I Have a Prototype.
Now What?

All I really have at this point is a really bad summer camp arts & crafts project lying on my garage floor.

Which buys me exactly one thing.

When I explain this idea to someone and I can start to see confusion darken their eyes, I can pull out a picture and the image effectively clears their confusion. Ahhh yes. A flower on a tire cover. Got it now.

But where do I go from here? I write software for a living.

Stand up a Heroku node? DONE.

Clear the Sidekiq queue? NO PROBLEM.

Actually make something in real life? NO CLUE.

I did own an industrial sewing machine for a couple months, but I don’t think that counts.

I do know from a past business that there are product design companies that can help. So I open up Google and start searching. I talk with so many folks, and holy shit, designing a product is expensive.

Apparently This Is What Product Design Costs

$20,000

to

$40,000

...plus a few horrible handcuffs for good measure.

Most quotes are somewhere between $20,000 and $40,000, usually with a few other horrible handcuffs thrown in for good measure—percentages of sales, ongoing royalties, and assorted ways for them to keep getting paid long after the work is done.

Some firms seem to genuinely like the idea. Others probably just like the idea of another project.

Either way, how do I know who’s actually good? Again, no clue.

So I develop a highly scientific evaluation process: I talk to them and either get a good feeling or a bad feeling.

My Highly Scientific

Design Firm
Selection Process

GOOD FEELING ↑ Next round

BAD FEELING ↓ Into the bin

One thing I’ve learned from past businesses is that the idea you start with rarely survives first contact with other people intact. So I go into every conversation with an open mind and a sharpened pencil.

Most ideas are complete shit.

But every once in a while there’s a gem, and it’s my job to pan it out.

A surprising number of ideas involve lights or electronics. I pass on those pretty quickly.

But one idea sticks.

It comes from a sales guy at one of the design firms. He suggests making the ornaments interchangeable.

Maybe you have the flower most of the time, but swap it out for a holiday ornament in December. Or throw on a Clemson Tiger paw for the drive down to the game on Saturday.

That’s interesting.

Actually, that’s really interesting.

This Is One of Those Ideas

That Changes
Everything.

Instead of a flower on a tire cover, now it’s a virtually unlimited way to

fashionize your Jeep.

That little suggestion drops quite a few good-feeling tokens into their bucket.

Enough, as it turns out, that I hire them.

And now we have to figure out how the hell to actually make this thing.

To Be Continued

Now we have to figure out how the hell to actually make this thing.

Next Issue · No. 04 The quest to actually make Coverly.