Week 18, Invention, Intellectual Property and Income
- Develop a plan for dissemination of your final project.
- Prepare drafts of your summary slide (presentation.png, 1920x1080) and video clip (presentation.mp4, 1080p HTML5, < ~minute, < ~25 MB) and put them in your website’s root directory
Dissemination Plan
When I initially registered for Fab Academy I was excited to try to build some gizmo or new tech that could be patented, launched and monitized. I worked in product development for 13 years and worked to help product entrepreneurs launch physical products every day and was fortunate to help many people launch products on Kickstarter, CES, and even Shark Tank. I even had my own startup, a convertible diaper bag and infant carrier launch and go bellyup. All that to say, I eventually decided that I wanted this experience to be more about the joy of building and discovery and less about the end game. Simply, I wanted to have fun building and prototyping again and mission accomplished.
The team after the Startup Bus pitch competition for the defunct Dadsak.
However, if I had fundamental belief in the product, here is what I would do.
File a provisional patent
As this class has encouraged full disclosure of every step of the process up to and including a full BOM, it is absolutely crucial to lock in a filing date with the PTO with a provisional patent. I would likely draft some sample claims and do some sketches of the key elements before handing it over to a patent agent for the filing. This would likely cost a few thousand dollars.
Voice of Customer
I would then do some voice of customer work to figure out how the features resonate with potential consumers. I would let casual and professional photographers use the prototype to see what they liked and what they did not. This feedback would likely result in some key featureset and functional changes to the product.
Engineering and Prototyping
There would then be additional rounds of engineering and prototyping. One major flaw (that I have known from the start) is that the current device is only compatible with one lens. I would need to figure out how to make it more broadly compatible with other DSLRs and/or with phone cameras.
I would also have an industrial designer take a look at the product and do some work to make it more beautiful and appropriate for the market.
Launch
I would then do some sort of launch and/or presale. Crowdfunding is difficult, but photography products do go well on there when they are good. So I would likely build a beautiful prototype that could be used for digital assett generation. Then, I would hire a creative agency/ person to help build a landing page with the high quality assetts. Then I would do the groundwork to build a backer email list for a few months before launching the product on Kickstarter.
I would also consider taking it to Eureka Park at CES. This is the startups area of the Consumer Electronics Show and would be a good compliment to the launch.
Manufacturing
Assuming the interest was high, I woudl work with an overseas vendor to refine the product and make it ready for market. There are some firms in China that do engineering and manufacturing and I would likely use one of them to refine it for manufacturing, reduce the BOM, create packaging, and manufacture the first runs.
Fulfillment
Initially, I would do the fulfillment myself. It is a lot of work, but for the first 1000 units would help keep costs lean. I would fulfill orders to Kickstarter backers and then sell through ecommerce channels.
Future Possibilities
I think there are 2 potential interesting pathways to build on this work.
Smartphone Product
I think it is possible to condense some of this work and make a pocket sized version that could be used for cell phone photogs. I do not want to disclose how I would do this as I may be intrigued enough to pursue it.
Diffraction Grating Machine
I was intrigued by Neil's mention of Henry Rowland's diffraction grating machine that was used in the 1800s. I think it would be fun to take on creating some way to make a diffraction grating in a Fab Lab settting, perhaps using the old patents and machines as a jumping off point.
Henry Rowland's diffraction grating machine could be an interesting jumping off point for a Fab Lab project. Photo from https://americanhistory.si.edu/
