Product Genius, the Podcast for Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Startups

Steven Julian

Flash of Genius from Product Genius. We do the hard-hitting topics, but we do them in a quick way, and we get right to the point. Let's do that. Noah McNeely, product quick start. We're talking about road trips.

Noah McNeely

That's right. So we were a little bit delayed recording this month because I was on a road trip. My family and I like to go on road trips every couple of years, and this year... Though some may find this absolutely insane, we drove from Atlanta to Salt Lake City and back and toured a lot of national parks along the way. And there were sort of two things that hit me about road trips that relate to inventing a product. What are they? I was wondering if you were going to ask or if I just needed to keep on talking.

Steven Julian

Well, actually, before you get to that, did you take the central route through Kansas and Nebraska or did you go through the... Area of Texas where you saw the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere?

Noah McNeely

Neither. I don't think so. Day one, we drove from Atlanta to some town west of Oklahoma City. Got it. I guess. that's 40.

Steven Julian

Yep.

Noah McNeely

And then day two, we drove from there all the way to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Okay.

Steven Julian

Not on 40, though.

Noah McNeely

No. Well, on 40, most of the way. Then you kind of take a...

Steven Julian

Then you kind of go straight up, right? Yeah.

Noah McNeely

Yeah. Take a non... Interstate for the last little bit, which frankly out west is about the same as taking an interstate.

Steven Julian

Yeah. So you're on this journey. You learned a couple of things because life is a journey. What did you learn about your journey and how it relates to product development?

Noah McNeely

So one thing, you know, in this vacation, a lot of the fun we had, a lot of the most fun we had was more about the journey itself rather than the actual destination. We love the destination, you know, Great Sand Dunes, National Park. Bryce Canyon, all that stuff was awesome. Arches was a favorite of my daughter. But some of the fun stuff we had was really in unexpected places. There was this one town where my youngest daughter, she saw someone had tied two tennis shoes together and thrown it over a power cord.

That was the. highlight of her day. She had so much fun. Observing this. Why do they do that? We had this long talk about it. It's just for fun. It's a prank and et cetera. So we couldn't have planned that, but it was a lot of fun. So an invention space, you know, that a lot of times the journey from idea to product, you learn things along the way you don't expect to learn. And those things can sometimes really improve your product or really improve your business plan. You discover, you know, I never thought I'd have this feature on this product, but about.

Two months in, I realized I could do it. It wouldn't cost any extra money. And I'm glad I was open to that because now I've got a better product.

Steven Julian

So pay attention during the journey of developing the product because some things might come up that you least expect. As I was telling you, when we took our journey out west many years ago, we didn't expect to see the tallest cross in the Western Hemisphere, but we still talk about it to this day, and that was 20 years ago when we moved. out west.

Noah McNeely

There you go. I wonder if they built any taller crosses.

Steven Julian

I'm sure they have. Well, remember, it was in the Western Hemisphere. That's true. Yeah.

Noah McNeely

Maybe there's a competition between the towns.

Steven Julian

There's the tallest buildings. that continues to go. So anyway, what's the second thing you learned?

Noah McNeely

So the second thing. That occurred to me is if you've ever driven across the country, here in the East, things are close together. You know, if you miss this bathroom, there's going to be one in 10 miles. You know, it's not the end of the world. If you miss this gas station, you're like, oh, my car says I've got a 30 mile range. I'm fine. Out West, things get further and further apart. So you have to pay a lot more attention and you start to see signs that are like next services, 75 miles.

And you're like, I better get some gas here, even though it's a dollar more than I want it to be. Because I don't want to run out of gas in the middle of the desert and have to wait eight hours for somebody to come find me or end up. in that Stephen King book, Desperation, which, you know, nobody wants that. So how that relates to product development, it's actually similar. When you start your journey, you're going to hit a lot of milestones really quickly. You know, you're going to have this idea, then you're going to draw it out on paper, then you're going to build your garage prototype, you're going to come up with a brand name, you're going to show mom about it, you know, and get her input, you're going to show your friend, you're going to have a lot of milestones really quick.

As you get through the process, those milestones stretch out. So toward the end, you know, you might be a few months between milestones while engineering is happening, while you're waiting for a factory to build your tooling or your first sample. I think it's important to go into the process expecting that. I have met people that, despite my best efforts to explain it to them, they get really frustrated because things take a long time at the end. And that's just the nature of product development. Development in many cases. Now, sometimes things will go quickly, but it's. still going to be slower than your milestones at the beginning.

So, you know, stuff takes time and there's no way around it. And being prepared for that and understanding why things take the time they take and just understanding that, you know, if it's June and I'm starting my process. It's unlikely I'm going to have my product on the shelf for Christmas. And that's just the way it is. And let's adapt for that. Let's pick a different target.

Steven Julian

You wouldn't have gotten to Salt Lake City if you hadn't driven the miles where there's not much in between that last gas station you passed before you take that long road in where all of a sudden you just come over the hill and there's Salt Lake City. But you got to take that road.

Noah McNeely

That's right. A, we enjoy taking the road, and B, there's not a teleporter in Oklahoma City that takes you to Salt Lake City. Not today.

Steven Julian

Not today.

Noah McNeely

Maybe in 10 years. Who knows?

Steven Julian

Depending on who's developing that product. Right. We'll have to see.

Noah McNeely

Elon Musk can get on that.

Steven Julian

Noah McNeely from Product Quick Start will not be getting on the. transporter anytime soon, but maybe one day. So enjoy the journey and some of the unexpected stuff that happens.

Noah McNeely

Yeah, be open to those unexpected things. They can be good things.

Steven Julian

And be aware of the long pauses, especially the farther down the road you go and the farther out west your product starts to develop.

Noah McNeely

That's right.

Steven Julian

For Noah McNeely, this is Steven Julian. We will catch you next time on Flash of Genius.