INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS: think like an entrepreneur

Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph tells a great true story about meeting a college student who wanted to build a peer-to-peer clothing sharing platform. She was ready to drop out of school and raise money to hire a development team. He stopped her and asked if she had paper, a marker, and tape.

He told her to write "Would you like to borrow my clothes? Knock." on the paper and tape it to her dorm room door. Wait 24 hours and see if anyone knocks. Because if nobody knocks, she just learned something critical about her core assumption without burning any runway. Ideas are worthless until they’re proven in reality.

This applies directly to product development. Think users want a metal finish? Mock it with painted plastic and watch their response. Believe your product needs voice control? Add a $15 USB mic before spec'ing custom hardware. Convinced your IoT feature is essential? Disable connectivity for a week and see if anyone notices.

The fear is that crude tests will make you look unprofessional or waste time on "throwaway work." But what actually wastes time is spending eighteen months perfecting something nobody wants. A $5 test that kills a bad idea in 24 hours isn't scrappy, it's the most valuable lesson you will ever slap together.

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