Sneek peak! Chapter 1 of Bring Your Product Idea to Life by Vicki Weinberg

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Welcome to the Bring Your Product Idea to Life podcast. This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling products or if you'd like to create your own product to sell. I'm Vicki Weinberg, a product creation coach and Amazon expert. Every week I share friendly practical advice as well as inspirational stories from small businesses. Let's get started.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:27

Hello, thank you for listening as always. You may know that last month, June 2023, I released my first book with the same name of this podcast, Bring Your Product Idea to Life. And the book is essentially a step by step guide to creating your own product. And it also contains some stories from these very podcast episodes from the interviews that I've done. Um, I think it's a great book. I'm really proud of it. Um, I hope if you read it, you enjoy it. And what I thought I'd like to do today for a one off, as kind of a special episode, is to actually read for you an excerpt from the book. So I'm going to read out part of chapter one. I have to say, this isn't intended to be an audio book, so I may not read it out word for word in case you're following along, but I thought it might be nice to give you a little sense of what's included, um, and you know, give you a set taste of whether it might be a book that you would enjoy. So here we go. Here is an excerpt. From chapter one of my book, Bring Your Product Idea to Life. Chapter one, Get clear on your idea. We're going to start where all good journeys start right at the beginning. The first thing you need on your product creation journey, and it is a journey, is to know what your product is. Now that might sound silly and a little bit simplistic. But be honest here, how much have you actually thought about it? Is it just a vague idea or do you have a pretty good sense of what your product will be, how it will be made, and what it will look like? Spoiler alert, once you've done some research this might change a bit. And have you actually put anything down on paper? If not, don't worry, we'll cover all of that in this chapter. First though, let's find out how another product creator found their inspiration. In episode 136, I spoke to Claire Grant from OriOrso. OriOrso is a colourful unisex baby brand created to make parents' lives easier with clever design but without compromising on style. The hero product is the jogger socks, printed jogging bottoms with non slip socks attached to keep socks on all day long. So this is what Claire had to say. Becoming a mum was a trigger for me to start OriOrso. Starting my own business that's always been in the back of my mind is something I wanted to do someday. I always wondered what it was that I would do. Once my baby was born, I suddenly had more headspace. Obviously you're busy with your baby, but you also have a lot of time to think. Whether that's when you're rocking your baby at night or going for walks with the pram. At the same time I was starting to feel a bit brain dead like I think a lot of mums do when you're constantly doing the same day to day routine without feeling like you have any other purpose. I had this little notebook I used to keep beside me when I was feeding and I'd make lists of product ideas, stuff that was happening to me and little problems that I felt I could solve with the right product. I had a long list of ideas and jogger socks came about because my daughter was constantly taking her socks off. I could not for the life of me keep them on her and I thought there has to be a better way. I spent a lot of time looking at how other mums keep their baby's socks on. I brought another product that didn't work for us, thought about why that was, how it could be better, and from there I came up with my initial concept. Coming up with a product idea. You might have picked up this book without having an idea for a product, just knowing this is something you want to do someday. There are services where you can find ideas for product items that can be brought and sold on sites like Amazon to make money. That can mean you're selling a product you don't actually care about, which isn't wrong, but isn't the intention of this book. Instead, I'm going to share some ideas that will hopefully help you find a product you'll be excited and passionate about. I also hope the product ideas you come up with will appeal to other people too, probably people similar to yourself. In fact, they'll need to appeal to other people if you want to sell them. If you picked up this book without having an idea, here are a few questions to think about to get you started. 1. Do you or anyone else have a problem that could be solved by a product? If you frequently experience some kind of annoyance, even if it's just mildly irritating, it's likely you are not the only one. If this sounds familiar, I suggest taking a look to see if there's a product already out there that might solve the problem you're having. If there is, buy one if possible, try it out and see how you get on. If it's a solution that works for you, then that's great. If not, can you come up with a different idea? Or can you improve it further? Take a look at my tips below for improving something that already exists. If what you're looking for isn't out there already, have a think about what the ideal product might be. You're just brainstorming at this point, so don't be afraid to make all kinds of notes and sprinkle down all your ideas, however improbable they might feel. It might also be good to find out if other people have the same challenge as you and how they think it could be solved. Assuming you do want to create this product to sell, or even if you just want to look into how viable it might be, getting input from potential customers is really valuable, even at this really early stage. Doing market research with potential customers right from the start will save you a lot of work later on, if you find now that this problem or issue is unique to you and not something that everyone else struggles with. One of the great things about creating a product to solve a problem is that you have a clear benefit and a reason why someone might choose to buy your product. This will really help when positioning and marketing it to sell. Number two. Do you own or use something that you just know could be better? You've probably had the experience of buying or using something and just knowing it could be better than it is. Maybe it's not even better that you're looking for, just different. Perhaps there's a really obvious problem or just a really small thing that would make it loads better. You could be the person to do that. Even if you have a product you love, you may well have thought of a tiny thing that would make it perfect. Take note of these ideas when they come up. That could be your product. For example, I used a blackout blind for my baby's bedroom. I loved it, except I hated having to reattach the suckers to the glass every night. I just wished it could be better. It turns out, so did somebody else, as I found another type of blind which was just as good, but was attached via Velcro strips. I like to think that the seller had looked at other products out there, figured out what the issues were, and came up with a solution to solve them. I should also say this isn't copying, which I don't suggest or recommend. It's using existing products as inspiration to create something new based on your own experience and ideas. You can also find lots of information about what other people would change about an existing product by looking at its reviews. But the idea is this improved product is based on your own situation, so it's something you feel passionate about pursuing. There's plenty of things we all could improve, but we need to have the information. Number three, is there something you need that isn't available? Do you ever think if only I had a X, Y, Z. For many reasons, some of what we wish for might not be feasible, but some ideas definitely will be. This is slightly different from creating something that solves the current problem you're experiencing. Maybe you had a problem a long time ago and still wish you could do something about it, or perhaps you're searching for something specific now and finding it just doesn't exist. I've worked with lots of people who've created something simply because no one else has. Don't feel it needs to be a big idea, maybe it's earrings in a specific shape, or a water bottle with particular dimensions. If you've looked for it and it's not out there already, you might just be onto something. Number four, your own interests. You may have a particular niche, hobby or interest and you want to create a product around that. Provided there are enough people with similar interests who are looking to spend money on them, this could be a good place to start. Or, perhaps you have a business already and are looking for a product to complement your existing products or services. Of course, as with all of these ideas, you do need to verify that there are people out there who want to buy it. We'll cover that in Chapter 2. Hopefully this is enough to get you inspired. Your next step is to keep your eyes, ears and mind open to all possibilities. What exactly is your product? The first thing I'll say here is you don't need to know it all. As I said earlier, your product idea might still be fairly vague, and that's fine for now. My suggested starting point is to write down everything about your product that you know already. Things to think about are: Who's your product for? Who would use it? What kind of person would buy it? Is it a gift or something they'd buy for themselves? What does it look like? Do you have an idea of the size or colours you'd like? What does it feel like? What's it made of? Is it a single product or will there be variations? Have you seen anything similar that's inspired you? How is it packaged? Include any questions and unknowns that you have. This might look messy and incomplete now, but you'll refine and redevelop it over the coming weeks and soon you'll have a full product specification. And don't worry, we'll cover all of this in much more detail in chapters 4 as we carry out some research and then really start to refine your specification. Your ideas may change and evolve as we find out more about your customers and competitors, but this gives you a great starting point. Remember to read the whole book through before starting so you have an overview of the entire process. Why would someone buy your product? I appreciate this is a big question, but people do need a reason to buy something, whether that's a want or a need. For example, I might want new earrings, but I need a replacement light bulb, or perhaps it's a want and a need. When I'm creating a product, I like to think about the following two questions. One, what's the purpose of this product? Two, what problem does it solve? The purpose doesn't have to be big and bold, it might just be to bring joy. My point here is that it's worth thinking about why someone would choose to buy your product, whether it's a brand new original idea, of which there are a few, or whether it's a new take on something that already exists. When it comes to products, people are either buying a benefit or a solution. Here are some examples of things I've brought recently and why. Swimming goggles that are like a mask, so they don't dig in around my daughter's eyes. Pattern John, as I'm crocheting a scarf and don't want to work out the pattern myself. An eye mask, as my husband needs complete darkness to sleep. And this one also has integrated earphones, so he can listen to a podcast to help him fall asleep. We'll talk about your USP, that's Unique Selling Point, in Chapter 3. And it's okay not to know this right now, just keep it in the back of your mind for later. In terms of the problem it solves, this might be obvious. For example, when my eyes were struggling with writing this book, I brought a monitor so I had a bigger screen to work on and could put less strain on my aging eyes. Or it might be something less obvious. Someone might choose to buy from a company or founder they resonate with. That could be you, by the way. Buy something that brings them joy, or buy from somewhere that aligns with their values. For example, perhaps a business supports causes that they care about. Summary. The thing I really want you to take from this chapter is that these are initial ideas. Things can and will change as you research and learn more, and it's important not to be too precious about them. I'm not suggesting at all that your final product will be completely unrecognizable from your original concept, although it might, or that it should become inauthentic to you or take you miles away from your original idea. There definitely should be things that you hold onto if they're part of your key, if they're a key part of your vision. What I am saying is that if you want to create a product that will sell, you need to know and listen to what the market, your potential customers are telling you and use what you learn to refine your ideas. Forging ahead without doing any of that can be a good way to waste both time and money. In the next two chapters, we'll be researching your customers to find out what's important to them, as well as examining the marketplace to see what else is out there. The goal is to come up with a product that customers want and will buy, so these steps are crucially important. Action steps. Get everything out of your head onto paper. Set a timer for 15 to 20 minutes and brainstorm. It'll probably be quick and messy, but it's a good idea to get your ideas written down. So, there we have it. That was Chapter 1 of Bring Your Product Idea to Life. I would love to know what you think. Um, I am wondering if an audiobook might be on the cards, and if that's something you'd be interested in. I would love to hear from you. As always I'm going to pop a link to the book in the show notes of this episode so you can find it nice and easily but you can also find it on Amazon or via my website or all my social media channels. So thank you so much for listening. Thank you to everyone who's bought the book so far and if you have bought it please please please do remember to leave me a review because it really really helps. Thank you so much for listening and I will speak to you again soon. Thank you so much for listening right to the end of this episode. Do remember that you can get the full back catalogue and lots of free resources on my website, vickiweinberg. com. Please do remember to rate and review this episode if you've enjoyed it and also share it with a friend who you think might find it useful. Thank you again and see you next week.