10 tips to avoid hardware product risks

How to test and assess demand for hardware products before the factory goes live

Manufacturing real, tangible objects that you can touch is often far more risky than developing software. Making 10,000 thingamajigs makes them much harder to change than in the software world where you can push updates if you want to tweak something.

In the world of manufacturing, there are problems such as: How do you make sure you build the right thing for the right audience?

last week, When I wrote about Prelaunch.com’s $1.5 million funding roundasked company founder Narek Vardanyan what he thinks is the biggest pitfall in hardware development.

Measuring the Right User

To truly understand what your customers want, Vardanyan recommends studying what your potential customers actually do, not what they plan to do.

In an ideal world, that would mean having them buy your product, or at least deposit a security deposit. A genuine willingness to buy is worth more than someone just saying, “Yes, I’m going to buy this.”

“You have to make decisions based on what people actually do. You have to make sure the data you’re tracking is from the right type of people,” said Vardanyan. “Working with people you entrust money with acts like a filter, leaving only those who really want to risk their money. In other words, your potential customers.”