aprodium.com - Client Case

Client Case

Three takeaways from a real-life product

design project

Sharing our experiences after working with one of our clients on the materialization of their idea as a hardware and software product for data management.

An entrepreneur (which is kept anonymous for confidentiality) has recently approached us with a strong product idea but with little clue on where to start to make it happen.

THE IDEA

A system to solve a real life data synchronization and protection problem that many of us experience everyday with our files across phones, tablets, laptops, and clouds.

THE SOLUTION

The solution called for a mix of diverse technologies under a single hardware-software user experience, a device, app, and website to synchronize and backup the data in a secure and near frictionless fashion, when connected or disconnected from the internet.

THE CHALLENGE

Even though the founders had some technical expertise, they did not have the complete vision nor the bandwidth to blend all the diverse technical aspects into an integrated and elegant market-ready product.

TAKEAWAY 1

Working with a third party product design consulting firm like Aprodium helps to bring an objective external perspective, holistic expertise, and bandwidth/timeline acceleration; which helps startup and enterprise entrepreneurs to convert ideas into products faster.

OUR APPROACH

Coming back to our story, we then rolled our sleeves and worked together with our client interviewing consumers and analyzing the next best alternatives in the market.

We then rationalized the consumer feedback, designed early concepts, and even built a partially working hardware and software prototype; which was then piloted with real life users.

TAKEAWAY 2

Do not rush Voice of the Customer, Prototyping, and Piloting activities. We regretted it in those few times we have done it. It is even advisable to do 2 or 3 iterations (“sprints”) on these things to simplify future design and development efforts down the road.

V.O.C., PROTOTYPING, AND PILOTING

The pilot’s user feedback has influenced new changes and features; which have driven a second sexier and fully functional prototype, including automatic data synchronization across phones and tablets with local and cloud backup.

THE OUTCOME AFTER 4 SPRINTS

This closer-to-production prototype was instrumental for our client, since it helped this very early stage startup to:

Have a functional and slick sample of the product to demo to investors (who demonstrated interest!)
Start the quoting conversations with manufacturing partners and software development shops with something concrete in our hands.
Produce professional-grade videos and brochures showing an ultra realistic product, as if it already existed.

TAKEAWAY 3

For physical products, do not underestimate the Design for Manufacturing phases or DFM after the industrial and electronic designs. This activity consumes important time and effort, and we recommend working with a manufacturing partner with strong experience in DFM. Consulting firms like Aprodium can also act as a liaison between clients and DFM/Manufacturing providers.

ND GOES ON

After a few successful prototypes, we did not leave the client alone for the next steps in their journey. We still keep doing additional mini projects from time to time for focused needs: Patent Assistance, Design for Manufacturing Specifications, Marketing Animations, etc.

NOW, YOU ARE NEXT!

Do you want to know how Aprodium can help you on your product initiative?

Check out our Projects Gallery.

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