Product Idea Validation - 3 Factors to Consider
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The document discusses key aspects of product idea validation before production and scaling, emphasizing the importance of prototypes, intellectual property, and timelines. It highlights the need to create functional prototypes that accurately reflect user interaction, protect intellectual property during the validation stage, and efficiently plan for necessary certifications to avoid competition. The presentation aims to provide entrepreneurs with a concise overview and guidance in validating their product ideas.
Product Idea Validation - 3 Factors to Consider
- 1. Product Idea Validation 3 Things to Consider before Production & Scaling RAAHUL ANAND RAGHAVAN CO-FOUNDER, SYSTEMS ARCHITECT, GLYTON SOLUTIONS GLYTONSOLUTIONS.COM
- 2. Introduction - Idea Validation •What is Validation ? • Validation, helps to figure out what waits at the end of the dark tunnel and take corrective actions. • In a way its taking an educated guess (Yes!. Guesswork supported by data. Its still guesswork in a way as its not involving real customers!) with respect one key aspect. WILL CUSTOMERS buy! • Though there are several ways, means and methods to this, in its entirety , Its very Unique to the individual entrepreneur (Off-course, exposure and experience would play a mighty role) •What to consider? 1. Prototype (Mechanical – Performance Credibility - Software) 2. IP - Intellectual Property 3. Timelines
- 3. Prototype - Mechanical •Must capture form factor details , mechanical aspects as much as possible •Must adhere to end product specification. I have come across several wearable product prototypes which are hardly ever wearable. Worst case, building an evaluation kit and using the same as prototype •A prototype which captures placement of user interactive components such as display, buttons, touch interfaces will enable better man machine interface validation •Stay away from crude builds •Might look up to be costly to start with, but considering the cost of redesign and redoing mechanical aspects at a later stage, its prudent to invest initially during validation stage
- 4. Prototype – S/W & Performance Credibility •Identify critical performance requirements – The ones which will impact customers directly & significantly • Requirements which will make or break the product • Consider (1) : For a personal tracker, positional accuracy is THE requirement. If positional accuracy is compromised under any scenario, we do not have a product as a direct result of credibility loss • Consider (2) : Reliable (Nearly!) battery performance. No customer will be interested in a personal tracker product with high position accuracy, • But will not last beyond 3 hours of operation • Sudden momentary power loss (Product switches off arbitrarily) •Build use cases – The ones which mimic real customer actions around the critical requirements • Consider (1) : For a personal tracker, positional accuracy is key requirement. But the customer use case can be indoor positional accuracy (Which might depend on GPS signal integrity, fix times..) • Consider (2) : A personal tracker which is not proactive and requires user actions in emergency. Even though positional accuracy is achieved, lack of proactive measure will be detrimental to credibility and might not add value
- 5. Intellectual Property •Give due importance to Intellectual Property • Validation stage might involve 3rd party vendors, mechanical case designers and many more. Its critical to safeguard the core idea and product pitch before its gets opened up to a wider audience • Lack of IP, will hurt detailed validation as the core team will find it hard to believe 3rd parties involved and might not open up certain features • So, get it filed and go full thrust without inhibitions when features are concerned •Provisional patents might just fit the bill • Provides 12 months coverage • Cost effective compared to conventional patent filings while providing comparable IP coverage during the 12 month coverage period • It might not be necessary to come up with exhaustive list of claims, while filing provisional patent, but its always good to capture as much as details possible and clear as possible during validation stage • Don’t assume that provisional IP is not a real IP. Any lack or deficiency in details or loose description might be counter productive
- 6. Validation Timelines •Define timelines – ASAP ? • Inefficient planning and more time spent in validation, will invite competition and probably might end up in lost opportunity •Plan and budget time for mandatory certification needs • In case, certain mandatory certifications can be done during validation stage, then better get it done • Remember, If the prototype is built very close to final product, then most certifications can be carried forward •For products involving GPS, mobile network access determine time taken for conducting global product validation • This again overlaps with identifying significant requirements impacting customers directly. Validation under global roaming conditions might be one among them
- 7. Intent & Purpose •This presentation serves as a quick look up •Any questions ? Feel free to reach out to • raahul@glytonsolutions.com