Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.
- William Shakespeare
By this time, you may have taken delivery of your first batch of product. In my case, I was surprised at just how many boxes of plastic you get for about $10k. It was two full pallets of boxes and took me two trips in my minivan, with all the rear seats removed, to get the product from the factory to my garage.
Earlier testing of prototypes gave me enough confidence that I had addressed any product issues needing an adjustment to the molds. Based on prototype testing, I had signed off on the molds. Getting the first batch of product was a big milestone.
A quick examination of how the newly minted pieces snapped together confirmed that this product was in good shape. Having gotten it this far was no small feat. Having workable product sitting in your garage has brought me a long way on my journey. Many problems have been solved and questions have been answered, and I have a growing list of product improvements I will want to make to the product in the future. Some of the improvements reduce the cost of manufacturing; others relate to making it a simpler product that is more effective and easier to install. My plan is to make these improvements in stages, in product “versions” 2 and 3, but for the moment, I have product to sell.
So now I have moved my car out to the front driveway for the winter. Where my car usually sat in the garage is taken up by two pallets of boxes filled with mysterious pieces of plastic: my product.
The next task was to re-sort and repack all this plastic into the product boxes I can sell the product in. This little job turned out to take a bit longer than I thought it would—about 30 minutes per box—just like every other step along the way. Still, I was determined to do as many of the small chores as I could in an effort to become intimately familiar with every aspect of my business. Doing all the little bits of drudgery myself was going to teach me a lot about where my product was strong, where it was weak, and where I could improve the product and process along the way. I did bump into a few non-critical issues that I addressed by improving the installation instructions. Thankfully, no critical product issues surfaced.
Installing production run product
My original plan had me installing the first production-run product in the spring of 2006. With all the delays that occurred, my first production-run product installation was only possible on October 28 of that year. By this season, most folks in the northwest United States had turned their attentions to indoor activities, so the opportunities were narrowing to get people lined up to put my product into their pond. Still, I had a few pond owners lined up and my first installation was into a 12’ x 6’ pond – a good example of a medium-to-large pond that would test the limits of my product.
There is nothing like a real world test of a new product and I felt like luck was on my side that day. Installing PondSecure went like a charm, taking about three hours to complete without the use of tools. It was stronger than I expected it to be and the honeycomb structure was somehow strengthened because it was large. The owners of the pond were pleased and impressed. They were pleasantly surprised with the ability to place potted plants and other objects directly on the honeycomb. I breathed a sigh of relief. I had a product.
Cost of this stage: $0. Costs so far: $77,800
No comments:
Post a Comment