Hardware Podcasts

114: Designing an MVP for a New Consumer Product

Product Startup · 16 Feb 2022 · 28m

What this episode covers

Magnus Skold, a senior industrial designer at Mako Design + Invent, explains the concept of a 'smart' Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for startups, emphasizing that simplicity and core feature focus drive better quality, lower costs, and smoother production than feature creep. He draws on his experience designing for high-end private jets, commercial airlines, and Dell to illustrate how 'levels of complication' in design directly impact manufacturing complexity and vendor communication. The discussion highlights the importance of matching product aesthetics to their usage environment and making 'free' versus 'costly' design choices to ensure a product is intuitive, robust, and ready for market validation.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Mako Design + Invent, Dell, American Airlines, Abbott, TXS Industrial Design
Also
Sultan of Brunei, Prince Avolid bin Talal al-Assad, Don Norman, Tim Treleski

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