How to design a physical product [a guide for startups]

You've got a great idea for a physical product. You're sure it's useful, innovative and that everyone would buy it. In fact, it's such a good idea you can hardly believe nobody has thought of it before. This is your chance to make it big.

But turning that idea spinning around in your head into a physical product you can hold, manufacture and sell can feel like an impossible dream. Well, here's some good news: creating a physical product is easier than it looks. Discover the steps to design, validate and manufacture a successful physical product, even if you're a startup or just getting started.

What is physical product design?

It's the process by which an idea takes shape as a product that can be sold. It covers an enormous range: from a water bottle to a pair of sneakers, by way of a plug socket. Whatever the object, to succeed it has to meet one premise: solving a real need. It doesn't matter how innovative the product is, how great its design or how big its advertising campaign. It has to be genuinely useful. Physical product design is simply that: thinking through what a specific product should be in order to solve a particular problem.

What does the process of designing a product look like?

Designing a physical product means working through four clearly distinct stages. The first is brainstorming, the creative phase where anything goes: what the product is for, what its functions are and what basic features it needs. The second is design and planning, where you sketch it on paper, build a digital prototype and work out the concept in detail. This is the most important phase, because it's still easy to make changes, and it's where you should validate that the product will be well received, that its design keeps production costs down and that it's suitable to ship and sell.

The third stage is prototyping, the magic moment when your idea takes physical form and you can touch the product for the first time: a few samples are made on a small scale with variations in size, materials or features. Our advice is to hand it to someone in your circle who's been outside the process, who'll look at it with fresh eyes and give you a valuable perspective. The fourth is manufacturing: designing the drawings for each part with 3D software, finding the best suppliers for each component and reaching agreements with the manufacturer on deadlines, quality, production capacity and costs.

Can I turn my idea into a product without spending a fortune?

The answer is yes, but you need to know how. From our experience, here are four pieces of advice: define your target audience clearly so you design the product exactly the way your buyers want it; carry out a competitive study by buying and analyzing similar products to make sure yours will be better; check with the patent office so your design doesn't infringe any existing patent; and raise funds through a crowdfunding round, which besides the cash is a fast way to test how well the product is received.

The great product designs in history

Product design spans everything from a simple paper clip to the most complex hospital equipment. Some of the most iconic designs, the Gillette razor, the Barcelona chair by Mies van der Rohe, the Anglepoise lamp, the Vespa, the Polaroid, the Tupperware, the Smeg fridge, the Chupa Chups, the Walkman, the PlayStation, the Roomba, the iPhone, the Fitbit, the Kindle or the Tesla Model S, are wildly different products with one thing in common: they solve a specific problem. And almost every successful design of recent decades shares something else too: they're everyday products that, thanks to technology, add an extra something that makes people's lives easier.

At Neurafy we specialize in helping CEOs, small businesses and entrepreneurs turn great ideas into excellent physical products with the latest digital technology. If it can be imagined, it can be made: get in touch and tell us about that million dollar idea.