Product design is one of the most vital elements of product development. No matter how good a product is, if it’s not designed well, no one will buy it. The process of product design starts with idea generation, starting from the initial idea through product prototyping, product development, concept marketing, product pricing and product distribution. This entire process requires patience, time and a high level of skill. It is extremely important to consider product design from different perspectives:
Define your product idea – Before starting any product design work, it is crucial to define your product idea first. If you’re an avid entrepreneur who has already done a lot of product development work, you may have an idea about what you want to sell. However, it may still be missing certain elements that you need to turn into an optimum product design. For example, what do you want to sell or what do you expect others to buy from your product? Define your product idea and ask for product design help from the experts.
Create a portfolio – If you are brand new to product design, you can get help from your industrial designing friends and associates. If you have already done a lot of industrial designing work, you can generate a portfolio of your past projects. Your portfolio will give a clear picture about your work ability and skills as well as the kind of design projects you have done in the past. A portfolio gives you an opportunity to explain your capabilities and work experience to your potential clients.
Obtain the right certification – To become a true product designer, you should obtain formal product design and engineering services certification. You should also work towards obtaining certification in one or more of the important product design fields such as product analysis, engineering services management, information systems, functional requirements, manufacturing design etc. These certifications will also provide you a solid foundation to draw upon when you start your own product design and engineering services firm.
Take product design and engineering courses – If you want to work in the industrial product design industry, then you must take product design and engineering courses. These courses help you in gaining first hand knowledge about the process of product design and engineering. You can also learn advanced techniques and strategies that can be used in product design and engineering. Such courses will not only help you gain employability in the industrial product design industry but also enable you to move into other areas of engineering such as manufacturing.
Find a good industrial designing firm – If you are planning to set up a product design services firm, it is very important to find a reputed and reliable industrial designing firm. You should opt for those firms that have a strong presence in the market and have a good reputation for delivering excellent product design services. It is important to choose a firm that has expertise in the product design field, a large customer base and has established contacts in the market. The best product design firms will be those that have designed and developed products that are superior in performance, match-high standards of quality, meet the expectations of their clients and are affordable. Such firms are the ones you should aim at when you want to establish product design services firms.
