Product Startup

172: Early Concept Design for a New Hardware Invention

Listen Later

Rob Colgan has worked for Mako Design for almost 10 years, working with well over 100 physical product startups on developing an invention idea into a real consumer product. He went to school for both mechanical design and industrial design, along with building many custom cars and motorcycles as a hobby. Today Rob is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers can understand the key initial steps to developing a new invention idea, the product guidelines that start it all off right through to concept sketches, Computer Aided Design work, and visual renderings.

Today you will hear us talk about:

  • Features that function well
  • Sketch products out
  • Break down the components
  • There are multiple different ways of sketching
  • Quick doodles to get some ideas onto paper
  • The problem with sketching is you lose the 3D element
  • Start a new product on the skeletal level
  • Figure out how that system of components works
  • Skinning the product
  • Ergonomics and user interaction
  • Form follows function
  • Don’t stress the aesthetics too much early on
  • Think about use case.
  • The initial view sparks a lot of questions
  • Collaboration is core
  • Fine-tune the initial components
  • Transition from concept sketches into 
  • Modern design is clean and timeless
  • Better not to follow trends, and think about cleanliness
  • It’s not just you to appreciate the design, it’s the entire market.
  • After concept ideation, get into serious CAD software


    • EPISODE LINKS:

    Rob Colgan Links:

    Website


    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


    Partner: PTC’s best-in-class software solutions Onshape: The only cloud-native product development platform that delivers full-featured computer-aided design (CAD), integrated product data management (PDM) and enterprise analytics in a single system, and Creo: 3D CAD solution that provides designers with the most innovative tools to build better products faster, such as generative design, additive manufacturing, real-time simulation, IIoT, and augmented reality.


    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.

    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store
    Product StartupBy Kevin Mako of MAKO Design + Invent
    • 5
    • 5
    • 5
    • 5
    • 5

    5

    64 ratings