West Stringfellow rose the ranks in the early days of Amazon emerging as Head of Product.  He has also been an executive in innovation at Target, Paypal, Visa, & Rosetta Stone.  He even ran a Techstars incubator for a couple years.  Now West runs HowDo, a completely free education platform to help anyone become a successful entrepreneur.  Today West is going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventors, startups, and small manufacturers should focus on understanding the customer to gain strong insight into early product development and marketing planning. He will explain how some of the best customer-facing companies in the world do this, and how you can learn from that to do this for your next hardware product.
EPISODE LINKS
West Stringfellow / HowDo Links:


LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weststringfellow/



Website: https://howdo.com/



The Product Startup Podcast Links:


Website: https://www.ProductStartup.com/



Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ProductStartup/



LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ProductStartup/



Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ProductStartup/



Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ProductStartup/



Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ProductStartup/



Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProductStartup



YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MakoInvent


 
Mako Design Links:


Website: https://www.makodesign.com/



YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MakoInvent



Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MakoInvent/



LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/MakoDesign/



Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MakoInvent/



Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/MakoInvent/



Twitter: https://twitter.com/MakoInvent/


 
Kevin Mako Links:


Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Entrepreneurs/



LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/KevMako/



Quora: https://www.quora.com/profile/Kevin-Mako



Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KevMakoPage/



Twitter: https://twitter.com/KevMako/


 
Thanks for tuning in! See you next time.

077: Using Prospective Customers to Develop a Product

The Product Startup Podcast is the hardware product development industry's #1 podcast. From invention idea to getting onto store shelves, and everything in between.  Hear how inventors, product startups, & small manufacturers created their inventions and launched their physical product businesses.  Learn from the industry's top industrial designers, mechanical engineers, PCB designers, consumer product managers, manufacturers, patent attorneys, hardware investors, product sellers, wholesalers, retailers and more. Learn about industrial design / product design, prototyping, 3d printing, additive manufacturing, product manufacturing, marketing, selling, patenting, logistics, and product business scaling.  Hosted by Kevin Mako, North America’s leading expert on product development for physical product startups, founder of Mako Design + Invent, keynote speaker, and Masters of Engineering lecturer.  Produced by MAKO Design + Invent, the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors.

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Jon Davids, acclaimed for his book "Marketing Superpowers: Build a Brand So Good That Your Marketing Feels Like Magic," is the driving force behind Influicity. Having stood at the helm as Founder and CEO for over a decade, he has expertly guided hundreds of brands in fostering vibrant digital communities. Today, Jon will generously afford insight into the key pillars of developing a digital community for your new product venture to inform modern inventors, startups, and small manufacturers. He will share when is the best time to begin community-building efforts and effective strategies for generating momentum even before your product's official launch.   Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://www.makodesign.com/podcast/228-how-to-build-a-digital-community-before-launching-your-invention/   Key Takeaways in This Episode:What aspect of your product do you believe in? Is it the solution it offers or the way it improves your life? You need to establish Faith in this with your customers.
 Action is the next step after Faith. Use what you believe and the experts who support this belief to establish trust when promoting your product.
 You don't need to become a content creator. Create content in the form that you are best suited for.
 Authenticity is the most important thing, and it’s very easy to do as an inventor.
 Consistency in your messaging is important! Keep repeating the message over and over.
 Show customers where the payoff is from following your single belief.
 If you don’t have anything to sell just yet, then encourage consumers to follow along your journey through a blog, newsletter or social media channel.
 Become an undeniable authority in your specific space.
 Celebrities don’t just sell products because they are famous, they are successful with their hardware products because they build loyal communities.
   MAKO Design + Invent: www.makodesign.com   Kevin Mako: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevmako   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, <a href="https://www.makodesign.com/services/product-prototyping/" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

228: How to Build a Digital Community Before Launching Your Invention

Jeff Lerner is the CEO of Misnomer, a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer and Brand Development Agency. He boasts an impressive career, having collectively raised $400 million through venture capitalists and formerly served as a marketing lead at Google for several years. Today, Jeff will draw on his extensive experience to afford insight to inventors, startups, and small manufacturers looking to sell their inventions directly to larger corporations for promotional use. He will detail effective strategies for identifying how your product can impactfully enhance a corporation's value or improve operations, as well as the various types of promotional products that new product startups and inventors often overlook and their varied applications.   Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://www.makodesign.com/podcast/227-how-to-sell-your-invention-direct-to-companies-as-a-promotional-product/   Key Takeaways in This Episode:How does selling your product to companies as a promotional product differ from D2C sales?
 There are multiple avenues you can take to get your promotional product sold to larger companies. 
 Find the one person in your target organization that encounters the problem your product solves. Make this person look like a hero by bringing that solution to their team.
 Reach out to various members within the company to gain an understanding of the overarching organizational situation and evaluate how your product or service can solve large issues.
 How does your product improve the value of the organization?
 How does your product add value to their sales process? Every company wants more business and greater revenue.
 There are a number of creative ways to determine how your product fits into the promotional products landscape of a corporation.
 If your product is new, you have an advantage in that it is unique and has never been seen before. However, the disadvantage is that you will need to educate the customer as to why they need it.
 If your product is an improved version of an existing product, it will likely be easier to educate potential customers and thus sell.
  Start by selling locally through networking groups or local trade shows; you will be surprised at how many you find.
   MAKO Design + Invent: www.makodesign.com   Kevin Mako: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevmako   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, <a href="https://www.makodesign.com/services/mechanical-engineering/" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

227: How to Sell Your Invention Direct to Companies as a Promotional Product

Valentin Radu, CEO and Founder of Omniconvert, wrote the book on Customer Lifetime Value – literally. He has collaborated with an extensive range of direct-to-consumer eCommerce brands to elevate their marketing strategies, which informed his development of "The CLV Revolution," a guidebook dedicated to revolutionizing customer value optimization for eCommerce businesses. Today, Valentin will divulge the core frameworks of his guidebook salient to today's inventors, startups, and small manufacturers. He will detail how to differentiate between profit and perceived value – emphasizing the importance of centring your marketing efforts on the solution your product offers – and share strategies for boosting the price customers are prepared to pay for your latest invention.   Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://www.makodesign.com/podcast/226-maximizing-your-inventions-perceived-value-through-marketing/   Key Takeaways in This Episode:Nail down the unit economics before you begin developing marketing approaches.
 The core formula to use is customer lifetime value divided by customer acquisition cost.
 Customer research is a vital step to take before spending money on marketing.
 Try to maximize the sales up front! This requires great brand and product messaging.
 People don’t buy products for the features; they buy them for the solutions they provide.
 It is better to focus on the pain point, as people are more inclined to shell out money to solve these issues.
 Based on your marketing approach, you can increase the price people are willing to pay for your product without changing any features.
 Harvard Business Review states that most buying decisions are based on emotional decisions, not logic.
 Use features and technology to validate your claims regarding how you are improving your customer's life.
   MAKO Design + Invent: www.makodesign.com   Kevin Mako: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevmako   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,...

226: Maximizing Your Invention’s Perceived Value Through Marketing

John Conafay entered the manufacturing sector in 2014 after contributing to the United States Air Force for years as a communications and systems specialist. Following a wide array of collaborations with hardware startups and aerospace companies, he noticed a lack of refined communication tools, which culminated in the creation of Integrate – a unique software designed to streamline communication in the hardware development realm. Today, John will share how he made this discovery and how critical segregating communication channels is for modern inventors, startups, and small-scale manufacturers. John will identify the primary stakeholders in product development and elucidate the advantages of a meticulously constructed information framework for hardware product businesses.   Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://www.makodesign.com/podcast/225-communication-silos-for-product-design-stakeholders/   Key Takeaways in This Episode:Hardware development requires extensive communication between internal designers, internal engineers, customers, manufacturers, and investors. All of them need the right information at the right time.
 It’s important to have a system that controls how information is disseminated to ensure the right information is available for the right stakeholders.
 Firewalls are incredibly important for information security in consumer product development.
 Make sure you maintain your source of truth!
 Ensure that changes that occur in documents are tracked in real time so that all team members are on the same page.
 Intellectual property should be protected to a high degree!
 You heavily reduce the need for meetings, overhead, and unnecessary administrative work when integrating communication silos.
 Risk is reduced if you have teams spread across a variety of places and even a variety of countries.
   MAKO Design + Invent: www.makodesign.com   Kevin Mako: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevmako   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 <a...

225: Communication Silos for Product Design Stakeholders

Danny Angers, one of the pioneering Co-Founders of VOSKER cameras, uncovered something fascinating regarding how users were employing their products and used it to his advantage to expand his brand substantially. In just 5 years, VOSKER has grown to achieve an astounding $150 million in annual sales across 45 countries and boasts the distribution of over 2 million devices worldwide. Today, Danny graciously affords budding inventors, startups, and small-scale manufacturers insight into his experience scaling VOSKER. He will delve into the efficacy of listening to your customers to inform the product iteration phase in order to boost the satisfaction of existing clients and identify verticals that you may not have explored without external insight.   Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://www.makodesign.com/podcast/224-expanding-your-product-into-new-verticals/   Key Takeaways in This Episode:Listen to your existing and prospective customers! Oftentimes, your clients will tell you what they need from your product.
 Innovation starts coming in from the client.
 The way you help your customers help you is by asking them how they are using your product.
 As a new hardware startup, you have the liberty to aggressively reach out to your initial customers.
 When your customer base increases, you can start sampling a portion of it to get a better idea of who the customers are.
 Send customers who send you positive feedback the next version of your product that is designed to help a specific customer persona.
 Around half of your customers will respond to outreach, which is more than enough.
 Ensure that you listen to customers when customizing the product for each new vertical that you have identified as an opportunity.
 You don’t necessarily need to create a product for every vertical. 
 Focus on an MVP at every stage, and ensure each level is successful so that you can piggyback off that success.
 Failure is a key part of the process to success as well!
   MAKO Design + Invent: www.makodesign.com   Kevin Mako: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevmako   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, <a href="https://www.makodesign.com/services/patent-referrals/"...

077: Using Prospective Customers to Develop a Product

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