How to develop a product during a pandemic?
Developing a product at the best of times can be challenging, but during a pandemic, it is even more difficult.
The main challenges we found during this pandemic were:
Materials have been hard to source.
Products were challenging to produce.
It was very challenging to communicate new concepts.
Prototyping challenges
Traditionally, our clients would have a concept and would usually choose to start prototyping as soon as possible to test or find out what their final design was going to look like. Unfortunately, this was not possible during the pandemic because a lot of prototyping businesses were closed.
Sourcing materials was another problem, especially if they were sourced from overseas. To rectify that, we replaced the traditional prototyping process with virtual design and digital twinning. This allowed us to massively reduce the prototyping journey and also helped our clients to get feedback from manufacturers and investors.
Communicating a product during a pandemic
Before the pandemic, a lot of our clients had appointments in the diary to discuss their project with commercial partners. Unfortunately, when the pandemic arrived, it meant a lot of face-to-face meetings didn’t happen. Therefore, they were going to miss out on opportunities.
We offered them a new solution to access those opportunities by using digital twinning. We created photorealistic representations of their products, allowing our clients to present their final design to investors via video calls. More importantly, they were able to demonstrate their product in its final state. This method was much more effective than taking a rough prototype to the meeting, which doesn’t present the product in its best light.
R3NDER had been offering these services before the pandemic, but it wasn’t until the pandemic happened that a lot of other businesses or entrepreneurs were finding our methods solved a problem and allowed businesses to continue innovating.