16-08-2019 – The Imagineering Suite, Amersfoort (NL)

The six basic elements of a working product – Introduction

product

noun UK /ˈprɒd.ʌkt/ US /ˈprɑː.dʌkt/
product noun (THING MADE)

a/the result of a creation process
b/something that is made to be sold

Today I would like to talk about the creation of products. I am convinced that everyone, no matter if someone is an entrepreneur or not, is the creator of one or multiple products in his or her lifetime. A product is in my opinion not just a physical entity which you create with your hands or machines. It can also be a service you provide or sometimes even the very thing you radiate and what makes you known as a person. Especially in this day and age of social media and the so-called ‘cult of personality’, people acknowledging themselves as products are almost impossible to ignore.

Mankind has the specific ability to create things on its own. The fact that our species is able to create something from nothing is exactly that what distinguishes us from other organisms on this planet. I love creating things with all my heart and it is the very process that keeps me motivated and gives me energy to be the person that I am and to live to the fullest. I can say that the creation process is the one defining element that spans back all the way to my childhood and it has kept me going as a person ever since.

Yet, I do hear my clients and other people around me tell me that the creation of products often doesn’t work out for them; That it can actually be quite a battle to make something and sometimes the process just leads to nothing at all. Every person is different and not everyone will feel the same urge to create things (and that is perfectly fine!). But there is a sizeable group of people out there that actually does want to make something, but get blocked in their creative process. And I think that is a very sad conclusion indeed. Because of the elements that block these people in their process, they will never experience the joy and happiness that you can feel when you go through a proces like this, but instead they just feel the frustration and sometimes even sadness.

This kickstarted me into thinking about the process of creation. Because if you understand how a process works and what is needed to get to a good ending result… Then you can also solve the problems that people bump into as the process unfolds!

And that is why I developed this system that consists of six elements which you can see in the added image. The six elements in this system can be described as follows:

• The basic urge (What motivates me to make this product?)
• Your personal & work experience (Which experience from the past will help me in this process?)
• Your current knowledge (Which knowledge do I posess to get through this process succesfully?)
• Your workplace & methods (What does your workplace look like and is this useful for your process?)
• Your expectations & vision (What do you want to reach with this product and how achievable is that?)
• The enjoyment & the reward (What will the resulting product bring me? And is this worth it? Will it bring me something good?)

As you can see, there is no nummeric order in this list. This is because all six elements are equally important to me and can therefore also be treated in random sequence. A healthy creation process consists of all six these elements being in sync with one another.

I am convinced that this system will provide the foundation needed to get to a better creation process and thus to a working product. I do want to add immediately that the resulting products that come out of these processes will work for everybody’s tastes. Because let’s just say it as it is: variety is the spice of life and everyone likes different things, so I will not go into the actual resulting products. The point of this system is to improve the process itself and how you can improve that.

A lot of people don’t think about this process and therefore don’t see their pitfalls and weakspots. And I think that by using simple deductive reasoning and observing the patterns that come into being during the creation process, a person can learn a massive amount and even solve the problems that he/she bumps into.

In the next batch of weekly Flowdiver blog posts I will be treating each element seperately in detail. I will explain why this element is important to the creation of a solid ending product. I am very excited and curious to see what all of you will think of this, so feel free to send me feedback, comments or anything else you would like to share. I am looking forward to your responses!

See you next week!
Tom