A Very Swell Idea, Inc.

Product Development

Ever since I was young, I’ve had an obsession with the idea of  “product development”.  Every new idea I’ve had is accompanied by 10 more about how to manufacture, package, brand and market the idea.  I can’t explain the obsession, it’s just what rolls out of my brain next.  I’ve created products like CookieCrumbs, the Toad Stool, the KingKol and A Place In Your Heart.  My biggest frustration in all this is that I cannot seem to get even one of these products successfully to market.  Like everyone else, I blame lack of time and resources.  This year I want to try something different.  Like Captain Kirk who rewrote the Kobayashi Maru test, I’m going to redefine success.  All this time, I’ve been judging my self by units sold and since I’ve sold very few units of any of my products (except maybe LolliPop Toppers™), I feel unsuccessful.  One product of my design is going to change that.

The product I’m contemplating is the BoogerBall story I penned.

I know, roll your eyes and say, “Oh brother, what absurdity is he talking about now?”  Well, I wrote a mildly humorous story some years ago called, “How to Make a BoogerBall” for my daughter Ellen.  I posted it here, on my company website for the world to see.  To my amazement, the world has seen it.

So that’s my product.  Not a BoogerBall, not a book about BoogerBalls, but the story itself, How to Make a BoogerBall by Amos E. Avery.  Why does this redefine success for me?  Because it’s already a success.  My goal is not to sell the story, but to get people to read it.  My first website counter reached 4000 plus readers before I changed web hosts.  The new site has over 29000 hits on that page.  Blogs around the world have pages of comments about my story.  It’s already a success.  Anything I can do to gain more readers is a success and anything I can sell along the way is icing on the cake.

So here’s the plan.  Launch BoogerBall.com as a legitimate site (it’s just forwarding to a page on my company site right now).  Do all of the “product development” things I can’t help but do (you should see the pages of notes and drawings I have for just this idea alone).  Develop manufacturing techniques, logos, packaging, identities, marketing strategies, support products, tag lines, graphics and compelling stories.  Most importantly, write about all of it as I do it.  BoogerBall.com will be the recipient of the finished product – the story and all of its supporting stuff.  Averyswellidea.com will be the recipient of this first entry and all subsequent entries along the way.  So, if you want to learn more about creativity mixed with faith mixed with foolishness mixed with practical product development insights, stay tuned.

-Amos

Tags: BoogerBall, SwellIdea

R2-Table2

I’m headed to SolidWorks World and I’m getting in for free! I submitted a proposal to teach a 90 minute hands-on session called, “Non-Welded Weldments – Using SolidWorks Weldment tools and 3DContentCentral to create 80/20 structures”. My plan is to demonstrate how to design a mobile cart in SolidWorks while my assistant actually builds the same (or similar) cart from 80/20 parts. My goal is to demonstrate how easy it is to both design and build stuff using SolidWorks and 80/20. I was having a hard time deciding what to build for the event. The proposal I submitted referenced a “a cool collapsing mobile workbench” but I wanted to build something like a Battle Droid. My friend Jamie suggested R2-D2 and the idea for R2-Table2 was born. It’s all 80/20 components. It’s modular and collapsible and mobile and very cool.

-Amos

Added 2/25/10 – Disclaimer – 80/20, Inc. and John Henry Foster provided the kit of 80/20 parts for my assembly of the R2-Table2 at a discounted price (it was not, however, free).

Tags: SolidWorks, SwellIdea