How to come up with a new product idea?

Be curious

Many people are fortunate enough to have that eureka moment, where an idea pops into their head, and they run with it from there. However, if you don’t fall within that category and want to develop a new product idea, you should question different products around you. Some things to think about are:

Why products work the way they do?

What problems do they solve?
How do they work?

That might lead you onto improving an existing product. Alternatively, look at problems in your day-to-day life and think about what solutions you could implement to make life a bit easier.

Test your idea

When you have a product idea, most inventors would make a rough prototype straight away. Sometimes, these can be made from cardboard or even household materials that will give you a good impression of what your product may look like in future.

Traditionally, from there, you would progress down the physical prototyping route to achieve a robust prototype. However, we recommend taking a different approach because that journey can be very; repetitive, laborious and expensive.

Our suggestion is for you to develop a digital twin of your product. That will allow you to test the product artificially and create a photorealistic virtual model. With the photorealistic imagery, you can request feedback from many sources, including potential clients and commercial partners. This will help you understand the viability of your new idea before you invest in a robust prototype.

React to feedback

Once you’ve managed to achieve some feedback, be sure to acknowledge the information and take actions. Reacting positively to feedback will give you the best chance of creating a viable product. At the end of the day, you want your product to be as appealing to your market as possible, right? So, ensure that you accept all feedback and use it as inspiration to make final design changes, before you progress down the manufacturing route.