Designing Innovative Products and Experiences

It’s possibly the most important question you must ask yourself. To find the answer to whether you have a product that’s worth developing, you really need to dig deep.

Many first time inventors ask us whether we think they have had a ‘good idea’. Just because something doesn’t exist yet, it doesn’t make it a good idea. A good idea (commercially) is one that can offer benefits or solve problems for a sufficient number of target customers at an acceptable price to justify the cost of bringing the new product to market. In other words, it has the potential to offer a good return on investment.

As an experienced product design company, we have developed research techniques that looks to uncover what customers want in any given product sector. Armed with that knowledge, it is more likely that a successful product can be developed.

Understanding your target market is crucial though! Presenting a high quality visual or prototype to a sample group of your target market is a very powerful way of evaluating the potential of your new idea. We can help you to get to this milestone quickly and cost effectively.

Now here’s a question for you – Do you understand your target market?

Successful businesses understand exactly who their target market is, and what the target market wants or needs. This knowledge is very important. If you have any doubts about this, we would advise you to focus on gaining an in depth knowledge of your target market, what drives their decision making processes when choosing new products? We can help by conducting focused research into your target market and extracting useful insights which can be applied during the development of your new product.

What will happen during our initial consultation?

Firstly we will sign a non disclosure agreement (NDA), so you know your ideas are protected. We will then discuss your project in sufficient depth to allow us to create a written proposal that details exactly how we can help, what it will cost, and how long it will take.

How do you work with with your clients?

Each design agency will have their own way of working, but we found these approaches have been the best for the clients we have worked with.

Option 1 – Fixed price stages based on an agreed design specification.

Option 2 – Hourly paid.

In order to submit fixed costs, we need to have a well detailed design brief and specification. Some businesses prefer fixed costs, some prefer a more flexible arrangement where the design project can evolve and change direction without the need for re quoting.

Our design team can discuss the best approach for you at your initial consultation.

What are the typical steps in a design project?

As a leading UK product design company, 4D Products supports the product design process from pre design research activity, up to sign off of manufactured products when they are in full production. You don’t need to commit to every service we offer, we are happy to support some or all of this process. During fixed price work, we break the project down into logical stages, with pre agreed deliverables, costs, and timescales.

We follow proven product development systems that can be summarised broadly as a process of;

• Understanding
• Designing
• Engineering for Manufacture
• Testing
• Optimising
• Supporting Manufacture

We have a wide range of skills in house, including user and product research, idea generation, industrial design, 3D CAD, Mechanical engineering, prototyping, supply chain liaison, photorealistic rendering, and product animations.

Are you a good fit for my project?

We have 25+ years experience in a wide range of development projects and industry sectors. During our initial discussions we will either explain why our agency is the best choice to be appointed as your product design partner, or give you honest advice if we feel we aren’t.

Getting a new product from initial idea through to manufactured unit for sale on a retailers shelf requires a variety of skills and an appropriate level of investment. Product Design is one part (an important one!) of the whole process. The cost is usually linked to how complex a product is, as more complexity equals more time to complete.

As every design project we work on is unique, we can only give you a written proposal with costs and timescales once we have discussed your requirements at our initial consultation. The following costs need to be considered before the product is sales ready;

• Design costs – Development of the idea, into manufacture ready data.
• Prototype costs – Testing and optimising of the design at key stages.
• Regulatory Approval and testing costs – Making sure your product is safe and legal.
• Manufacturing costs – Investing in tooling and an initial production run.
• Marketing costs – Creating a brand and sales collateral.
• Intellectual Property Costs – Protecting your unique ideas in the most appropriate ways.

Get in touch today to discuss your written proposal.

Established businesses tend to have funding in place before they contact us.

Start up businesses and private inventors may not, so here are a few options to consider;

Do it in stages – By working with 4D Products you can get started with the first stage or two, and then seek further investment when you have high quality design work to present to investors.

UK Government – The UK Government offers grant funding to certain industries which it sees as important to the growth of the UK economy. Latest information can be found at Innovate UK’s website – Innovate UK

Crowd Funding – There has been an explosion of interest in Crowd Funding in recent years. The essence of the idea is that you create a marketing pitch to your potential customers, and ask them to pre order your product before it has been manufactured. Usually at a discounted price to encourage people to buy. There are now a variety of crowdfunding websites operating, so it is worth doing some research to find out which is the best fit for you. Some of the big names include – Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Seeders.

It is worth noting that many successful campaigns spend considerable amounts of money in digital marketing to achieve their goals, so you need to think through how you will drive traffic to your campaign. A whole industry of crowdfunding agencies has sprung up that specialise in campaign planning, marketing, and support.

Local grants – There are often smaller grants available at local, regional level. It is worth visiting your local authorities website to see if anything is available. Criteria and type of grant are always changing, so you need to check what is current in the area that you or your business is based.

In the commercial world, Intellectual Property (IP) plays a very important role. If you are investing time and money in new product development, you need to protect anything that is unique as it adds value to your business.

IP protection is an industry in its own right, but we have provided a summary of the basics you need to know when considering product development.

Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) – A document 2 or more interested parties sign to record that they will not disclose any information discussed. It is good practice to get an NDA with everyone involved in your development project. 4D Products are happy to sign an NDA with our clients. We can provide a template document if you need one.

Patent – Used to protect how a product works.

PCT – The method used to roll your existing patent out from the UK into other regions.

Design Registration – Applied for rights that to protect how your product looks, a more official approach than relying on automatic design rights.

Design Rights – Automatic rights that protect how your product looks.

Copyright – Automatically assigned, used to protect written work and images.

Trademarking – Used to protect brand names and logos.

Patent Attorney – A qualified expert who specialises in the field of Intellectual Property.

For more detailed information, visit the Intellectual Property section of the UK Government website.

A strong brand

If you have a great product with a well crafted brand, that is protection in itself, as consumers will seek out your specific brand, not your competitors. Example – “I’m off to by a new Dyson”

When should an idea be protected?

Sometimes we are approached by clients who already have a patent. This is fine if the patent protects ideas that can be used to create a great product. It can be a problem if the design team envisages a better product or solution that isn’t covered by the existing patent.

With that in mind, we would advise our clients to do some initial design work with us to explore the idea and generate innovative ideas for how the new product can be best designed. The best elements can then be protected and used. As we work under non disclosure agreements, you can be safe in the knowledge your ideas and ours will be kept strictly confidential.

We might be a multi award-wining product design company, but we can’t do everything. So unfortunately, we don’t offer sales services.

That said, our mission is to design a product together, so well, and that appeals to your target market as much as possible, we deliver a product that is easy to sell.