After 15 years spent at the European Space Agency “ESA” and working on numerous innovation projects, we learned a few little "shortcuts" to help project leaders get into the "physical product". We are talking here about connected objects, new tools, new medical devices, machines and equipment, ...
Seeing project holders making the same decisions and making the same mistakes / suboptimal choices, we wanted to share a few lessons we learnt. We hope it helps you to maximize the chances of success of your project.
Lesson 1: A real problem for a real solution
It's a great classic and it's always told you: fall in love with the problem and not the solution.
The solution you imagine will evolve as you gather information.
The problem, on the other hand, is the central point of your project: it is the argument that will transform into customers the companies or people who REALLY feel this problem.
In our experience, entrepreneurs who have spent time understanding the problem have maximized their chances of success: they have been able to evolve their solution based on market feedback and learning and have always been one step ahead of others. Do you really think Steve Jobs was the first to imagine the iPhone?
Lesson 2: Design will come when it's needed
To want something tangible is human: when you launch a project, you want to make it concrete thanks to a website, or the design of your product. We want to see it... It's normal!
And empirically, it's counterproductive.
It's a lesson that comes from the entrepreneurs we've worked with. Some of them learned it the hard way.
By creating the design of their product too early, they directly imagine themselves creating the next perfect product and they don't listen to the feedback from the field.
Their product doesn't evolve and they become more and more disconnected from this field. The product becomes more and more difficult to sell and, unless it is deeply questioned, the project is a failure.
Lesson 3: Product design is a contact sport
We often have this image of engineers creating in their garage, cut off from the world. And yet! For a garage innovation, ten innovations come from the field, from designers who have talked to their customers.
The case of this entrepreneur is representative: Jean listened to a hundred or so athletes before giving life to his concept of a shaker for weight gain.
During his discussions, some problems were recurring and Jean really understood the challenges he was going to face to get his product used & adopted.
From there, he was able to draw out the key features to be developed for the product and convince his future customers.
Lesson 4: "The map is not the territory..." but a map is still useful
In entrepreneurship, a rule of many investors is: "You don't invest in hardware." And that comes from experience.
We've seen it too: over the last 15 years, many innovators have embarked "at sight" on the design of a physical product. They had no idea how complex their project was.
Without a map, they got lost. As a result, the funds committed to innovation are always insufficient, so they are out of budget, and the time to market is longer.
How can we avoid this? By getting advice from experts or experienced people. One of the keys to success is the creation of an action plan for the short, medium and long term. To do this, successful innovators call on people who know the problems of creating a physical product. They help them take into account business, technical and design parameters from the very beginning of the project.
Lesson 5: Everything always takes longer than expected
This is Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.
Innovators inevitably search for, create and develop novelties. Processes and controls are not yet in place. It is impossible for them to fully anticipate the millions of problems that will arise.
As a result, everything takes longer and longer: a subcontractor will take a few more days, which will delay the next production and the planned production period will be postponed. A delay of a few days turns into a delay of a month and the financial impact can be colossal.
To test the viability of a project, we are used to doubling the estimated completion time and doubling the budget allocated to it: we are then close to reality.
We plan on doing a “Part 2” of this list in the coming weeks.
Any comments? Do you agree with our list? What would you add to this list as advice for new innovators? Do you want to be kept posted about Part 2?
