![]() Property aside, what's the most expensive thing you've bought? A vacation to the Bahamas. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? I am trying not to deplore so much. Which living person do you most admire and why? Nelson Mandela, for obvious reasons. What is your earliest memory? The Empire State Building, age three. ![]() Product QuickStart’s services are specifically geared toward small to mid-sized companies, startups, inventor-entrepreneurs, and larger organizations that still embrace an entrepreneurial spirit. If you need help with product design, engineering, prototypes, or manufacturing, we would love to talk to you.Ĭheck us out at is your greatest fear? Stupid people with guns. Product QuickStart delivers experience-driven product design and development services in a cost-efficient, streamlined way. Our team has developed and launched hundreds of products, in many different industries over the past few decades. Of course, in the Hudsucker Proxy, Tim Robbins’ character answers the “who” but doesn’t address the “what” or the “why”, leaving people confused about his product idea.īottom line… You need to answer all three questions as you are developing, or communicating your product idea. And, don’t bother developing a “what”, unless you can strongly and honestly answer the “who” and the “why”.Īre you open to an alternative to the traditional, over-priced, design and development firm model? Only by pushing into a definition of ‘who’ would want their tech, and ‘why’, were we able to build an understanding of the real market for their technology. It wasn’t campers and hikers at all – it turns out that their technology was a much better fit for needs in the home use category. So, they avoided a massive investment into a new product line that was likely destined to fail. ![]() Years ago, I was engaged by a technology startup to help them develop a really nice line of rugged, portable, water purification products that were to be built around a new technology they had created. The client was focused on the camping and hiking market, and was determined to build products for that market. Unfortunately, their focus was on all the features of the product/technology (the 'what') – and they extrapolated those into assumed needs in the camping world, without taking a step back to ask who really wanted what they had, and why might they want it. When developing a new product, I find it to be extremely useful to not simply consider ‘what’ we are developing, but also ‘who’ it’s being developed for and ‘why’. In a lot of cases, the who and the why can actually be more important than the what. One temptation is to focus on the features of the product. It does this, it does that, it has this, it has that… The new product is shatter proof, made of recycled plastic, and easily fits in a backpack… while these may all be interesting elements of the product, they don’t really answer the key questions: Who cares, and why? While the “you know, for kids” line is comically lacking in detail for the purposes of the movie, it points to some real life challenges that product developers sometimes face. It is often very challenging to fully convey the greatness of a product to investors, upper management, potential partners, or retail buyers. The problem is, nobody really gets what the idea is, and nobody really takes it seriously. Watch the movie and you will understand. I’m sure it’s streaming somewhere. In the movie, Tim Robbin’s most iconic line is “You know, for kids”, which is how he describes his character’s great idea. If you saw ‘The Hudsucker Proxy’ in theatres, you are in a very select club. More likely, you’ve seen it run on late night TV, or maybe you rented it from Blockbuster sometime last century. Most likely, unless you are a fan of the Coen brothers, you haven’t seen it at all. While it arguably wasn’t quite as good as Raising Arizona, Fargo, the Big Lebowski, or No Country for Old Men, it’s worth watching – so I won’t include any spoilers here.
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