How to ACTUALLY do Product Research? Like you've never heard before. Serious.

In the previous post “How to Product Research / Product Analysis? This ONE THING your teachers never told you. SERIOUSLY simple, I’ve shown you a very simple tool to identify what an Innovative Product is like that has useful clever features you can use for Ideation.

This post I’ll show you how you can ACTUALLY do your Product Research on any reference existing product you find in the internet.

Below are examples of bag holders from a student's work. Not very ‘WOW’ actually. NOTE: But if those are the only things you can find, then pick the second/third best ‘WOW’ ones according to your standard. That will be better than having nothing to begin with.

Step 1: 

For every existing product that you found, begin by studying how the product works.. If you cannot figure out how that works, what chance do you have to ‘borrow’ it’s good features. 

Reproduce the design with sketches and some annotation as you present how the idea works. Refer to the image above with annotation ‘A’. This forces you to think and process the idea with more depth, rather than simply writing and noting the ‘plus’ or ‘interesting’ points. 

You will find it helpful later on if you decide to ‘borrow’ the good feature(s) in your ideation phase.

Sketch the example in different views using both 2D and 3D techniques. You don’t have to draw many. Neither do you develop the idea. Simply study and make note how it works.

Step 2: 

When you are done with Step 1, proceed with identifying ‘Good’ and ‘Interesting (Innovative)’ features or functions (Annotation 'B'). 

These points or features shall be those that initially made you go wild and ‘WOW, DAMN! This is GOOD!”. 

Discuss it in your journal. Dialogue with yourself and your paper. 

• Why this feature is good. 
• Why this feature is ‘WOW’. 
• Why this feature is so exciting.

When you are done, move on to the next Product Research product. 

BONUS:

Below I show you another example of Product Research on a mug which I used for hot beverages. Assuming I want to design and make a plant watering gadget. I need to get water flowing out smoothly from a small opening. Product Research a Mug like this will be helpful:

Recall:

Step 1: Study how the product works. Think deep. Describe using sketches and annotations (where required). Illustrate how the product works.

Step 2: List the 'secret(s)' that makes the product work.

In summary:

By doing the above, you may discover some real cool features you can really use for your project solution. If you cannot help but want to sketch those ideas, do so in a ‘Parking Lot’. 

You can always retrieve them when you are ready at the Ideation phase. By then you’ll have lots of ready-to-go features for your ideation.

You should realize that if you do a good job in every stage of the design process, the next step is always easy. Because usually you will already have the data and information to move on to the next step.

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