Product Genius, the Podcast for Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Startups
Honest advice for inventors—with obscure cultural references included at no extra charge.
Episode
213
What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Product Development and Heist Movies
What do Ocean’s Eleven, Mission: Impossible, and product development have in common? Even the smartest plan can go sideways. Noah and Steven explore why setbacks are a normal part of developing an invention—and why successful inventors prepare, test, adapt, and resist the urge to panic when prototypes, manufacturing, or marketing refuse to follow the script. Along the way, they unpack practical product development strategies such as building schedule and budget reserves, running pilot production, diagnosing the real cause of a problem, and turning an unexpected crisis into a better product. No getaway car required.
Core Topics for this episode:
- Product Development Process
- Risk Management
Key Takeaways Include:
Listen here:
Episode Blog
What Heist Movies Can Teach Inventors About Product Development
Every good heist movie begins with a flawless plan.
The crew has studied the building. The cameras have been mapped. The safecracker has practiced on an identical vault. The getaway driver knows every turn. Someone has even created a scale model and moved tiny figurines around while dramatic music plays.
Then the job begins—and something immediately goes wrong.
The safe is different. The guard schedule changed. The getaway car will not start. One member of the team turns out to be working for Canada.
That last one may be less common, but the larger point holds: a heist movie would be painfully boring if the plan worked perfectly. Product development is similar, except that the unexpected plot twist is usually much less entertaining when it is your money, deadline, and inventory on the line.
In this episode, Noah McNeely and Steven Julian explore what inventors should do when product development goes sideways. Their central message is not especially comforting, but it is useful: something will probably go wrong. The goal is not to eliminate every surprise. The goal is to respond intelligently when the surprise arrives wearing a ski mask.
The Perfect Plan Is Still Only a Plan
Good product development absolutely requires planning. Inventors should define requirements, establish budgets, build realistic schedules, test prototypes, and think through manufacturing before committing to production.
But a plan is not a prophecy.
Every new product enters some amount of uncharted territory. Even experienced engineers cannot predict every interaction among materials, tolerances, suppliers, users, packaging, shipping, manufacturing processes, and real-world abuse.
A prototype may work beautifully until it is made in the intended production material. A part may fit in the engineering model but bind when manufacturing tolerances stack up. A color sample may look correct on a screen and arrive looking like it escaped from a 1980s kitchen. A perfectly functional product may reach a retailer only to discover that the UPC code will not scan.
These are not necessarily signs that the project was badly managed. They are signs that physical products exist in the physical world, where reality enjoys editing the script.
Do Not Panic When the Alarm Goes Off
When a problem appears, the first task is emotional rather than technical: do not panic.
Panic encourages inventors to make rushed decisions, blame the wrong person, or demand an immediate fix before anyone understands the problem. That can transform a manageable issue into a more expensive one.
The better response is to pause and determine the magnitude of the problem.
Does the product still function? Is the issue cosmetic, dimensional, mechanical, regulatory, or related to manufacturing? Does it affect every unit or only a small percentage? Can the current inventory still be sold, reworked, relabeled, or used for a limited release?
A loose fit, incorrect shade, or mislabeled box does not automatically require the same response as a safety failure. Before launching the full emergency soundtrack, determine whether you are dealing with a plot complication or the building actually being surrounded.
Find the Real Cause Before Choosing the Fix
Once the problem is understood, the next step is diagnosis.
An issue that appears to be a design flaw may actually come from manufacturing variation. A manufacturing problem may trace back to unclear drawings. A prototype failure may occur because the prototype material cannot accurately simulate the final material. A disappointing launch may be a marketing problem rather than a product problem.
The solution depends on the cause.
This is why experienced product developers resist the temptation to jump immediately to the most obvious fix. Changing the design may be unnecessary if the factory simply misunderstood a dimension. Changing factories may be pointless if the same ambiguity exists in the documentation. Adding stronger material may increase cost without addressing a geometry problem.
The team should identify the likely causes, list realistic options, and evaluate the tradeoffs objectively. Try the simplest credible solution first when possible—but remain willing to pursue a more substantial redesign when the evidence points there.
Build Wiggle Room Into the Job
Heist crews rarely schedule the getaway for twelve seconds before the bridge closes. Inventors should show themselves the same courtesy.
A project with no schedule reserve has no ability to absorb a problem. If production samples arrive slightly wrong, a two-week correction can destroy a launch date. If the budget is completely exhausted by the first prototype, there may be no resources left to create the improved version that the prototype revealed was necessary.
Contingency planning does not require predicting the exact problem. It means preserving enough time, money, and flexibility to respond to an unknown one.
That may include:
- A budget reserve for additional prototypes or tooling changes
- Extra time between factory samples and the planned launch
- Backup suppliers for critical materials or components
- Alternative manufacturing processes
- A reduced feature set that can be used if the full design becomes impractical
- Clear decision points for continuing, pausing, or changing direction
This is not pessimism. It is responsible product development.
Test, Test, and Then Test Again
One of the simplest ways to reduce product development risk is also one of the easiest to skip: testing.
Inventors often rush testing because the project already feels late. A factory sample arrives, looks generally correct, and the temptation is to approve production immediately. After all, customers are waiting, cash flow matters, and everyone is tired of revisions.
That is exactly when discipline matters most.
A week of careful testing can prevent thousands of defective products. Testing should evaluate not only whether the product works once, but how it behaves after repetition, wear, mishandling, temperature changes, packaging, shipping, and use by people who never read instructions.
Prototypes should be tested. Factory samples should be tested. Packaging should be tested. Instructions should be tested on someone who did not help write them.
Success in a controlled demonstration is not the same as readiness for the market.
Use a Pilot Run Before the Big Score
Another powerful risk-reduction strategy is a pilot production run.
The per-unit cost of producing 500 or 1,000 units may be higher than ordering 30,000, but the total financial exposure is dramatically lower. A pilot run allows the company to confirm manufacturing consistency, collect customer feedback, identify unforeseen usage patterns, and improve the product before committing to a much larger inventory.
This is especially valuable because some problems only appear when real customers begin using the product in ways the development team never imagined.
A pilot run is not a lack of confidence. It is a controlled experiment. Large companies use pilot runs because they understand that the first production version is still part of the learning process.
A Crisis May Contain an Opportunity
Noah offers a useful perspective: a crisis is an opportunity with a deadline.
A required tooling change may create the chance to add a feature the team previously wished it had included. A failed marketing assumption may reveal an unexpected customer group. A prototype limitation may lead to a simpler, cheaper mechanism. A manufacturing problem may expose a better supplier or process.
That does not mean inventors should celebrate every setback. Some problems are simply expensive and irritating. But once a correction is unavoidable, the team should ask whether the project can emerge stronger.
The Product Genius Take
The inventors who succeed are not the ones whose plans never go sideways. They are the ones who expect reality to challenge the plan and remain calm enough to respond.
Plan carefully. Preserve reserves. Diagnose before reacting. Test relentlessly. Begin production with a manageable pilot run. And when the unexpected guard dog appears, remember that improvisation is part of the job.
Every product development story gets a plot twist. Make sure yours leads to a better ending.
Or, read the full transcript here:
Steven Julian
You ever been out trying to rob a bank with your friends and you get in the getaway car and all of a sudden the getaway car won't start? Of course not. That's a stupid question. What isn't a stupid question is what happens when things go sideways with your product development or your invention? Well, that's what we're going to talk about next on Product Genius. And if any feds are listening, I didn't try to rob a bank. Do you want to be a successful inventor entrepreneur?
Noah McNeely
Struggling to get your product from idea to market?
Steven Julian
Well, you've come to the right place. Welcome to Product Genius.
Noah McNeely
The down-to-earth podcast that explores important topics about inventing and launching new products.
Steven Julian
Noah McNeely is your trusted guide. With more than 20 years of product launch experience, he's here to help you on your journey to become a product genius. Let's get started. Here's your slightly annoying co-host, Steven Julian. That's my line. As she said, I am your slightly annoying co-host, Steven Julian, here for another, hopefully one-day award-winning edition. Of Product Genius from deep in the layer of Product Quick Start. With me, as always, is our producer, Jody Smith. Sitting across the table from me is the host, he who is known as Noah McNeely.
Noah, welcome to the show.
Noah McNeely
As always, I am delighted to be here.
Steven Julian
You sound it. We are recording this in the middle of July inside your lair, which is not air conditioned, but you have done a fantastic job of making it as pleasant as possible here.
Noah McNeely
Well, as an engineer, I pride myself on coming up with workarounds. Yeah. And if you were here, you could see my workaround. that's basically...
Steven Julian
What is it? What have you done here?
Noah McNeely
Well, so we have a very large air conditioner in the office space. We've opened the office space into the studios. We're getting all of that cool air. And we have these portable units, which they call spot coolers, which we use in different parts around the prototyping lab. And they're all just pointed at us right now.
Steven Julian
Yeah. I mean, we are inside the back end of your building, which is basically a warehouse, your lair, your place to work.
Noah McNeely
And it is not a where it is a prototype.
Steven Julian
Sorry, prototype lab. I must humbly ask the apologies of. the show host, Noah McNeely.
Noah McNeely
I would point out that my workaround is good enough that you are drinking coffee here in the middle of July.
Steven Julian
Well, what I was trying to do in this three minutes that no one will ever get back, it does make an important point that you help people bring their products to market through Product Quick Start and you do workarounds. You create solutions. You figure things out when things go sideways. Like July heat in Atlanta in Lawrenceville.
Noah McNeely
Yes.
Steven Julian
Okay. Speaking of that, we've, and by the way, it wasn't three minutes. It's about a minute and a half. And now we're really ready.
Noah McNeely
You're just extending it for no reason.
Steven Julian
Okay. Sorry. So we've got a great topic today and don't, okay. So I'll just say this one last thing. This all started with your, your dry response to how's it going? You're like, it's going great. So I thought he's a little.
Noah McNeely
Sometimes engineers, that's all you're going to get. That's true. That's true. You're going to get the analytical answer like a Vulcan on Star Trek.
Steven Julian
That's why I'm here to draw it out of you.
Noah McNeely
All the parameters are. acceptable, Captain. That's right.
Steven Julian
We are within tolerance levels. Yes. Let's move forward. Okay. So we've got a fascinating topic. To quote you from past episodes, for those of you who have never caught our show before, we certainly encourage you to go back and listen to past episodes. And one of the things... Noah loves to do when he comes onto the show is he is on a quest to analogize everything, to bring everything around product development to an analogy, specifically something we've all gone through in our life. And you love to do it with TV shows and movies and songs and things like that.
Noah McNeely
Well, you're a part of that. Oh, I love it. Half of our conversations are about movies.
Steven Julian
Yes.
Noah McNeely
Yeah, you came in today quoting Galaxy Quest. That's the first thing you do. You walk in here and you don't even say hi. You just say, your commander has arrived.
Steven Julian
No, your commander's on deck. Yeah. Which, by the way, there's a fantastic documentary called Never Give Up, Never Surrender. that, anyway, Screen Junkies did about that movie. Great. Anyway.
Noah McNeely
Bottom line, we both like movies.
Steven Julian
Now we're three minutes in.
Noah McNeely
I knew. we'd get there.
Steven Julian
Thank you for taking us there, as you always do as such a great show host that you are. So we wanted to talk about, you wanted to talk about the topic of what happens in your product development, in your entrepreneurship, in your invention journey when things go sideways. And when we say the phrase, when things go sideways, there's a movie genre that you really are thinking about. Tell us about it.
Noah McNeely
So heist movies, you know, people are going to go steal something like, or. Whatever. They're going to liberate something from its current owners like Ocean's Eleven or The Italian Job. or if you like Star Wars Solo, I think is a heist movie and people hated it because they wanted it to be a Star Wars movie, but you have to just accept the fact. It is a heist movie set in the Star Wars universe. When you look at it through that lens, it's actually pretty decent.
Steven Julian
It's not bad. I think it got a little bit of a bad rap. I was thinking of Mission Impossible. Yeah. I was thinking of any of those new ones coming out as we're. recording this. And I think also... Maybe one of the lesser known ones, something like Monuments Men, not quite heist, more of a recovery of heist.
Noah McNeely
I have not seen that.
Steven Julian
Yeah, historical, fairly historically accurate whenever they say based on true events. About 1% of it is historically accurate.
Noah McNeely
Loosely based on stuff we think might be true.
Steven Julian
Yeah, getting back the art treasures that were stolen by Nazi Germany. Anyway.
Noah McNeely
So a few things, well, imagine the worst possible heist movie. These people have a great plan. They go in, they rob the bank, they get away. The movie's over. That's a pretty boring movie. So one of the things I think is common to almost all heist movies is, well, you've got this genius plan. Everything is planned out. You know exactly what's going to happen. You've got the security cameras point here and here, and it's all this sort of stuff. But then they get in to rob the bank, and something's gone sideways to mess that plan up.
So, like, the bank has installed a new safe, and it's not the one. the safe crackers have been practicing going, oh, well, now they've got guard. dogs. They didn't have guard dogs last week.
Steven Julian
They changed the shift rotation.
Noah McNeely
Yeah, the getaway driver crash. Whatever it is, there's something that messes up the plan. And that's what makes the movie interesting. That's what makes it fun and exciting. And it's why we go watch the movie and then they have to adapt and they have to improvise and work their way out of it. And that's, you know, our heroes are antiheroes. However, you want to look at that. They, you know, most movies, they get away with it ultimately. But when you're inventing a product or developing a new product. Things are going to go sideways too.
And if you're in that situation, you probably don't think it's fun and exciting. You don't want that to be this fun, exciting addition to your story.
Steven Julian
Right.
Noah McNeely
You want to be the guy that goes and runs the bank and gets away without any complications.
Steven Julian
Yeah. It doesn't make for entertainment when it comes to your product development or invention journey and things go sideways. That doesn't necessarily translate well to the big screen or small screen.
Noah McNeely
But someday when they do a movie of your life. story, it will make it more interesting.
Steven Julian
So what are some of the things, what are some of the main things? That as you've worked with people over the years, can you categorize them of? what are the things that go sideways more than others?
Noah McNeely
You know, it can be a million things. And it's always the thing you don't expect. It could be something small. It could be something big. And whenever you're developing a new product, you're in uncharted territory. You may have, you know, we start with a fantastic plan. Everything is planned out. This is what's going to happen. We're going to do this. We're going to do that. We're going to make this prototype. This is how we're going to test it. You do all these things, but something's going to come along and mess up that plan.
It could be something as simple as, oh, the color's not quite right. One time we were making this prototype, and this is a relatively minor one. I ordered these parts, and they were supposed to be purple. And the people making the prototype, they looked at the number code wrong, and we got these green parts. I'm like, what are we going to do with this? We've got a trade show in two weeks. So we just had to adapt to that. So it could be something small like that. Something that's kind of comical, we had this, I had this years ago, I had a client that was selling product into Walmart and they deliver all their pallets to Walmart and UPC codes won't scan.
So the box, they had enlarged the artwork. So now, or they did something. Anyway, UPC codes were printed wrong. So they had to go out to all these Walmart distribution stores, but stickers on all these boxes. So they had to adapt to that. Yeah, I've been in this business a lot of time, 25 years, but I also have had many mentors over the years and some of them have told me stories. I had this. one gentleman was telling me a story. This is way back in the day before. They really had a whole lot of computers to keep track of stuff like this, but they say all these drawings and stuff.
They sent all these great big steel parts out to be machined at this. machine shop and then they get them back and they're tiny because the machine shop thought they were supposed to be in millimeters. But they were supposed to be in inches. So, you know, that's a pretty big sideways thing. But, you know, these things happen. You just have to have to deal with it.
Steven Julian
So as we talk about this topic, it might not necessarily be about categorizing what different types. I guess the lesson here or the thing we want to make sure and cover is how we respond or what we learn from it. Of developing a product that everyone is going to have something along the process where things go sideways.
Noah McNeely
I won't say everyone, but I plan for it to happen. And that's what I advise people to do. And I have, I try to have an action plan. You know, I don't know what it's going to be, but the most important thing is to have some plans. so you don't panic. And I think about, I wrote down in my notes, you may have read these. If you're going in for a major surgery, whatever it is, you haven't, I don't know, whatever. surgery. it is, long surgery, I don't care. It doesn't matter for the analogy because, like you said, I'm an analogy person.
So you're going in and there's two possible surgeons. One, you say, well, what happens if I have a cardiac arrest on the table? That surgeon says, well, it's never happened. No one's ever gone into cardiac arrest on my table. Well, on the one hand, that sounds fantastic. No, this guy must be amazing. He's never had anybody, you know, had that sort of problem. Well, that sounds great unless you're the first one, right? And then the other surgeon, she's like, well, if this happens, then we all, you know, the entire team, it's all hands on deck.
We have this emergency procedure. we follow and yada, yada, yada, all the steps they go through. Because she's been through it before. She's had that problem. I'd rather have her be my surgeon because, you know, something's going to go wrong potentially in that surgery. I want to make sure that these aren't people that are going to panic. And I think the... The same is true for you as an inventor, but also anyone you're working. with. You know, it could be your patent attorney. Do they know how to deal with, well, the patent was rejected or whatever it is.
Do they have an action plan for that? It can, of course, be your engineer or your designer. The prototype didn't work or the factory says we can't produce it in this material for X, Y, Z. Do we have not so much a plan, but a way to... A mentality on developing a plan around that. How can we react to those situations?
Steven Julian
So you said that when I asked, you know, are there particular types of things that go sideways more often than others? You said it could be a million of them. Is when it comes to the action plans that you can have in place as the person helping develop that product and bring it to market, are those action plans, can they be kind of categorized? Can they be put into some specific things? What are some of the things? You've had to do or been ready to do and tell your client, okay, here are some things I can do in these particular parts of the process when things. go sideways.
Noah McNeely
So one of the first things we need to do is to identify the magnitude of the problem. Okay, it's a problem. We wanted these to be a little bit tighter fitting or a little bit looser, whatever. But it still works. It still does what you want it to do. Then we decide, okay, is this something we want to fix or do we want to go ahead and sell these products? As an example, if we want to fix it, then we certainly go down that path. That delays things and whatnot. Then if it's a more complicated situation or a situation that really we can't simply let go, then we have to work through the process of identifying, okay, what's the cause of the problem?
What are the potential fixes for that? Is it a redesign problem? Is it a manufacturing problem? Is it, oh, well, we just can't simulate this in prototyping materials kind of problem. And then we have different steps we can go through in those cases. So sometimes, you know, sometimes, unfortunately, that may mean additional resources have to be involved. I'll give an example. We had a client several years. ago that... I really don't like working with people that are so limited in budget because they don't hear me when I talk about these things.
I told this person at the beginning, you've got this complicated product. It's got big parts. We can try to prototype it with low-cost methods, like 3D printing and things like that. But you've got at best a 50-50% chance of us being able to do that. If we can't do it there, we're going to have to go to more expensive things like machining. Fabrication and stuff like that, right? I only had the budget for this. Okay, I will do it, but you need to understand. So I didn't hear any of that.
So we got down that path and we built the prototype. It got us about 80% of the way there. We did learn a lot from it, which is a lot of the reason to do prototyping. But of course, it wasn't everything they needed it to be and they were out of resources there. So one of the things to be aware of is you need to have some... Backup plans. And sometimes those backup plans are going. to involve resources that have a reserve ready. And that can be a reserve in your time and maybe the deadline.
Don't, you know, don't call me on January 1st and say, I'm delivering, I'm going to have to deliver product in April because you're taking away all the wiggle room there. So yeah, maybe we can pull that off, but. You're not leaving any room for error. What if we get the samples back from the factory and we need to tweak them? And now it's going to be another two weeks to get new samples and things like that. If you don't allow that space, that may not be additional money resources on your part, but you've taken away all the time resource we have to correct that problem.
Steven Julian
I'm just wondering at what point in this journey of someone trying to bring their product to market and things might go sideways. When do they find out the double cross? When do they find out one of the people on their team is actually a secret agent from some unnamed country that I won't name because I don't want to irritate anyone from any country or heritage or. background?
Noah McNeely
Canada.
Steven Julian
Well, they can't get upset, though. That's all right, dear. Because that's in a heist movie. There's always the, he was working for them the whole time. So we don't have that necessarily. You do have some do's and don'ts. You kind of do have, you kind of created a list. or let's just, let's focus on the don'ts. When things start to go sideways, you started with one at the beginning where you kind of said, don't panic. What are some other things people have done or you've seen them do? Don't do that.
Or let's, let's try to avoid some of the bigger mistakes when things start to go sideways.
Noah McNeely
So one thing is, I've actually seen people just try to ignore the problem and hope it goes away. That's not going to work.
Steven Julian
That's not just product development, by the way.
Noah McNeely
Yeah, well, the truth. Probably financial planning, too, right?
Steven Julian
It's in many, many areas.
Noah McNeely
So I've seen people do that. That's obviously a mistake. Another mistake, which is probably more common, is that people will try to rush the solution. Okay, we've got this problem. The factory sample's not right. The prototype is broken. Whatever that is. And they want to rush a solution because we're already behind at that point. And that's, in many cases, the worst thing you can do because then you may create a worse problem or you may halfway fix a problem. And that's really an opportunity to take a step back and ask yourself, okay, since we've got to take the time to fix this, what else have we learned in this process up to this point that we might actually be able to add in to improve this product?
Because now we've got to take this extra two weeks or whatever. This broke, so we definitely have to fix that, but we also learned, oh, it'd be nice if it had another handle or whatever it is. Let's go ahead and do that at the same time.
Steven Julian
Some of these answers, like a good heist movie, there's not much difference between the thing you should do or you can learn from and the thing that don't do. You're almost talking out of both sides of your mouth. I'm kind of calling you out on the carpet here if you had carpet back in this area.
Noah McNeely
And I. appreciate that.
Steven Julian
But I'm sorry, this prototyping lab.
Noah McNeely
That's right.
Steven Julian
I got it right. Thank you. It is a layer. I've gotten Noah to say layer on the air. But yeah, I'm going to push back a little bit. Because there's a million different things that you've seen this go wrong. There really isn't a A, B, C, D. I mean, you talked about in the operating room, to go back to your analogy, oh, we have these procedures in place. Sometimes the procedure is trial and error, right? And sometimes it's, we may need to know when to cut off the trial and error or when to adjust for, okay, this trial and error isn't going to work.
We're going to completely turn it on its head. I mean, every, that's one of the reasons why you do this. Every single product is like, right. Completely unique, correct? And there's no question in that.
Noah McNeely
Yeah, there's no roadmap for your individual product. It's not going to be, oh, well, this happened, so I'm going to open a manual and follow the instructions. It's really more about the attitude of don't panic, calm down, take a step back, evaluate, okay, what are our options? Even the ones you don't really like, what are they? So we can... Be very objective in how we decide between those options. And what are the ones that, okay, what's the easy one we can try? Let's try that if that works. And, you know, we can stop there.
We don't necessarily have to go to the most complicated solution right out the gate. But that all being said, be open to other, what I just said, because I am talking out of both sides of my mouth, be open to opportunities in this space. This is close.
Steven Julian
I've ever heard you to being a politician. This is fantastic. Normally, at this point in time, I usually reset a podcast that I'm co-hosting and being slightly annoyed. Hey, we're talking to Noah McNeely.
Noah McNeely
I support everything you're for and nothing you're against.
Steven Julian
Rather than resetting who the guest is because you're the host of the show, what I think is smart to do here is to remind everybody we are talking about what happens when things go sideways and we're kind of trying to... Analogize them to heist movies. Right. But I think what I. want to reset is I think the number one reason why you brought this topic to the show is to just. If nothing else, we need to acknowledge things are going to go sideways.
Noah McNeely
Oh, absolutely.
Steven Julian
As you talk out of both sides of your mouth and as I try to, you know, kind of pin you down a little bit and do's and don'ts. You know what? If you get nothing else from this episode, things are going to go sideways.
Noah McNeely
And some people hire me or people like me and they're like, I can't believe this went sideways. It's like, you should have known. Despite the fact that people may think so, I'm not a magician. I cannot foresee the future and we can follow everything by the textbook, which things are still going to go sideways. But my point here is you got to get beyond that textbook of engineering because that textbook's not going to tell you how to fix the problem. It really comes more from the intuition and the experience of knowing things are going to go wrong.
Again, it could be small, it could be big, but what's the process for handling that? And the other thing I would say that I may have made this up. I may have read it somewhere. I don't really remember because I'm getting older, but I've heard it said that a crisis is just an opportunity with a deadline. And I think that's a way we can look at problems as well. It's like, okay, like I was saying before, okay, we got this back from the factory. The first sample, it's two loops. Well, okay, so we're going to have to go back to have the factory modify those tools.
Three weeks ago, you were saying, I wish we'd added this feature to it. Well, let's ask the factory, can you do that while we're modifying these tools anyway? Yeah. So there are often opportunities here as well.
Steven Julian
I think you brought up heist movies and kind of tried to bring up when things go sideways. You know, it's funny, the more you talk, I think of the movie Meet the Robinsons, which was not a heist movie. But it was quoted in our house as our boys were growing up. They loved that movie. And it's such a great message around the dinner table. You fail. That's fantastic. From failure, we learn. From success, not so much. And so Keep Moving Forward was the... And that's a quote from Walt himself. And they turned it into a movie with a dinosaur and a hat that tried to control.
It's just a fascinating.
Noah McNeely
My most vivid memory of that movie is the fact that the Tyrannosaurus had little tiny arms and couldn't do anything.
Steven Julian
Right. And was talking because of, of course, my favorite is Dolores sleeps with the fishes. Little Dolores sleeps with the fishes. So I think, you know, again, the number one point is things are going to go sideways. Plan some procedures or make some decisions of what you will do when things go sideways. And you've kind of brought up, okay, things are going sideways. Is there something we need to learn or adjust to here? Or is this pointing out a problem that maybe we need to go, we need to completely pivot or change or...
Or just say, now it's time to throw in the towel.
Noah McNeely
And this is not just in the inventing process or the development process. It can be in your marketing. Yeah. I mean, you can, the thing that can go sideways is, oh, I thought I was going to market this to 20 to 30 year old men, but it turns out teenage girls really like it. So you pivot. That's okay. That's something you learn in that process. Yeah. Yeah. I may sound a little defeatist that things are going to go sideways. It's going to happen. You're going to wake up one day and you're going to be really upset because things are going to go sideways.
But there are ways, there are things we can do to try to limit that and mitigate that. Of course, having a good, some of the textbook policies and procedures, having a good procedure to design and engineer things is always good. Another thing I like to recommend to people is do what's called a test run or a pilot run. Big companies do this too. You know, you don't. Have to make $30,000 or something right out the gate. Make $1,000 or something. Make $500 or something. That's going to depend on what the product is.
But that way, let's say it's something that we can test it up, down, left, and right. We're still not going to find it, but you're going to find it when your consumers start to give feedback. So then you've only got $1,000. you've got out there that maybe have this unpredictable flaw. And then we can adjust that product and you can... Release a second version. You might even reach back out to the people that bought the first version, however you want to run your business there. So do a pilot run. That makes a lot of sense.
And sometimes people look at that and say, well, the per item cost is going to be higher if I do a small number. Yes, that's true, but it's worth it.
Steven Julian
The overall savings or the overall growth in sales as you learn from those test runs can return the investment. Test your results, right? So it's not just do a pilot run, do a small run to then see how it's working. Sometimes it's also test the results and here we're good. We got a marketing or sales.
Noah McNeely
Right. Well, test, test, test. That's the second thing I wrote down here. And it's, you know, I had a client one time that they were in a. real hurry to release their product on the market. And so we went through the prototype stage. Prototype was fine. And we did the tooling. We went into manufacturing. They got the first samples back from the factory and they really didn't take the time to test them the way we had gone through the prototype because they were just in a hurry. I just want to start selling this stuff.
And there was a minor issue there. They didn't catch, but if they had spent a week testing it, they would have. So then the factory goes out and produces thousands of these things because client signed off on it. And it turns out that it did have this very small issue that could have been easily corrected prior to production. Test, test, test. Don't be in such a hurry that you skip things like testing because you're just adding way too much risk. This is all about the first time you're producing something. And once you get down the road, then you can hurry production, you know, second order, third order.
But your first order, there's so many things that can go wrong. You just need to take. the time to do it right.
Steven Julian
Sometimes when we do this show, we like to get to the end and we'd like to wrap it all up, put a nice little bow on it and go, here, here's a present of our show with all kinds of stuff for you. This isn't that show.
Noah McNeely
This is your way of telling me I've talked too much, I think. No, not at all. No, not at all.
Steven Julian
Not at all. What I think I'm doing is I think we've gone as far down this sideways path as we can go and just acknowledging that we're going to kind of get to the end. Everybody's going to be like, well, what's this? How do I keep things from going sideways? It's a grind. You got to keep working. Keep testing. Keep doing little runs. I just said little runs. That's probably the right thing to say. I think we might need to edit that out. 25 minutes. Yeah. Make a little note. Sorry.
Noah McNeely
Yeah. You, you, you can't totally prevent it. Uh, what you can do is you take it just like any sort of insurance. You take all the steps you can. take to, to limit the possibility, but it's still going to happen. I mean, you can have all the insurance on the house you want, but there's tree can still fall through the roof, you know, but then you've got a plan on how to deal with that.
Steven Julian
I was going to use that. you can buy insurance for almost anything nowadays. And I think sometimes people just have so much. I don't think there's any limit to how much insurance you can buy, but you still can't avoid something's going to something's going to not be covered or something's going to things you have to adjust to.
Noah McNeely
Yeah. So in this case, your insurance is taking the time to do it right. Testing, testing, testing. Don't don't rush it. Even still. You know, things can start to go sideways. And that's usually not going to happen in the design phase because that's all kind of theoretical. It's really going to start happening once you get into the physical reality of prototypes or manufacturing. That's typically where you would have it happen. Or in the real world of sales and marketing, when you actually start the reality of your product. being out in the universe where people can engage with it.
That's when we're going to start to have things go sideways.
Steven Julian
I was thinking that what might be a nice little wrap-up question is to ask, hey, has this show gone sideways today that you want to point out? But I think the better question might be, so you said, hey, you almost need to anticipate. very few people go through this product development without something going sideways. I still think it's almost everybody would look, any product, there hasn't been a product that hasn't at least one little thing goes sideways, which makes me go, Have any of our shows, have we had a show where it didn't go sideways at some point?
Probably not because I'm slightly annoying.
Noah McNeely
Oh, I can think of one or two.
Steven Julian
That didn't go sideways?
Noah McNeely
Oh, they did go sideways. I thought you were asking the other question.
Steven Julian
Yeah, every show I think I've ever done.
Noah McNeely
I was trying to be polite by saying I can think of one or two. Yeah, all of us.
Steven Julian
Yeah, I think every episode of Product Genius goes sideways. And maybe it's the sideways that keeps. people coming back. Because like a heist movie, it's exciting. How is Steven going to waste Noah's time on this episode of Product Genius? Well, we know at the beginning of it, it was to talk about your prototyping lab.
Noah McNeely
Well, I need you to pull me out of my engineering level of excitement. Yes, exactly.
Steven Julian
Which I did. Sorry, that was a little snidely laugh.
Noah McNeely
This has been fabulous.
Steven Julian
It has. It has. So another fabulous thing as we wrap up today is anyone who... Is going sideways now or is thinking their product development journey might go sideways and they need some help? Tell everybody how to get in touch with you.
Noah McNeely
So the best way is to go to the website, productquickstart.com, and we have a contact us form. Just give me a little information so I know what you want to talk about and make sure I'm the right person to help you. That's it. I mean, it's not complicated. I'm a simple guy.
Steven Julian
And one of the things you've also done is this show, Product Genius, is your give back to the entrepreneur community and the invention community where you talk about a lot of. different topics and you provide a lot of different advice and analogies and stories and just trying to start conversations with people about their journey. And maybe they can learn from some of the past journeys you've taken with some of your clients. Tiffany was doing the same thing when we were doing the show with her. So that's what this show is all about. is we want? we know things are going to go sideways.
We want to be here to talk you through it. Maybe you learn something from these episodes. And if you need more than that, you can certainly go to productquickstart.com. Speaking of Tiffany, we want to thank her for her sponsorship of the show. You can go to Opu Probiotics. And learn more about getting better gut health and also follow some of her social media stuff. Man, her marketing is on point. There's some really funny, there's some interesting, funny, and entertaining things.
Noah McNeely
Well, she has the new chocolate now. Have you seen that?
Steven Julian
Yeah. Have you tried it?
Noah McNeely
Not yet.
Steven Julian
I am supposedly, my wife and I are getting a supposed secret message as of this recording. So maybe we'll have more. to say about it.
Noah McNeely
You're going to get the sideways batch.
Steven Julian
I'll get the sideways batch. Sideways? No, sorry. Probiotic sideways. That's another story for another time. But talk about going sideways. And now Noah's brought the show sideways. Go to productquickstart.com. We are so glad you're here. Tell a friend who's going through the product journey about Product Genius. If you want to start your own podcast, go to jodiesmith.com. If you want financial advice, my compliance department says, I can just tell you I'm Steven Julian. I'm an independent financial advisor by day and a slightly annoying podcast host by midday. So for Noah and for Jody and for Tiffany, who's not here, this is Steven saying we will catch you next time on Product Genius.
Noah McNeely
Product Genius is brought to you by Opu Probiotics. Pre and probiotics you can pour directly on your tongue in delicious mint and mocha flavors. But the taste is just the beginning. With Opu, you can see improved digestive function, boosted immune system, easier weight management, improved mental health, and much more. Try today at getopu.com. That's getopu.com.