The Art and Science of Making Products

QUESTION

Joey, how do you decide when to release a new product? What is the process that you use?

And similarly, how do you decide when to stop selling a product?

—Matthew

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ANSWER

Matthew, making products is both an art and a science. I won’t call myself a master at either (perhaps some day), but after designing and art directing 100+ products I feel comfortable speaking on the subject.

Exploring Products

When we create a product, we aim to make something that people will buy and find useful. Throughout the years, there’s been a variety of reasons why we’ve decided to explore a product idea. Here are the fundamental categories:

• Customer Requests (Most Certain): Over time people get to know our brand and products, and part of our brand is welcoming feedback. Nowadays, we get product feedback every single day. When we start to see a pattern, such as a product request, we take note and explore that avenue.
   

• Industry Movement (Moderately Knowable): Product categories don’t exist in a vacuum. If we see our industry or a closely-related industry begin to shift in some manner, we take note and do our best to anticipate what that could look like. Depending on what we’re seeing, that could be a new product.
   

• Gut Feeling (Highly Speculative): Sometimes an idea pops up that a) customers aren’t asking for, and that b) the industry isn’t creating or even talking about. But the feeling is so strong, we make it anyway. Some work, some don’t—but these are what set us apart from everyone else: doing something different.

Developing Products

Over the years we’ve released some bangers as well as some duds. Most product development cycles start differently—an “aha” moment here, a customer email there—but they eventually fall in line with one key element: iteration. Here are the important aspects to development:

• Market Analysis: The first stage of testing an idea is discussing it as a team. Many are cut through discussion. Those that make it through the first step are then put in front of customers. Simultaneously, we research the market to see what kind of comparables there are and how they’re being positioned.
   

• Product Strategy: If we decide to move forward, we then pull the idea back to Baronfig by asking, “How would we do this?” At this point the mythos is developed around the product—story, benefits, etc.
   

• Release Timing: Even the best laid plans are subject to timing. An obvious example would be: customers want a spooky pen in October for Halloween, not in July. Far ahead of being ready to launch, we do choose a date that makes sense for the product in relation to a) the time of year, and b) other products being released.
   

• Product Drafting: The Baronfig team then iterates until we either feel like a) the product is ready for production, b) we decide it will never be ready and leave it in the development graveyard, or c) we move on and let that idea marinate for a while.

Sunsetting Products

I’d like to say that there’s a grand concept here to evaluate what products should stay and which should go, but at the end of the day we’re a privately held company with non-infinite funds. There’s only so much inventory we can hold. In this case, if a product is a) not selling well relative to the rest of our lineup, and b) isn’t instigating sales of other products—it’s gotta go.

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Hope you found that interesting.

—Joey

Creator of Baronfig
Author of The Laws of Creativity

One of my favorite Baronfig products, titled "The Good Luck Squire", a limited edition version of the bestselling Squire pen. Designed by Laura Toffolo; white coating magic by Jay Desai.