EP#12 - Manufacturing Your First Product with Architect turned Product Designer Matt Gilbert

Matt has successfully crowdfunded two projects, the Crane Lamp and the Solstice Clock together raised over £100k on Kickstarter. Join us as we talk about the highs and lows of manufacturing in the UK and in China.  If you had advice for someone wanting to make their own product, what would it be?Start with something small and less complicated and don’t aim for massive numbersTry to use this to learn how to do it, but not necessarily at scale.You can also use this to begin to build your audience and the people who might buy your next product.Visit manufacturers - face to face meetings are still very important, and if they have met you, they will take you more seriously and you can build a stronger relationship with them.Try to do as many things yourself as possible the first time round, even if you get things a bit wrong. If you later want to employ other companies to do your PR etc, you will be able to speak their language having done it yourself the first time around.more manufacturers you visit the more specific you can be, you will enter each conversation wiser.Should manufacturing a product just be left to designers? Or can someone with a good idea do it.Definitely not - anyone can do it. And designers don’t necessarily have the best ideas! But if you are not a designer it is probably best to work with a designer to get your product looking and functioning as you want it to - before approaching a manufacturer.Leaving unsolved design questions and the look of a product to manufacturing stage is risky - difficult to have controlWhat’s it like manufacturing in the UK?Its a mixed bag. It is very difficult to build complicated products in the UK, with lots of parts. There are few contract manufacturers who offer this. Brands have built up their own manufacturing facilities but do not make other peoples products.Its also difficult to find UK companies! There is no alibaba in the UK, and websites of manufacturers are often terrible and rank badly in google.You might find all the individual ingredients in the UK, PCB manufacture, CNC houses, assembly houses. But you will have to manage it and it will be very expensive.UK is best for specialist manufacture - where quality is key, and low volume.What’s the biggest challenge with getting something manufactured in China. Communication - figuring out a bomb proof technique for communicating with the factory, to explain problems etc. But once you have it you can re-use it.Distance and time zonesIf you were to start again what would you do differently.I would try some smaller products that are easier to make first rather than jumping straight in with quite complicated productsI would try to do everything faster - because I am doing everything the first time - I am more cautious and might do too many rounds of samples because I want to be 100% sure. If someone has an idea for an invention, what would you suggest they do first?I think the first thing to consider is making a lifestyle change to allow it to happen. Go to 4 days a week from a full time jobFind a makerspace or somewhere you can prototype it if its physicalStart going to pitching events or crowdfunding events - surround yourself with people doing the same thingMake an incubator for it.What’s your advice on marketing physical products?Beautiful imagery and videos of product but also the processEither get good at this yourself or work with someone else who is good at itBuild an audience by profiling your target market, then use social media to try to reach that target audience