Have a product you’re developing and need help? Using a Design Thinking process, we can help you develop your idea into reality. Maschinenmensch combines design thinking, business and engineering skills to help develop products that not only solve the problem but meet both market and production requirements. We see ourselves as collaborators with marketing, technical and manufacturing background that can fill out your team throughout product development lifetime.
Customer Discovery and Market Research: Market and product research are the starting points for a product developer. By talking to potential customers and sales staff or visiting product review sites, product developers find out what customers want from a product, how they use it and why they prefer certain product features over others. Developers also assess competitors’ products to identify important features and compare performance with equivalent company products. Research helps developers identify the key requirements for a new product or a product upgrade.
Oceanbuilder’s Open Source Project: Aquacycler
Define the problem: You might think we start with defining the problem statement. But unless you’ve done a customer discovery process, you might be solving for the wrong problem. We listen to your need and paired with a customer discovery process, help fine tune the problem statement with expected benefits of the product.
Brainstorming solutions: Using the research findings and the product stakeholders, we lead brainstorming sessions to identify key features to achieve the benefits and how they might manifest as a product. We then estimate costs based on a selected design, fabrication and parts sourcing. We use in house expertise along with a network of experts in engineering, finance and manufacturing to identify the features that can be incorporated within the cost and technical constraints.
Build: When the project team has agreed on the specification, the product developer carries out or supervises detailed design work, preparing working drawings and a prototype if required. The developer collaborates with engineering and technical specialists to ensure that the design takes advantage of the latest materials or technologies. A developer working on an industrial machine, for example, would aim to build in materials and components that reduce maintenance requirements and prolong machine life — benefits that would be important to customers.
Test and Review: We provide prototyping and final stage testing both as a part of our design process and as an a la carte service to provide critical observations the product’s design and success in fulfilling the expected need and benefits. At each stage of the project, we update the project team and other decision makers with deliverables before moving to the next stage. This process ensures that the design continues to meet its marketing, technical and financial objectives. As the design is finalized, the developer prepares final cost estimates and detailed production specifications for the manufacturing team.
