The essence of more than 20 years of design consulting. Product designer Markus Wild puts it in a nutshell here:

1. don't focus on yesterday's hits if you need another year before your product is launched on the market.

2. transfer success strategies, not success design. Don't ask your product designer if he can style your machine tool in the i-pod design. Don't forget that behind a small product with an apple there is a huge development machine that generates an immense amount of work.

3. don't start a design revolution. See good product design as the sum of many good decisions. Don't make design decisions just for the sake of originality. Rather listen to the wisdom of the crowd, but... make small details different, better than the others. Show your style in small ways.

4. recognizability is good, but don't overdo it with the family design. Resist the temptation to dip all your products in a pot of paint filled with your logo color .

5. use the pursuit of perfection as a constant drive to improve quality, but do not waste energy (time & money) unnecessarily by trying to achieve 100%. Instead, look for values beyond perfection, emotional allusions, small disturbances that trigger positive feelings and associations in the viewer.

6. if more than 50% of the people you ask do not understand the product, its benefits or the idea, you immediately move the project to the futurism drawer. If the percentage is over 20%, you still have a lot of homework to do. Complete this before you start development.

7. quantify your expectations of success, sales figures, unit sales etc. at an early stage. Reduce them by 50% if you have an established brand on the market. And by 90% if you are new to the market. If the result still pays off, get started.

8. constantly look for dissenting opinions, not confirmation. Continually seek opinions, especially from people who don't think like you or your colleagues. Be your first and most committed critic. Leave the promotion to others. Let the momentum of the creative process inspire you, but don't let it blind you - keep your distance.

9. test - improve. Test - Improve, Test - Improve until everything works as easily and naturally as if you had been using the product all your life.

We are happy to help you avoid product design flops.
WILDDESIGN | contact us by email: info@wilddesign.de