Developing Products for non-engineers - Contrasting experience

This article is from my experience with 2 idea owners who created unique products and reached out to me to convert them into products and how things ended up finally.

Bother are professionals who are not engineers but had developed good products and when they reached out to me they had working prototypes. One is a mime artist while the other is a surgeon.

The mime artist had developed low-cost puppet show equipment which will pull the children away from mobile phones and video games and become creative. His original prototype was with a simple torch which worked for only 20 mins. But he wanted a lighting system to work for 2 Hrs and also had cost constraints. We tried some off-the-shelf Chinese lighting electronics and realised neither they were reliable nor cost-effective. This forced us to design new electronics, do optical tests and move to large-volume production. In a matter of 3 days, we got the electronics designed and tested. It worked fine. Now we are working with the suppliers to get lower-priced components. Throughout these exercises, the entrepreneur trusted me and let me do what I thought was right and we could complete the work on time. This project is moving forward.

Now let me come to the other project which the Surgeon designed. The surgeon has built a Proof of Concept(PoC) using open-source components and structural materials which are not suitable for medical application. He reached out to us for converting the PoC and wanted us to do the design for large volume manufacturing and he wanted to review. Remember he has no idea of how to set up a CLASS II medical device company which will sell and support. We told him that he has to pay for the development charges to get the first functional prototype ready. The surgeon however refused saying he has given us a working unit and all we have to do is to duplicate it. Having worked with doctors from the USA (who understand the product development complexity) This was an odd thing for me. For 3-4 weeks I tried reasoning that the product is a medical product and needs a design which robust and reliable. However, he refused to listen to us and we told him if he is not interested in paying for the development we are not going ahead. One interesting thing I noted was he had product pricing in mind which is so low that will not cover the cost of the raw material and was insisting on how much we should charge. I have seen this with many customers for whom we work, they were worried about the money you make instead of their margin. We have lt go on projects when the discussion gets into this terrain. I see this specifically with clients who are not designers or engineers and they think they know the product better.

The sad thing about this especially the surgeon's product is that the product has good potential but will never see the light of day unless the surgeon understands the process of medical device design. He is not even aware that the current medical device design and manufacturing is as good as designing for the FDA of the USA.

In fact, I could have done this by investing our money, but in the absence of trust, the business will not be sustainable. I remember an old Tamil joke where a street magician tells the crowd that he will swallow a big bone which in his hands and asks them what they will give him. A voice from the crowd says another bone! Our situation will be the same!

My 2 cents to professionals who are not engineers but design products - please do your research, select the partner and TRUST THEM!