7 Steps How to Redesign Physical Products - For Industrial product Designers

How do you really redesign physical products when it comes to industrial design and product design? In my previous podcast, I've given you clarity on how to make a digital product redesign. Okay, so this is exclusively for physical like let's say tangible products which people have see holistically. Both are products and it's solving a problem and it's going to the customer and he is feeling the experience. Right? Only thing the material comes in the tangibility of the manufacturing and all these things comes in. Except that fact process is 99% same. Only the one percentage difference is the physical materials. Okay. But the experience is same. So you have to understand you can learn from this perspective. Also, I'm a mechanical engineer and a product designer who dealt lot of projects with physical products design. That's the reason I've been recording this podcast, because a lot of people out there are also looking for that.

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So I'm giving you a perspective for both of the audience. So listen it out carefully so that you can learn lot more things.

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Because I'm starting this with this particular information so that you can be real. Let's jump into this podcast. Foreign. Welcome to this podcast. Thank you for staying tuning in with me. Design for change is reaching 25 plus countries and 6,000 close to impressions are happening. And I'm really happy that the overwhelming support was great. So have your word around your friends and your design community circle to make sure pass on to them and tell them about this particular podcast, what value it had brought to you so that you are doing a good karma which is helping them for sure.

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So irrespective of people, they take different, different programs. I have a very strong conviction that people who are following the design for change will get a very unique perspective on triggering your own sense of being a designer, being your own honest self, of solving a problem through your way. Because I believe every human in this world make a unique trait so that uniqueness needs to come into your design. Design is not about mucking up some syllabus or learning from some podcast or video or design college and then redesigning it. No, it's about you bringing your own perspective, your value system, your own honesty in design. Why you wanted to design this really matters. And if you are able to correlate all these things, your economy is balanced properly. Okay? Once your economy is balanced properly, no matter what guys, you will do wonders. Whatever you touch will change into a great gold and your product and services, what you're offering is gonna like by rest of the world.

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So truly I believe that is happening for you when you're listening to this podcast. So please subscribe to my further episodes also to get notified and if you can give me five star rating in Apple and Spotify, I would be really happy. And this encourages a lot of other people to also come into this podcast. Okay, thank you and a deep gratitude. I wanted to convey this to you guys. So in this podcast I'm telling you the different aspects of how do you redesign physical products? Okay, so when it comes to physical product, like let's say you take car or maybe table or a chair or something. Okay? So let's have a very good understanding that everything is giving you a customer user experience and it solves a problem. That's a very clear understanding. But the overlying factors here how do you redesign the physical products? How do industrial designer really comes in picture to solve it? The very first thing what an industrial designer redesigns some product is first researching about the existing product in an extensive way. See here there is no thinking process involved to ideate some new problem brief. Okay, There is no scope for that because your problem is already there. You are just redesigning it. So first researching about your product very, very strongly understanding its pros and cons in a very honest way. Not just taking only the pros just because it's your product. No, seeing the both sides will give you a balanced, positive, lovable perspective of being a designer. If you take one side, you'll get biased for sure, which is a very bad trait of a designer. The second thing is study your competitor and benchmark it. Try to make a SWOT analysis of your of your competitors, okay, which is like strength, weakness, opportunity and threat. You can divide it into four columns and write what's your competitor strength, what their weakness opportunity thread for all the different competitors. Who is directly and indirectly touching you? Again, what is direct touching? It's like a same exact product. What you have, your competitor also has indirect is somebody who's making any partial product or service or maybe he's in a different field, but he has a very similar offering. What you have or maybe the value add what you make is very much similar. So you can think about that in a parallel industry. Also, he might be there in medical industry, but you might be there in consumer products. But your technology is same. Your user experience is same. The problem you're solving is almost same. Maybe the entire value stack is different, maybe the entire customer experience put together in a different field is different. But you have to understand that, okay? Because this helps you largely to grasp some Interesting perspective from the other area. Sec. The third important point you will have to understand is making sure how do you really think and envision this gap?

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It's not about thinking and creating some new product which can come. Hold on.

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That will come a little later. But you have to think and bridge the gap first. See here you will have to be very careful. Lot of product designers make this mistake by establishing a new design. No, that's not the point. Already a product is there. It has been proven in the market. So why do you really take the chance to redesign that? That will take a whole lot of product life cycle to complete it. The designer who are really doing that, it's definitely he is not fitting in that context. Let me tell you honestly, I've also been in that place. I started making new designs when company asked me to redesign the product. Just because I've learned the skills. I was very curious and excited so that I'll create new designs. Every team will reject that concept. I was wondering why it is not happening. Then I understood the product which already they have. See, definitely the product. What they already have may be good, bad, shitty. That's not a point. But it's already proving in the market and it's running successfully. Right? So you will have to understand the pros and cons very clearly then and only you can bridge the gap. What needs to be done to make it into a next level or a version 2 or improved version or a better cost version? Okay, see first you have to understand one important fact behind bridging this gap. Why does the company really redesign the product? Is it because to out beat the competition in terms of feature, in terms of price, in terms of any efficiency? Or is it to make its own product offering as a unique value proposition? Or a value add which they wanted to create as a product? They're not comparing competitors, but they wanted to create a product legacy. You need to understand that.

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Third, entire technology is getting replaced. So they will have to adopt. If they're not adopting, maybe some other new technology will take over.

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There are three reasons why a particular company is asking you to redesign. That very first thing is to out beat the competitors. Second thing is to create its own value stack and offering. Third is in order to fight the market in order to not get eliminated. It's a survival game. They are redesigning the product. Understand what is the reason for it out of three, definitely it will fall in this three. Okay. Nobody goes beyond this. If it's out beating product competitor, make sure you do the SWOT analysis properly and bridge it. That's it, your product is ending.

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Second, if they want to really make a product offering now go and do a creative ideation session.

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So even if you're customer needs to, even if you wanted to beat your competitor, you need to do ideation, that's okay. But let me give you more perspective. If it's your own product and offering which you wanted to make, like let's say if a company is making cars, okay, soon they wanted to make a two wheeler, definitely you can bring that value proposition. Or maybe let's say they wanted to bring a new product which nobody in the market has. Like let's say a different kind of a self autonomous vehicle. Nobody has in India that particular car concept. So that's a new offering. So you can think about that.

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And the third is if it's a technology then you'll have to again go to your drawing board, think clearly and do it.

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So any which way is the fourth step is creating crazy ideas for your product. Now please consider what is the existing level of comfort and ux, what the customer had.

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So you will have to rate that in a particular parameter. In terms of comfort, in terms of usability, in terms of safety, in terms of regulation, in terms of packaging, in terms of pricing, in terms of how the resale value is, in terms of a quality, in terms of the servicing, in terms of the manufacturing. Now you will have to take consideration of all the sub factors which I told you, okay? Because this is very very little. But it all adds a huge value for your final product, okay? Your customer experience is really really important. Their safety, their comfort, their complaints, the product functionality and the way in which you're manufact pricing, the kind of material, what you use, the environmental safety, government compliance. So you will have to take care all these things while you're even redesigning your product.

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So once if you're able to redesign considering all these parameters, like let's say if you're doing a material change, make sure you study that material, what value stack it is bringing. Not without compromising the existing value which is already offered in the market. And make sure how it out beats the competitor or you wanted to bring a new product or you wanted to out beat the technology, make sure you fall in this category, okay? Be sure to note down all these things guys because if you're just hearing nothing will go okay or else it will feel like over your head. So no problem, just pass this podcast, take a notepad, pen and just listen it out again, nothing is wrong if you're spending time for learning this, it has to make sure it counts, right? It's not. You're learning for the sake of listening. For the sake of listening. So just, just make sure you're taking action towards this. Because I love people who take actions. I'm not happy with people who get job, I'm not happy with people who don't get job. I'm happy with people who do take action because one or the other way they'll become success. If they're not taking action, nothing happens. So grab your notepad and pens because what I'm telling you is all interconnected each other.

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So once if you're taking care of all this cost, manufacturing, usability and safety and all these other aspects, then you can go and build the complete product and put it in the market. You don't have to create any testing because already your product has an offering already your customer base is there, already your branding, marketing, everything is set.

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So now you will have to understand something called post market surveillance. Okay? So once, if you are designing and launching it now the customer will see this product, okay? So you have to do a post market surveillance. So this is what people call in management terms like understanding the after launch of the product, how does it behave? What is the customer psychology, what is the cost, how it's playing? Are we really getting the same market? Are we getting better? So what is the intention of us launching this product, redesigning this product? Is it getting really fulfilled? So the market will wait for six months to 12 months, okay, a year. Mostly it's a physical product. Digital products won't take that long. Okay, so once if your post marketing surveillance is good, then you can keep it as a constant model to scale up your product. If you have lot of feedbacks in your post market surveillance, then you'll have to rework on your quality, rework on your research, rework on that specific aspect of that particular product. Like let's say if you're designing a chair and the problem of joints getting loosened in your chair, okay, so you'll have to work which joints you have used, what material you have used, what technology you have used, did you use glue or screw or any mechanism, or go and find out an alternate method to fix it out immediately and then put it back, do it for free of cost or whatever and then ask for the market and close the feedback. You will have to iterate this until your post marketing surveillance has all compliance addressed, all issues addressed. Then you will have a Perfect redesign of your components. Okay, let me recap you shortly guys. First it is searching out about your product, your pros and cons, studying the competitors and making a SWOT analysis for your direct and indirect competitors. Third is thinking and bridging the gap to understand whether your company has asked you to outbeat the competition to redesign or they want to create a new product so they're asking you to redesign or they wanted to outbeat the technology and to survive the market they are asking you to redesign. Then go for the creative ideation accordingly and then bring customer experience, understand the safety, functionality, compliance, cost manufacturability, everything on your aspect and then design and launch it. Okay, so once if you're able to launching it, then go and do a post market surveillance to understand what issues and feedback the customer is giving. Then reiterate on that particular thing until every issues is becoming zero. If you're able to follow this seven steps, you can able to do a redesign of your entire physical products. Okay, the approach is little different, but the essence is the end of the day, solving a problem, getting user experience. I hope you got a clarity in this. If you wanted to know lot of things about plastic material, sheet metal, sheet metal process, steel material, or maybe if you wanted to do a rubber material and you wanted to understand the material property and you wanted to feel how your customer is going to feel at the end of the day by using your physical products and tangible touch and all this emotional connect of a physical product and tangibility, you can connect with me in this dfcdesignforchangemail.com because in my mentoring program I have an exclusive class for you to teach about physical products, materials and manufacturing where you can learn and upskill. But the research, the ideation, the sketching, the testing, the iteration, the whole design process is exactly the same. Only thing is the physical tangibility matters. Okay, so you can hop on to one of my program, you can send your email with resume and portfolio. Now we do have launched a scholarship offer also for the people who are really desperately in need of it. So apply and get eligible for it if you're one of that. And make sure you subscribe for my further episodes to get notified.

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So thank you so much guys. Take care. All the best. Bye bye.