I have been struggling with balancing low cost design that provides protection and making a profit.
If I need my target market to immediately adopt the bicycle helmet that I propose, the helmet has to cost about $3 or even less. If I decide to go with a new design then I will not be able to use existing manufacturing which makes it more expensive for me to set up my own factories. Battling between the two my design itself it slightly stagnant. As a designer I have never had to battle pricing, manufacturing and considering things like cost of distribution and marketing. I am going to admit that it stresses me out a LOT.
Initially I thought I could push down the price of the helmet for the poor cyclists and create a premium helmet for the bicycle enthusiast. I talked to Prof Z and realised that maybe I need to rethink this. Maybe I need to start streamlining the process of my product. Considering both the business aspect and the design at the same time starts curbing what I can do on both the ends. After I looked at everyone's stakeholder presentation, especially the team working on the innovative motorbike raincoat for Jakarta, I realised that I should make the design of the bicycle helmet independent of the business aspect. This will help me focus on the business aspect of it first and in the meanwhile I will be able to innovate on the design.
So now, essentially I would like everyone in India who owns a bike or even those who don't own a bike to feel safe enough to come out and cycle in the cities. That is my eventual goal. Cycling will ease the traffic and have a low carbon footprint. I realised, however, that I need to focus my user group down. In business, as in design, if you start with a very large user group your product attributes will be diluted and nobody will buy your product. I adjusted my target market.
In the image above I say that the penetrated market is going to be non-techie Bangaloreans but that is going to be my initial market. I would like to move into bigger cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkatta as soon as the sales in Bangalore move upward.
Next steps: Looking at the other presentations I realised that I don't have exact numbers for when I will break even and start making profits. That is probably something I should have so stakeholders will be more willing to give me their attention.
Every step in this project is a huge learning.
Happy Break everyone!
If I need my target market to immediately adopt the bicycle helmet that I propose, the helmet has to cost about $3 or even less. If I decide to go with a new design then I will not be able to use existing manufacturing which makes it more expensive for me to set up my own factories. Battling between the two my design itself it slightly stagnant. As a designer I have never had to battle pricing, manufacturing and considering things like cost of distribution and marketing. I am going to admit that it stresses me out a LOT.
Initially I thought I could push down the price of the helmet for the poor cyclists and create a premium helmet for the bicycle enthusiast. I talked to Prof Z and realised that maybe I need to rethink this. Maybe I need to start streamlining the process of my product. Considering both the business aspect and the design at the same time starts curbing what I can do on both the ends. After I looked at everyone's stakeholder presentation, especially the team working on the innovative motorbike raincoat for Jakarta, I realised that I should make the design of the bicycle helmet independent of the business aspect. This will help me focus on the business aspect of it first and in the meanwhile I will be able to innovate on the design.
So now, essentially I would like everyone in India who owns a bike or even those who don't own a bike to feel safe enough to come out and cycle in the cities. That is my eventual goal. Cycling will ease the traffic and have a low carbon footprint. I realised, however, that I need to focus my user group down. In business, as in design, if you start with a very large user group your product attributes will be diluted and nobody will buy your product. I adjusted my target market.
In the image above I say that the penetrated market is going to be non-techie Bangaloreans but that is going to be my initial market. I would like to move into bigger cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkatta as soon as the sales in Bangalore move upward.
Next steps: Looking at the other presentations I realised that I don't have exact numbers for when I will break even and start making profits. That is probably something I should have so stakeholders will be more willing to give me their attention.
Every step in this project is a huge learning.
Happy Break everyone!
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