177: Package Design Tips for New Hardware Products

Justin Chen is the Co-Founder of PickFu, a platform that helps businesses survey real people about their key visual decisions.  They have administered over 5 million queries over the last 12 years.  Today Justin is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on why hardware product packaging is so important, how to design great packaging, and how to use real feedback to iteratively improve and perfect your package design.

Today you will hear us talk about:

Friends and family feedback is okay, but 

Look at the competition to understand what the standards are for packaging

Packaging as an afterthought is a mistake, as packaging is a big part of your 

Eye catching.  Make sure you stand out from the competition

Put badges on the packaging to attract customer

Informative packaging is about what the important selling points are of a product

Have people rank selling points.

What are the questions that a buyer may have?

Hardware packaging is essentially a digital billboard.

Include your physical packaging in your digital marketing materials

The more attention to detail you put on your product packaging, the more confident you are on the product.

Make a few variations of your packaging design, then start with big picture creative options, then show them to people for them to pick their favorite.

Then keep iterating and narrowing down the packaging over and over.

Then test that package design on competitors.

This method de-risks packaging.

A big question to ask customers is to say, what does your new hardware product do?

Hardware startups should factor in high quality packaging and more informative packaging.

EPISODE LINKS:

Justin Chen Links:

LinkedIn | PickFu

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

https://www.ProductStartup.com/

Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook Page | Facebook Group | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube

Mako Design Links:

https://www.makodesign.com/

YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter

Kevin Mako Links:

Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter

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Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories.