Page 35 - 10 Most admired Hardware and Devices Startup 2020

From a very early development stage you need to be This can be a great strategy if you have unlimited capital
thinking about how to design your product so it’s easy and unlimited time. Maybe in ten years you’ll have your
to manufacture. This is called Design-For-Manufacturing perfect product. Sorry for the sarcasm but I just wanted
(DFM). The sooner you begin incorporating DFM practices to drive home the point. Obviously, no one has unlimited
into your design the easier and less costly it will be when it money or time so this strategy is almost always a bad idea
comes time to scale manufacturing. (Steve Jobs may be a notable exception).

For most electronic hardware products the plastic I instead encourage the strategy known as Minimum
enclosure is the most complicated part to scale to mass Viable Product (MVP) which was made popular by Eric
manufacturing. This is because completely different Ries in his bestselling book The Lean Startup. Start by
technologies are used for making plastic prototypes (3D developing the simplest version of your product with only
printing) versus production units (injection molding). the core required features. Get that version on the market
Injection molding requires adherence to very strict so you can begin to gather real feedback. Then use that
design rules, so most plastic pieces require considerable feedback to create the new and improved version 2.0 of
modifications to prepare them for injection molding. your product. This is a strategy commonly employed when
developing software, but it also works great for hardware.
#3 – Insufficient quality testing and shipping bad product
I find that it’s also helpful to begin by listing every feature
You’ve spent all of this effort and money to get your you’d like to include. Then do the work to estimate the
product ready for market. Don’t ruin your opportunity by production cost for each feature. Based on your results,
shipping faulty products to your customers. In the early you can then make a better decision on which features you
stages of manufacturing it’s definitely best to err on the should include in your product.
side of too much quality testing. This is true even if it
means you won’t make any profit initially. #5 – Overpromising to customers
A sure way to kill your startup is to ship a bunch of Don’t promise something until you have it in your
defective units. Of course, a small percentage of flaws will hands. Regardless of when your development team says
always make it past your testing (no production process something will be ready, it’s best not to promise anything
is ever 100% perfect) but you should strive to reduce the until you have tested the product yourself.
defect rate to about 1%.
On the other hand, it’s good to have customers involved
#4 – Feature creep as early as possible. I’m not advocating that you ignore
customers until you have inventory ready to ship. Keep
You may have heard the phrase feature creep before. them updated on your progress, and perhaps give some
It’s a common mistake made by a lot of entrepreneurs. approximate dates. Just don’t overpromise on what you
You’re passionate about your product, so you want it can deliver.
to be perfect. This means not only must everything
work perfectly but your product also must have every
conceivable feature.

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