With Thomas Ask, Professor of Industrial Design at Penn College
Hosted by Kevin Mako, President of MAKO Design + Invent
Thomas Ask is a Professor of Industrial Design at Penn College, which stands as a sibling institution to Penn State. With extensive experience spanning over three decades in the realm of hardware product development, he has also played pivotal roles in nurturing two hardware startups. Thomas’s academic journey culminated in the acquisition of a PhD in Industrial Design, further enhancing his expertise. Today, Thomas is going to share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on what ethnocentric design is, why it is valuable for a hardware startup, and the process to ensure you do a great job at getting inside the mind of your customer so that you can best achieve both design and sales success for your invention product.
Today you will hear us talk about:
- Defining what ethnocentric design
- Different cultures
- Different demographics
- Subject matter expert
- Inventing something and inventing something for someone
- A lot of design and invention has ego, but you should take out the ego.
- Instead look at data.
- Identify the problem.
- Develop empathy for the user. What is going on in their life.
- Interview your customer, or prospective customer types.
- Formal ethnographic techniques.
- Processes, understand the user, ideation, feedback.
- Ideation is where you create ideas to match and infuse them to what you have learned from your customer.
- Cultural consensus questionnaire
- First, ensure your end customers are the correct people.
- A structured questionnaire.
- Human observation.
- Many people don’t want radical change from traditional methods, even if it is better.
- If it doesn’t work well and it is not intuitive, people will not use it.
- A dynamic feedback loop ensures success.
Episode Highlights
- 2:20 – We have a passion for designing things that we want. We like to invent things. We like to create something from nothing, to work in the void, and love the idea of what lies over the horizon.
- 3:05 – There’s a difference between inventing something, and inventing something FOR somebody: catering to the people you are designing for – thinking like them, and putting yourself in their shoes.
- 4:10 – We know how to understand what people want from our childhoods.
- 5:30 – We don’t just make beautiful things – we make things that work.
- 6:17 – What people say, and what people do are very different.
- 6:44 – Humans are really good at solving their own problems, but inventors can offer a new perspective to problem-solving.
- 10:10 – The genius of an idea can be lost in translation. Find ways to be clear, and become knowledgeable about what you are building to mitigate cultural identification issues.
- 10:35 – Be super careful when building something that people depend upon for their lives.
- 11:55 – If it doesn’t work well and it’s not intuitive, no one will buy your product.
- 12:25 – Entry ways for an inventor can involve dealing with complex designs.
- 13:30 – Being open to constructive feedback.
- 16:55 – People want to surround themselves with things that reflect their own values and needs.
Thomas Ask Links:
The Product Startup Podcast Links:
https://www.makodesign.com/podcast/
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Mako Design Links:
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Kevin Mako Links:
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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.
About: 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. Also, our founder Kevin Mako hosts The Product Startup Podcast, the industry's leading hardware podcast. Check it out for tips, interviews, and best practices for hardware startups, inventors, and product developers. Click HERE to learn more about MAKO Design + Invent!
