From Concept to Consumer How to Turn Ideas Into Money (paperback)

In From Concept to Consumer, renowned product developer Phil Baker reveals exactly what it takes to create great products and bring them to market.

Baker’s product successes range from Apple’s PowerBook to the Stowaway portable keyboard, the most successful PDA accessory ever created. Here, he walks you through the entire development process, showing how to develop products holistically, reflecting the crucial linkages between product design, engineering, testing, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution. You’ll discover what makes a winning product, and why great ideas are just 5% of the process...the easiest 5%!

You’ll find practical guidance for planning, establishing teams, creating marketing requirements, avoiding “feature creep,” prototyping, protecting intellectual property, market testing and positioning, preparing for customer service, implementing the optimal distribution strategy, and much more. After you’ve delivered your first breakthrough product, Baker shows how to follow up with another winner!

• Optimize your entire product development process
  Make everything work together seamlessly: from planning and engineering through distribution and marketing 
• Get breakthrough industrial design without overpaying for it
  Deliver products that create a powerful emotional bond with your customer
• Time product delivery for maximum competitive advantage
  Make sure you don’t reach your market too late–or too early, either
• Leverage Asian manufacturing without falling victim to its pitfalls
  Successfully coordinate even the most complex worldwide product delivery programs

Phil Baker has been involved in all aspects of product development for the consumer technology market for his entire career, with extensive experience in leveraging Asian companies for cost-effective and fast-to-market product development and manufacturing. He has a strong and varied background in business and product strategy in the high-technology sector.

Phil has played key roles in developing the innovative flagship technologies and products of many leading companies, including Apple, Seiko, Polaroid, Atari, Polycom, Proxima, Think Outside, and others. He cofounded Think Outside, the company that created one of the most popular PDA accessories ever, the Stowaway folding keyboard.

He received a B.S. in physics from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, an M.S. in engineering from Yale University, an M.B.A. from Northeastern University, and holds more than 30 patents.

Phil currently consults to companies in the United States and Asia in product, business, and market development and writes the technology column for the San Diego Daily Transcript. Phil was recipient of the 2005 Robert H. Goddard Alumni Award from WPI for Outstanding Professional Achievement and was the San Diego Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Consumer Products in 2001. He resides with his wife, Jane, in Solana Beach, California. His website is fromconcepttoconsumer.com. 

    Preface xvii

01 New World, New Rules 1

    Build It and They Won’t Come 3

    New Rules 7

    Asia 10 

    Organizing for Rapid Development 15

    Get Customer Input 20

    Leveraging Outside Resources 21

    Remembering That Less Is More 24

    Don’t Get Hung Up with Perfection 26 

    Development 32

    Marketing 37

    Estimating Sales 39

    Product Specs 40

    Schedule 41

    Product Cost 44

04 Industrial Design Matters 51

    Discovering ID 56

    The Industrial Design Process 64

 05 Why Outsource? 67

    The Rise of the OEM and ODM Model 67

    Taiwan 69

    Mainland China 70

    Asia’s Advantage 72

    Is Outsourcing for All? 73

    Protection of Your Intellectual Property 75

    Product Quality 76

    The Chinese Factory 78

    Managing the Relationship 89

    Manufacturing Costs 89

    Manufacturing Quality 91

    Durability Testing 92

    Product Definition 96

    Market Testing 97

    Product Positioning 102

    Public Relations 104

    Customer Service 107

    Establishing Price 110

    What Are Your Choices? 113

    Retail Distribution 113

    Distribution Costs 116

    Selling Through 119

    Licensing 126

    Patents 127

    Agreements and Contracts 132

    Development and Manufacturing Agreements 133

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