4 Things I learned designing and launching a new product from scratch
Over the past 9 months, I have been designing a new product from scratch. More specifically a travel pillow called the Voyage Pillow, which just launched on Kickstarter!
It has been a rewarding process going from idea to launch day and these are five things I learned through the journey.
The process can make you feel extremely vulnerable.
I’ve never been a performer, an artist, or a musician. So putting my own ideas and creation out into the world for others to critique as if I was in front of them on stage, made me feel vulnerable. This one thing I’ve put months of work into — what are my friends and family going to think, how is the internet going to respond, was I going to get turned into an internet meme?!
During the initial design and sample process, it was like Area 51 — total lockdown. I enjoyed every minute of making progress on the project but was struggling to really bring myself out there to show anyone what I was working for fear of criticism. I began second guessing myself and knew that if this was going to be something I shared with the world, I had to start opening myself up to feedback, the good and the bad.
Once this became part of the process, I learned that…
You’d be surprised when you simply ask for help.
People can be remarkable, from close friends to complete strangers. You can’t simply rely entirely on yourself to ensure every moving part comes together for launch day. Buy a case of beer and invite a group of friends over to bounce ideas off of. Find a niche facebook group or subreddit and ask complete strangers how something makes them feel. People really are inherently good people and can be surprisingly helpful from bold favors to deep insights.
When I was getting ready to film my Kickstarter video, I thought — well this is going to be difficult filming an informative video on a plane full of random passengers. Then I decided to just e-mail a completely random contact at the local airport I found on LinkedIn. I told him my story and asked if there was any chance I could get access to plane for a few hours. The outcome was complete access to numerous planes for an afternoon inside the airport hanger, at completely no charge to me. Score!
Having the opportunity to connect with the airport that afternoon wouldn’t have to come about if it didn’t go head, write the email, and …
Just do it.
There is nothing worse than feeling like a wantrepreneur. The key factor that separates them from a true entrepreneur is action. When ideas are floating around in your head - commit to yourself you are going to take action. Grab a pen and write that idea down on a piece of paper. It could be as broad as start a youtube channel to something more specific such as build a social app revolving around the sneaker community. Lay out the steps that you feel will lead you to that ultimate goal. This process is the first step in taking action.
One afternoon I grabbed a pillow off my bed, pulled a balaclava out of my ski bag, and let my sewing machine handle the rest. By that evening I had the first iteration of an idea that was floating around in head. This action was the domino that set the entire process in motion.
That feeling of vulnerability I mentioned might start to kick in at this point. So take a step back and remember…
Regardless of the outcome, acknowledge your victories.
On launch day if your project isn’t the homerun success you were hoping it would be, take a moment to look back at where you started from and where you are now. YOU CREATED SOMETHING! You also probably learned something new, solved a lot of problems you were faced with, and pressed GO to bring that product to life. Take what you learned up to that point and take action.
I really hated all of the travel pillows that I used when traveling. So I set out to make one that solved all of the problems I saw in current products on the market. I have a fully finished product that I use for every trip I go on in the future. Even if no one ever purchased one from me, I think that’s pretty damn awesome.
If you’d like to check out what I created — check out the Voyage Pillow now live on Kickstarter!
