I’m finishing out my senior year of high school and I’m either going to SCAD or Wentworth next year to major in id.
I don’t know any industrial designers, so I have a question. How long has it taken some of you guys to get a product started as a sketch to a piece of merchandise on the sales floor? I’m sure theres no universal time, but how long has it taken or not taken for you guys with experience?
Thanks !
Its different for all types of products.
If you’re talking about a mass produced electronics product you’re talking somewhere in the realm of a year before it can be sold (this can vary +/- significantly).
Do you have a specific type of product in mind? That would help direct this discussion.
i wasnt really looking for a specific thing, but rather a variety.
I’ve always wondered about everything from footwear to cars to furniture. Any insight is great to me
I believe you can produce any consumer item in 4 months + with a rigorous schedule.
Cars is another ballgame. If it’s a cheap car like a Kia, my guess would be a year and a half+. It could be sooner or it could take longer.
Define “consumer product”, please.
Define “consumer product”, please.[/quote]
Anywhere from office/desktop accessories, “some” electronics, housewares and etc.
If you know what you want and you design it quickly enough, source out who ever is going to do the job (overseas/or in US) with little bureaucratic involvment, it can be done and shipped to whereever you want in that amount of time.
Yup, just like 90% of all the crap products that were shown at CES. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what I thought you meant.
Four months is enough time to rapidly produce another product that will be chucked in the land fill after three uses. It will be barely tested electrically (if at all), same with the interface. God help us if it has any RF in it with that schedule.
Sure, 4 months is possible.
Products that come to mind that were probably designed and manufactured in 4 months:
1st Gen Zune
Every LCD picture frame on the market
Every MIO MP3 player
99.9% of the garbage “toys” that are filled with lead paint
To produce a product that fast you have to cut corners. Cutting corners does nobody any good.
Define “consumer product”, please.[/quote]
Anywhere from office/desktop accessories, “some” electronics, housewares and etc.
If you know what you want and you design it quickly enough, source out who ever is going to do the job (overseas/or in US) with little bureaucratic involvment, it can be done and shipped to whereever you want in that amount of time.[/quote]
Yup, just like 90% of all the crap products that were shown at CES. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what I thought you meant.
Four months is enough time to rapidly produce another product that will be chucked in the land fill after three uses. It will be barely tested electrically (if at all), same with the interface. God help us if it has any RF in it with that schedule.
Sure, 4 months is possible.
Products that come to mind that were probably designed and manufactured in 4 months:
1st Gen Zune
Every LCD picture frame on the market
Every MIO MP3 player
99.9% of the garbage “toys” that are filled with lead paint
To produce a product that fast you have to cut corners. Cutting corners does nobody any good.[/quote]
My example was reffering to the minimum of time in producing products.
Enlighten us with your version of consumer products in terms of maximum or usual time if you will!!! 
At the end of the day, it is all about profit; and if crap products can put you in the possitive numbers then who gives a flying fk.
Eventually everything ends up in the landfill. Just some gets there sooner than others.
I remember the CCM skates I did were started in July and on the market by October/November. That’s 4-5 months. All the hardware was existing, I only played with the upper.
In lighting, I had some fairly basic projects that were 4-6 months. Most of that time was CSA/UL testing, most of the rest quality control. More complicated lighting lines took 8-10 months. Of course, some of that is waiting for sales to actually get an order.
Now I’m doing some electronics, fairly simple stuff, it’s taking 7-8 months as well. Again though, a lot of that time is waiting for stuff to happen (engineering, marketing, management, etc). The design part always happens in a remarkably short time period.
Ya, and the question was how long to get to the sales floor. My response to your answer, in context, stands.
I have. 1 year. After 4 months you could have working protos. After 8 Months you should be well into testing and tooling. By a year you can have all of your test jigs, parts ordered, tooling well on its way, if not completed, testing completed, packaging designed if not working. Marketing messaging completed, sales channels established (or at least working on them in context of what the product can/will do…not just hand waving), the list goes on.
I give a flying fuck. As well should everyone else on this board. As Designers that care about making quality product. I can make a lot of money making doing it right. Not cutting corners.
Not producing another unnecessary, gimicky, cheap-ass product that has absolutely zero thought or substance to it…just because we can. Just because we can do it fast, doesn’t mean we should.
This is an antiquated argument for the lazy looking for a cheap buck.
It should be noted that there is a BIG difference between a revamping of an existing product line and designing a product from scratch. You’re CCM discussion is a great example. The majority of the hardware was in place. You would have to add a month if not 2 for tooling, etc.
Also, Design (with a capital D) is about working with the whole team. The design process is relatively short in the context of getting a product to the floor. Bring in Engineering, Marketing, Sales, Testing, Manufacturing…the WHOLE Design of the product…and you have a much bigger endeavor on your hands.
All of this, RBAid, is why I asked you to focus the discussion a bit. You can’t get a straight answer out of this one. There are far too many variables to consider when you are discussing a product development cycle.
I give a flying hugg. As well should everyone else on this board. As Designers that care about making quality product. I can make a lot of money making doing it right. Not cutting corners.
Not producing another unnecessary, gimicky, cheap-ass product that has absolutely zero thought or substance to it…just because we can. Just because we can do it fast, doesn’t mean we should.
quote]
That is about as antiquated an argument can come and sprinkled in with a little grandstanding BTW.
Your argument is trivial from the start. I gave an answer, but you gave a speech. I’ve stated the possible, but you stated the ideal.
Every product doesn’t have to be for the high-end as you seem to lean towards. You forget that there are markets for people younger than 18 and older than 35 and 40. You seem to look down on those products and can’t look past your nose that is soo high! You seem to forget that a lots of people in this country don’t make allot of money an can afford top of the line products. From Wallmart to Bang and Olufsen, there is a market for everything.
Everything that is produced in and around 4 months is not garbage. If you have a fully thought-out plan and sources researched and less people evolved in holding things behind then it is possible.
What’s so horrible about the Zune and the Mio? Ever thought they could be great products for people not ready for an iPod?
When I said crap products, I was using using the word you used. I wouldn’t put out a product I thought was crap! Maybe people put out products quickly to catch a time of the season like the holidays. It’s possible to do that and make a successful product if you think more broadly than you are now.
from my furniture experience:
contract: 1-4 years from concept to catalog
residential: 7 - 18 months
environment/pop: 1-6 months.
I think that you get what you pay for. Looking at some electronics products, I see what IP is talking about. There are a lot of products that were probably developed in 4 months that needed an extra 2-4 months. The problem occurs because someone wants to be selling the product, not developing it and it is born too early. The problems that come from this premature release are user difficulty, poor quality, poor performance. All of these lead to your brand being worth nothing, or maybe Wal-Mart shipping your container back with a note saying, “never again”. That costs a lot more money than an extra 4 months development.
It definitely depends on what you’re designing. Softgoods are very low-tech (unless it’s athletic shoes or stuff like that) and have a pretty fast turnaround if the company has established practices and vendors already. I’d guess that electronics definitely take longer or anything where there are parts interacting with each other as opposed to a one piece molded product like a plastic ladle.
sorry I wasn’t specific, ip…I didnt know what i was opening up here.
Thanks for the input all, good stuff to know.
so tell me if this is right.
From the way I understand it, something like the iPod was designed with technology already available. They just took different pieces, put them together, and made something new.
Is this along the same lines as the CCM skate that was mentioned? It just goes faster because its not from scratch, correct?
For the medical systems I work on:
3-6m: opportunity definition
9-12m: concept definition (~3 rounds iterative global design research, concepting)
12-24m: feasibility and planning (requirements, iterative global design (HW & SW), specifications)
12-48m: design & development (SW & HW engineering)
6-12m: production & limited release
Generally 2 years for something incremental or sustaining, 4-6 years for something innovative, up to 12 years to realize a complex system roadmap.
Here’s a good example of a long-term systems project from our product portfolio:
http://www.cardinalhealth.com/alaris/products/infusion/AlarisSystem/index.asp
Not quite. Apple is probably a bad choice as they are definitely on the high side of development. No one really knows except Apple, but I have heard that their iteration on a product development cycle is unprecedented. In other words, they don’t crank something out in 4 months.
The big thing to take out of your discussion is that there is no one answer to it. A multi-disciplinary product takes time. Period. You can cut corners and get it out quickly, or you can go as far as 2 years on a device like CG says.
cg: I have no idea what I’m looking at, but it looks like it takes years to develop!
Apple. I read a book on the development of the original Mac, and I’ve read articles on the iPod. It seems like Apple management tolerates the advanced development of concepts. Eventually these evolve into a final product, but not until they feel it is ready for release. It’s very different from anything I’ve experienced where everything I do is supposed to pop out as a final product.
CCM skates. I only designed an upper, which don’t involve a lot of tooling per se. If I had worked on a new blade and a sole, the project would have been longer, at least a year I imagine. Some projects I saw were even more advanced. Basically, trying to do a totally new aesthetic from scratch, new blades, new soles, integrating new lacing systems, and a lot of evolving in order to reduce weight. Those projects took over a year, sometimes two years start to finish. That’s for high end hockey skates though, where the consumer is willing to pay for the extra development.
So is it safe to say that Apple is so successful because they take their time in the design process, and therefore put out great products?