't work unless it has its magic smoke inside the part that it came out of. It's kind of an inside joke with engineers, but you get the concept. You know right away if it doesn't work. So, we're going to set up a magic smoke test to find out if you have a valid idea and your product is in any way in the right direction. How you build this initial prototype is really going to depend on the type of product you have. Do you have something that's like really simple and basic or is it more complicated? Is it more on aesthetics or is it really grounded in functionality? This is going to determine where you need to validate your concept. If you could design it in CAD, that would be great. It gives you a big head start and let you really see if your design makes sense, at least in a computer. If you can't do that, just draw it on paper. I always start on paper because it's a lot easier to make changes on paper. You've probably heard the idea of a napkin sketch. This term comes from the fact that many of the best ideas that have changed our world started during lunch when there was nothing to write on but a napkin. Doing something, anything that you can physically hold in your hands, look at, and get an idea if it's what you need is the best thing you can do. If your product is small and detailed and not overly complex, I would suggest trying to 3D print it. Now, this is going to require a CAD file. And right now, there's a lot of people who know how to do CAD. So, that shouldn't be a huge issue unless you need something really complicated that needs like simulations or other types of advanced engineering. There are also a lot of pieces of free CAD software out there, and if you're up for it, I highly recommend learning them. I like to use Fusion 360. They have a free version of it. It's great. It's a little harder to learn than some of the other stuff out there, but if you're going to be dedicated to it, it's not a bad way to go. There are a lot of engineers out there who laugh at Fusion 360 because they don't say it's a real CAD software, but it's actually pretty advanced and more than 99% of people need. If you don't have a 3D printer, that's fine. 3D printing has become such a hobby that you can probably find someone who will print it for you for next to nothing or maybe just buy them a new roll of film and they'll do it for you. If you want to get into it, there are some really good 3D printers out there for $3 400. Bamboo Labs makes some great ones. And uh Quiddy, they also make some nice ones. And there's a couple other brands out there that are really good. Not necessary, but if you want to learn it, you can make prototypes constantly. And I find mine invaluable. If you do go the 3D printing route, keep in mind that there's a lot of different types of plastic, and some are more conducive to your project than others. You have some like ABS, which is strong and inexpensive. You have PLA, which is very easy to print, but doesn't take heat very well. You have nylon, which is super strong, expensive, and hard to print. KPU is soft and flexible, like a rubber, which is one of my favorites. Also, keep in mind that some machines are more suitable for certain types of plastic. So, don't run out and just buy a 3D printer if you don't know what type of plastic you're going to need to print with it. If your product design is really simple and not overly technical in any way and you're really concerned about the aesthetics of it, then you can just use some really simple materials such as cardboard or maybe foam core. Don't underestimate wood. It's strong. It's easy to work with and it may take a little finishing work, but it's really good for prototypes. And there's all types of plastics available. Pretty easy to cut with standard hand tools. It can also be made into really nice parts if you use more advanced machining type of stuff. And then we have metal. You can make some prototypes that are pretty close to production, at least functionally. If you're really trying to make this thing look nice, then there's all kinds of paints and coatings and textures that you can use to spruce it up. The key is that you have something you can hold, try, test, and see how it looks, see how it works, see if you can market it. Now, if you're designing something that is more electronics based, you're going to need what they call a breadboard. And you're probably going to need a microcontroller of some type and your focus right now is to get this thing to work. And as we said before, not let out the magic smoke. If our focus is on something that's mechanically functional, we don't even want to think about what this thing looks like right now. We want to build it strong, solid, and representing the function of what you want this finished product to do. That means you're going to be making things out of steel, aluminum, engineering grade plastics. You're going to have chains. You're going to have bearings, springs, whatever is necessary to make this thing actually function. Right now, you just want to prove that this concept can even do what you think it can do. As you get into this development process, I would pick up some sets that have fasteners in it so you just have some stuff to work with. It may not have everything, but if it has some of what you need, it's going to save you a lot of trips to the hardware store. And if you're 3D printing, you can get brass inserts that will make your parts a lot stronger. Your goal of this prototype stage is to get to failure as fast as you possibly can. Don't think that a failure at this point is a failure on you. You want to find out all the weak points. Nothing will ever be designed perfect the first time around, and it's ridiculous to think it would be. If your design is ideal right out of the gate, then that means you can never do anything better. And I think we all know that that is not the case. So now at this stage where you have something that meets the minimal functional and visual requirements to know that you have a working prototype then you can go on to step two knowing that you can refine what you did in step one. This is where we're going to do the product testing. So, this will be kind of similar to what AI and everyone online is suggesting you do as step one, but with a few changes, especially because of the problems that AI is now introducing into this process. Making a simple website with the product and a buy now button is not a bad idea because every click on that buy now button is someone who wants to know more about your product and is a potential customer. However, what I would be very cautious about is using an AI image on that product page to represent what you're selling. I would only use an AI image if you also have CAD images to back it up with. Then people can see your design process and know that you're building towards something. But if you don't have that and you just have an AI image, people are going to think you're just trying to scam them. Document your prototype process. Show the prototypes you made. Show the testing you've made. Show the evolution of your prototype. This is the best way you can gain excitement about what you're doing and get people to take you serious. People will forgive the fact that your product isn't ready for prime time so long as you can prove that you're working towards it. You can run this page however you want. You can tell them you're out of stock. You can tell them you're in the prototype stage. You can tell them what your journey is. And you can tell them why they should care. and hopefully you can collect their email address there so they can follow you along and be a customer when you actually have it to sell. The beauty of this system is while it needs to look like an e-commerce site, doesn't actually have to have all the intricacies of a shopping cart. You can focus on the mission and your company and where you're going with this project. Right now, your goal is to get criticism. Even if they're completely wrong, their criticism is very valid. either they don't understand what you're trying to tell them or the community is convinced that there's a better way to do it. I had products that I sold for a decade or longer, never had a problem with the product. It was perfectly fine. And one day I wake up, go online, and everyone's bashing the product. Was there anything wrong with the product? No. But there was someone online who decided he was going to have a fit and said everything that was wrong with the product and got other people to get on board and say that oh it's crap. Was it a competitor attack? Maybe. But at this point, did it matter? No. I had to do something about it. So I went on I looked at what the people wanted and I modified my product to suit what they wanted. It cost me a little more to do it, but it didn't reduce the quality in any way. and it was cheaper than having to market against what the community wanted. At this stage, not only are you building your product, you are developing the marketing plan that is going to sell this product once you finish making it. And I know what everyone's thinking, okay, let's throw this on Kickstarter. You're not there yet. The last thing you want to do is throw this on Kickstarter and say you're going to have it available in 3 months and then find out you have all the prototype work, all the engineering work, and all the manufacturing work still to go. and it's going to take you two years and 10 times as much money as you think it is at this stage. Now that you have this website and you have a way to take feedback from people, you need to get people to that page. Now, there's a easy way to do it and there's a good way to do it. The easy way to do that is to set up Facebook ads or Google Adwords, send people to the site, get them to click on it, and get their feedback. That is by far the easiest, but it's going to cost you a lot of money. And the people reaching you might be your customer, they might not. they're not going to have anything invested in your project or your mission. Now, the better way, but the much more difficult way to do this is to build an organic following. That means making content, putting it on Facebook, Tik Tok, YouTube, wherever your ideal audience is. I think more complicated products are probably better on YouTube where you can do long form videos and really explain it. And if you have simple trendy products, it might be better on Instagram or Tik Tok. And if you're trying to do something that's really businessreated, that might be better on Facebook or LinkedIn and also pretty good on YouTube. So, you really need to find where your target audience is going to be most receptive to what you're trying to show them. So, what are you going to be showing people? A bunch of ads for your Unbuild product? No, absolutely not. This is your chance to bring people on board. Make them part of your community. Get them excited about what you're doing. Show them your process. Show them your successes. Show them your failures. Show them why you had to change your product when it failed and how you're overcoming that failure and how you're going to make the product better because of it. You will get people cheering for you. They will sympathize with your setbacks. They will cheer for you when you win and they'll be there when you fail. Your audience is going to be there to tell you what they want and what they don't want. You'll end up with free engineering, free marketing, free help along the way, even if it's just in the form of comments. That information is invaluable. Large companies spend millions of dollars a year on this type of market research and you can get it for free. By time you have a functional product, you're going to have people lined up ready to buy it. And if you don't have a market, you're going to know before you invest all the money. Use your local community. Let's say you design a part that goes on a tractor and you live in a farming community. Give your neighbors the part. Let them try it. See if they could break it. You would much rather break one now than break 500 of them in the future. Getting this free product testing is the best thing you could possibly do. Maybe you are part of a hobby organization or maybe a business organization or maybe you're part of a trade organization that's specific to what you're doing. Talk to these people. Find out what they need. Give them products. Let them try it. Now, we're getting on to test three. This is your strategic questions. And this is also an area where I found some really bad advice online. They were suggesting that you go and make some questionnaires on survey monkey or some type of online service that you can send out questionnaires to hundreds or thousands of people and you get information back and you design your product based upon that. This is problematic for several reasons. One, you don't really know who's taking these surveys. So, you may end up with a bunch of feedback from people that aren't really your customer. Also, you may not know the questions to ask them because you may not know the exact problem that your product needs to solve for them. You think you know what it needs to do, but they may have a completely different idea on what they think it needs to do. So, here's what you're going to do. You're going to go out and you're going to find very targeted people, people that you know are in the market for what you're trying to sell. And if this is a really simple product, say something for hairdressers and it's like a $10 product, you may need to talk to 20, 30 people. However, if you have a really specific high-end product, you may just need to talk to five or 10 really targeted people. For example, if you have a machine that's going to be used by a machinist in a machine shop, then they're going to know exactly what they need when they see it. and they're going to know if it's not going to solve their problem or be able to tell you very quickly what you need to change in order to make it more useful or at least more marketable. Hopefully, in step two, you got the contact information for a lot of people that are very targeted that you can get on the phone and ask really specific questions. And don't deviate from these questions. These questions are targeted to get the information you need and not turn it into just some marketing campaign. When you first call these potential customers, ask them if you can record the phone call. Tell them you need to refer back to it later so you can better remember everything you talked about. The first question you should ask is, "What are the biggest challenges you're having right now that this product could solve?" Keep asking this question over and over until they can't come up with any more challenges. The second question is ask them what other products they have tried. Ask them what they like about certain products and what they dislike about certain products. This is going to give you a road map on what your product needs to do that the other ones don't and also what your marketing points are going to be in order to solve their pain points. Find out what features of your product would be nice to haves and what would be must haves. Keep in mind your customers are going to want to buy the solution you're offering, not the product. When people buy a drill, most of them don't want a drill. They just want the hole in a place that the drill can put it. Keep in mind that while your customer feedback is invaluable, they are not the designer. They are not the visionary. In the words of Henry Ford, if I did what my customers wanted, I'd be designing a faster horse. You are in charge of this project and if it fails or succeeds, that's on you. So, the final question you should ask is, are you ready to purchase this? If I had one today, would you buy it? And the more excited they are to purchase today, the stronger incentive you have to move forward. If they say maybe in 3 months or a year or 2 years, you have to really question whether it's time to invest the amount of money that you think it's going to take to bring this to market. You may have some more product specific questions, but this should give you a good start. So, now we're on to test 4. Test 4 is where the rubber meets the road. This is where we refine our prototype. We do the engineering. We find sources for manufacturing and we make sure that we can really bring this to market not only at the quality but the price that people are expecting. Right now is when you need to build prototypes that resemble the finished product. You need to test it. You need to break it. You need to try it out. You need to give it to people. You need to let little kids throw it on the ground. You need to find out how it fails under its intended use and also the unintended uses that it'll be subjected to. Refine it, test it, repeat the process until you are happy with it. Once you have something that people are excited about, they look at it, they say that's awesome, they say they'd buy it, tell them, "I've got one in the trunk of my car." If they jump up and say, "Hell yeah, I'm going to take it. Here's my money." You know, you need to move forward. If they kind of back off and say, "Well, I don't know. I may not need it. I already have something else." then you need to really evaluate whether you have what you think you have or you just have something that would be kind of a nice to have if they don't have any other options. Now is the time to find out if you have a solid market for your product. You don't want to be figuring this out after you spent $100,000 on your first run. Test 4 can be a very involved process that involves a lot of engineering, a lot of manufacturing. And I'm not going to cover that here. That'll be covered in more depth in other videos. But I give you an overall framework of what you're shooting for. Once you know that you have a valid design and you know that you can manufacture this, you need to validate what the pricing is. Now we need to move on to test number five. And that's where we validate the pricing. You know that you have a product that people are interested in. You know you can manufacture it. You worked out most of the engineering. Now we need to make sure that it will make a profit. How you do this is going to vary. It depends whether you're using the Google Adwords method, whether you build an online community, whether you're going doortodoor, if you're talking to community members. You need to show them what you have. You need to tell them what you think you're going to sell it for, and you need to get the reaction. If everyone's excited right off the bat, you're probably selling it too cheap. If everyone says no, then you need to increase the value proposition. Maybe your price isn't too high. Maybe you're just not providing enough value because the last thing you want to do is have a race to the bottom. Unless you have a major commodity item that you can sell millions of at a very low cost, focus on raising the value, not lowering the price. If you found this video useful, check out my other video where I cover the difference between overbuilding and overengineering.
